Anatolia

The modern region of Anatolia in Turkey corresponds to the area described by Classical writers as Asia Minor, but in pre-Classical times it was by no means a discrete political unit, and parts of it were dominated at different times by several different civilizations, from the Hittites and Cimmerians to the kingdoms of Urartu and Phyrgia. In purely geographical terms, Anatolia is sometimes defined as a wide ‘land-bridge’ between Europe and Asia, effectively linking together the northern and southern coasts of the Mediterranean.

A mountainous region of northwest Asia, part of present-day Turkey, it is bounded by the Pontine mountains in the north and the Zagros mountains in the south. Rich alluvial deposits in Pleistocene lakes left much fertile land when the water receded. This fact, combined with the rainfall which was adequate for dry farming, made this a suitable area for the early development of farming and a number of early sites are known with dates from c7000 bc. The area was also important for its two main sources of obsidian, in the Qiftlik area and near Lake Van. This material was exploited from the Upper Palaeolithic onwards and was extensively traded in the Neolithic. The area was an important centre in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic, with sites like Qatal Hùyuk and Can Hasan, but in the succeeding Bronze Age it was less important, with sites mostly known in the south. It later became the homeland of the Hittite empire in the 2nd millennium bc.