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Introduction to Turkey

The Country

General Outline

The lands of Turkey are located at a point where the three continents making up the old world. Asia, Africa and Europe are closest to each other, and straddle the point where Europe and Asia meet. Geographically, the country is located in the northern half of the hemisphere at a point that is about halfway between the equator and the north pole, at a longitude of 36 degrees N to 42 degrees N and a latitude of 26 degrees E to 45 degrees E. Turkey is roughly rectangular in shape and is 1,660 kilometers wide.

Because of its geographical location the mainland of Anatolia has always found favour throughout history, and is the birthplace of many great civilizations. It has also been prominent as a centre of commerce because of its land connections to three continents and the sea surrounding it on three sides.

Area

The actual area of Turkey inclusive of its lakes, is 814,578 square kilometres, of which 790,200 are in Asia and 24,378 are located in Europe.

Boundaries

The land borders of Turkey are 2,573 kilometres in total, and coastlines (including islands) are another 8,333 kilometres, Turkey has two European and six Asian countries for neighbours along its land borders.

The land border to the northeast with the commonwealth of Independent States is 610 kilometres long; that with Iran, 454 kilometres long, and that with Iraq 331 kilometres long. In the south is the 877 kilometre-long border with Syria, which took its present form in 1939, when the Republic of Hatay joined Turkey. Turkey's borders on the European continent consist of a 212-kilometre frontier with Greece and a 269-kilometre border with Bulgaria.

Turkey is generally divided into seven regions: the Black Sea region, the Marmara region, the Aegean, the Mediterranean, Central Anatolia, the East and Southeast Anatolia regions. The uneven north Anatolian terrain running along the Black Sea resembles a narrow but long belt. The land of this region is approximately 1/6 of Turkey's total land area.

The Marmara region covers the area encircling the Sea of Marmara, includes the entire European part of Turkey, as well as the northwest of the Anatolian plain. Whilst the region is the smallest of the regions of Turkey after the Southeast Anatolia region, it has the highest population density of all the regions.

The most important peak in the region is Uludag (2,543 metres), at the same time it is a major winter sports and tourist centre. In the Anatolian part of the region there are fertile plains running from east to west.

The Aegean region extends from the Aegean coast to the inner parts of western Anatolia. There are significant differences between the coastal areas and those inland, in terms of both geographical features and economic and social aspects.

In general, the mountains in the region fall perpendicularly into the sea. and the plains run from east to west. The plains through which Gediz, Kücük Menderes and Bakircay rivers flow carry the same names as these rivers.

In the Mediterranean region, located in the south of Turkey, the western and central Taurus Mountains suddenly rise up behind the coastline. The Amanos mountain range is also in the area.

The Central Anatolian region is exactly in the middle of Turkey and gives the appearance of being less mountainous compared with the other regions. The main peaks of the region are Karadag, Karacadag, Hasandag and Erciyes (3.917 metres).

The Eastern Anatolia region is Turkey's largest and highest region. About three fourths of it is at an altitude of 1,500-2,000 metres. Eastern Anatolia is composed of individual mountains as well as of whole mountain ranges, with vast plateaus and plains. The mountains: There are numerous inactive volcanoes in the region, including Nemrut, Suphan, Tendurek and Turkey's highest peak, Mount Agri (Ararat), which is 5,165 metres high.

At the same time, several plains extended along the course of the River Murat, a tributary of the Firat (Euphrates). These are the plains of Malazgirt, Mus, Capakcur, Uluova and Malatya.

The Southeast Anatolia region is notable for the uniformity of its landscape, although the eastern part of the region is comparatively more uneven than its western areas.

Coastlines

Turkey is surrounded by sea on three sides, by the Black Sea in the north, the Mediterranean in the south and the Aegean Sea in the west. In the northwest there is also an important internal sea, the Sea of Marmara, between the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, important waterways that connect the Black Sea with the rest of the world.

Because the mountains in the Black Sea region run parallel to the coastline, the coasts are fairly smooth, without too many indentations or projections. The length of the Black Sea coastline in Turkey is 1,595 kilometres, and the salinity of the sea is 17%. The Mediterranean coastline runs for 1,577 kilometres and here too the mountain ranges are parallel to the coastline.

The salinity level of the Mediterranean is about double that of the Black Sea.

Although the Aegean coastline is a continuation of the Mediterranean coast, it is quite irregular because the mountains in the area fall perpendicularly into the Aegean Sea. As a result, the length of the Aegean Sea coast is over 2,800 kilometres. The coastline faces out to many islands.

The Marmara Sea is located totally within national boundaries and occupies an area of 11,350 square kilometres. The coastline of the Marmara Sea is over 1,000 kilometres long; it is connected to the Black Sea by the Bosphorus and with the Mediterranean by the Dardanelles.

Rivers

Most of the rivers of Turkey flow into the seas surrounding the country. The Firat (Euphrates) and Dicle (Tigris) join together in Iraq and flow into the Persian Gulf. Turkey's longest rivers, the Kizilirmak, Yesilirmak and Sakarya, flow into the Black Sea. The Susurluk, Biga and Gonen pour into the Sea of Marmara, the Gediz, Kucuk Menderes, Buyuk Menderes and Meric into the Aegean, and the Seyhan, Ceyhan and Goksu into the Mediterranean .

Lakes

In terms of numbers of lakes, the Eastern Anatolian region is the richest. It contains Turkey's largest, Lake Van (3.713 square kilometres), and the lakes of Ercek, Cildir and Hazar. There are also many lakes in the Taurus mountains area: the Beysehir and Egirdir lakes, and the lakes that contain bitter waters like the Burdur and Acigoller lakes, for example. Around the Sea of Marmara are located the lakes of Sapanca, Iznik, Ulubat, Manyas, Terkos, Kucukcekmece and Buyukcekmece. In Central Anatoia is the second largest lake in Turkey: Tuzgolu: The waters of this lake are shallow and very salty. The lakes of Aksehir and Eber are also located in this region.

As a result of the construction of dams during the past thirty years, several large dam lakes have come into existence. Together with the Ataturk Dam lake which started to collect water in January 1990, the following are good examples: Keban, Karakaya, Altinkaya, Adiguzel, Kilickaya, Karacaoren, Menzelet, Kapulukaya, Hirfanli, Sariyar and Demirkopru.

The Climate

Although Turkey is situated in a geographical location where climatic conditions are quite temperate, the diverse nature of the landscape , and the existence in particular of the mountains that run parallel to the coasts, results in significant differences in climatic conditions from one region to the other. While the coastal areas enjoy milder climates, the inland Anatolian plateau experiences extremes of hot summers and cold winters with limited rainfall.

A New World For The Turks : Anatolia 

Anatolia has given rise to many civilizations in the course of history. Although not as advanced as Egypt or Mesopotamia, the Hatti, who spoke a language characterized by prefixes,were nevertheless one of the more advanced societies of their age(3000-2000B.C.). The objects on display at the Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations constitute the finest Bronze Age collection in the world next to the Ur Treasure in the British Museum. The Ankara collection, dated at 2000-1900B.C., comes from tumuli at Alacahoyuk, Horoztepe and Mahmatlar, and includes artifacts in gold silver, electrum bronze and ceramic.

An Outpost Against Invasion From The Balkans : Troy

During the time of the Hatti, Troy I (3000-2500) and Troy II (2500-2200) represented the Bronze Age in northwestern Anatolia, that is to say at Canakkale.Both fell within the sphere of Aegean culture, and Troy II had a particularly brilliant age. The gold vessels unearthed by Heinrich Schliemann, and kept in the Berlin Völkerkunde Museum, unfortunately vanished during World War II. The riches of Troy are now represented by the gold jewellery on display in the Istanbul museum of Archaelogy. Troy III-V (2200-1800B.C.) is a continuation of Troy II.

Migration Of Indo-European Peoples Into Anatolia

The Hatti-Hittite Princedoms

The Indo-European migrations, which took place over a vast territory extending from Western Europe to India, brought some peoples over the Caucasus into Anatolia. The Nesi people settled in Central Anatolia, the Pala in Paphlygonia, and the Luwians in Southern Anatolia. In the course of these migrations the new arrivals gradually captured the Hatti princedoms to form first the Old Hittite Kingdom (1660-1460 B.C.), and than the Great Hittite Kingdom(1460-1190 B.C.).

The Hittite Empire (1660-1190 B.C.)

The Hittites founded a federative feudal state, and during their final two centuries constituted one of the two superpowers of the age, the other being Egypt. Indo-European in origin, the Hittites recognized equality between men and women,and indeed their law incoporated rights even for slaves. No other legal system in the world at that time was so advanced. Although the monarchy passed from father to son, this was a kingship based on the idea of "primus inter pares",first among equals, for the ruler was required to bring many matters before the senate, which was made up of aristocrats known as the Pankus class.

At a time in the Near East when the flaying and impaling of enemies was the rule, when heads and hands would be lopped off and pyramids made of them, the Hittites were astonishingly humane, almost like civilized of nations today.

The Hittites adopted the Hatti religion, mythology, language and customs, as well as their names for places, mountains, rivers and persons. Because the Mesopotamians called Anatolia "the Land of the Hatti", the newcomers were mistakenly given the name "Hittite".

Hittite architecture was highly original, and included the strongest city walls of the Near East in the second millenium B.C. They also built the most magnificent temples, and developed a figurative art that was to be widespread in Anatolia.

The Ilium of Homer's Iliad

Troy VI (1800-1275 B.C.)

As the Hittites were settling in Central Anatolia, another Indo-European people were flourishing in the Canakkale region at Troy VI, which today is one of Turkey's finest ruins, with a city wall preserved to a height of four meters, and a number of well preserved megaron type houses.

The Ilium of King Priam, in Homer's epic, corresponds to layer VIh(1325-1275 B.C.), and was destroyed in an earthquake, while the city captured by the Achaeans was Troy VIIe (1275-1240/1200 B.C.). When Troy VIh was destroyed in an earthquake in 1275 B.C., followed by the pillaging of Troy VIIa in 1240/1200 at the hands of The Achaeans, a staunch outpost against incursions from the nortwest- an outpost which had stood for two thousand years was gone. And indeed, the crude hand-made pottery discovered in Troy VIIb2 / 1240-1190 B.C.),like the Buckelceramic pots found in Troy VIIb2 (1190-110), are of Balkan Origin. Having captured Troy in 1200, the Balkan peoples proceeded to occupy Anatolia in waves; around 1190 they destroyed the Hittite capital of Hattusas and penetrated as far south as the Assyrian border.

Civilizations Which Influenced The Hellens

The Urartu Kingdom(860-580 B.C.) and The Phrygians(750-300 B.C.)

In southeastern and eastern Anatolia, which seem not to have been much affected by the migrations of the Balkan peoples, the Late Hittite Princedoms(1200-700 B.C.) and the Urartu Kingdom (860-580 B.C.)produced a high level of culture.

In the 8th century B.C. the Hellenes came in contact with the rich two-thousand-year-old heritage of Mesopotamia through the intermediary of the Late Hittite Princedoms living in southeastern Anatolia. The Hellenes acquired the Phoenician alphabet from Al Mina, and the mythology and figurative art which we see in Homer and Hesiod, from such Late Hittite cities as Kargamish and Malatya. The helmet of a Hellene in the 8th century, along with his shield, various belts and different hair styles, were just like Those of the Hittites. Hellenic figurative and decorative art in the 8th and 7th centuries followed Hittite styles and iconography.

Although the Urartus were strongly influenced in their art by Assyrian and Late Hittite example, they produced fine artifacts which they were able to export to Hellas and Etruscan cities.

The Phrygians were among the Balkan peoples who came into Anatolia around the year 1200 B.C., but they first appear on the scene as a political entitiyafter the year 750 B.C. The Hellenic world knew of the Phrygian King Midas as a legendary figure with long ears who turned to gold everything that the touched. The Assyrians, on the other hand , record that he qas king in 717, 715, 712 and 709 B.C. Although the powerful kingdom which Midas founded was swept away by the Cimmerians in the First quarter of the 7th century, scattered groupings of the Phrygians continued to evolve their civilization in Central Anatolia though the 6th century B.C. The Phrygian rock temples and treasures in the vicinity of Eskisehir and Afyon are quite well preserved, and among the finest works produced by their age.

Three Intriguing Anatolian Peoples:

Lydia, Caria and Lycia

The Lydians and Lycians spoke languages that were fundamentally Indo-European, but both languages had acquired non-Indo-European elements prior to the Hittite and Hellenic periods. Both alphabets closely resembled that of the Hellenes. During the reign of Creosus, fabled for his wealth (575-545 B.C.) the Lydian capital of Sardes was one of the most brilliant cities of the ancient world.

Although the Carian alphabet resembles the Lycian, the Carian language has not been deciphered to date. Herodotus says that according to a cretan legend the Carians were called Leleges and lived on the islands during the time of the Minoan Kingdom, that is, in the mid-2nd millenium B.C. The Carians themselves, however, claimed to be native Anatolians, related to the Lydians and Mysians.

The archaelogical finds pertaining to all three cultures show strong Hellenic influence. Of the three, the Lycians best kept their own character. Their monuments hollowed out of the rock are among the most interesting works of art in ancient Anatolia.

The Ionian Civilization (1050-1030 B.C.)

Following the destruction of Troy, the Hellenes established cities all along the Western Anatolian shore. In the 9th century B.C. they produced the first masterpiece of Western Civilization, the Iliad of Homer.

During the era of the natural philosophers, i.e. 600-545 B.C., Anatolian culture was of a brilliance unmatched in the world of its time, superceding Egypt and Mesopotamia Rejecting the idea of djinns, fairies and mythological causes, the natural philosophers investigated natural phenomena in a free spirit; Thales, son of the Carian Hexamyes, using the same methods we would today, predicted an eclipse of the sun for May 28, 585 B.C. This was the first prediction of a natural event in history.

During the occupation of the Persians (545-333 B.C.), Anatolia relinguished its leadership, but regained it in the

Throughout these centuries, Milletus, Priene, Ephesus and Teos were among the finest cities in the world, and the Anatolian architecture of this era greatly influenced Rome.

Bluffer's Guide to the Anatolian Iron Age By Roger Norman- Turkish Daily News

The Roman Age (30 B.C. - 595 A.D.)

The Romans developed the technique of mortaring bricks together, thereby producing arches, vaults and domes of large volume. These were the first major feats of enineering in history, and although the very first were at Rome, it soon became the turn of Anatolia Fine cities sprang up not only in the south and west of the peninsula, but also in its heartland. In all of these cities there were such monumental works as an agora, gymnasium, stadium, theater, baths and foundations, and many of them were of marble. The roads, too, were paved with marble and lined with colonnades, thus protecting the citizens from sun and dust in the summer, and from cold and mud in the winter. Water channeledinto the cities via aquedects sprang from the fountains, and a fine, well maintained network of roads and stone bridges connected the cities on the peninsula. Dozens of ancient cities in Western and Southern Anatolia, portions of them almost as they were in Roman times, fill visitors with awe.

The First Christian State in the World

The Byzantine Empire (330-1453 A.D.)

Byzantine art was born in Anatolia at the end of the Roman era. As the Roman art of sculpture and architectural decoration entered a period of decline toward the end of the 3rd century, new life was breathed into them by early Christian practitioners of both arts. One might say that early Christian and Byzantine art were an expressionistics rendering of Roman themes; where architectural space was concerned, they represented a whole new approach.

For two and a half centuries, from 300 to 565 A.D., Constantinople (Istanbul) was the leading city of the world in art and culture. The most brilliant time for the early Christian era was the reign of Justinian (527-565). Hagia Sophia, a centrally domed basilica, was built perior to this (532-539), and is the masterpiece of Byzantine art, one of the most famous works in the entire world.

The best preserved Byzantine religious buildings are Hagia Irini Church (6th and 8th centuries), the Basilica of St. John (Justinian's reign) and the Church of Mary (4th and 6th centuries), both in Ephesus, and the Alahan Church (5th and 6th centuries) in Southeastern Anatolia. From the Late Byzantine era the best preserved and finest works are St. Mary Pammakaristos (1310) next to Fethiye Mosque, and Kariye Mosque, that is to say the Chora Church, both in Istanbul. In the latter two buildings, the multidomed ceiling harmonizes beautifully with the walls and their three-staged arches.

The first people to dwell in all of Anatolia were the Turks. The Hittites, Phrygians and Greeks lived in only part of the peninsula.

The Turks arrived in Anatolia from Central Asia by way of continual migrations and incursions, and through their policy of tolerance in government earned the love of the Indo-European peoples living on the peninsula.It was the Turks who adopted Islam, and on this basis mingled with the local peoples starting in 1071. The passage of nine centuries has resulted in present-day Turkey.

Until recently it was thought that contemporary Western civilization was based on the Greeks, but archaelogy and history now show that it goes back rather to beginnings in western and south-western Anatolia.

Historical Ages of the Works Displayed

Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Ages

During these ages between 600000-8000 B.C. and also named as the Old Stone Age and the Middle Stone Age, man survived by gathering and they Middle Stone Age, man survived by gathering and they made tools and weapons of stone. Important finds related to this period are in the settlement centers in Karain, Kadiini, Okuzini, Beldibi and Belbasi in Antalya region and in Sehremuz near Adiyaman, in Duluk near Gaziantep.

Neolithic Age

The distinguishing characteristic of this age between 8000-5000 B.C. is the start of production, farming and animal husbandry. Man in this age, left the caves and began to live in stone and mudbrick dwellings. The most important finds related to the Neolithic Age in Anatolia are in Catalhoyuk.

Chalcolithic Age

In this age covering the years between 5000-3000 B.C., man started to make pottery of baked clay and to decorate the ceramics. This is understood from the excavation finds in settlement centers such as Hacilar, Can Hasan, Yumuktepe, Gozlukule, Beycesultan, Alisar, Alacahoyuk. Relations with Mesopotamia developed by way of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

Early Bronze Age

The people who lived in Anatolia between 3000-2000 B.C. acquired the knowledge to produce bronze by combining copper and tin, and they started to produce weapons, pots and pans and ornaments from this alloy. The most important finds of this period are in Troy and Alacahoyuk. During this era when the pottery wheel was put into use, the Anatolian man learned to make statuettes of baked clay, marble, alabaster, bronze and gold with both religious and decorative purposes.

Middle and Late Bronze Ages

This age covering the period between 2000-1200 B.C. is the era when trading was prevalent and the first written records were made in Anatolia. The trade relations with various Mesopotamian states and especially with Assyria, caused cultural and artistic interaction and as the result of this interaction an Anatolian style with characteristics of its own was created. The political power dominating this age was the Hittite Emire. The typical characteristics of the age can be understood from the excavation finds in Bogazkoy-Hattusa in Central Anatolia, and the ceramics found in Troy, Western Anatolia prove the relations with the Mycenaean civilisation.

Late Hittite City States

Small kingdoms who were the inheritors of the Hittite Empire between 1200-700 B.C. carried on the Hittite tradition for a while. However, this tradition gradually lost its own characteristics and began to take new forms under the influence of the Aramaean's who moved into the region, the Assyrians in the south, the Phrygians in the west and the Urartians in the east.

The Urartian Kingdom

The Urartion Kingdom (900-600 B.C. which established a developed civilisation on the area between the lakes of Van, Urmiye, Gokcegol and Cildir, on the one hand left many documents written in cuneiform and hieroglyph and on the other hand they contributed a great deal to the Near Eastern art in architecture and engineering fields. The Urartians who knew how to make use of natural forces by constructing dams and water channels, also made a great development in the field of metallurgy.

The Phrygian Kingdom

During the Phrygian Kingdom (700-550 B.C.) founded in the area between the northern Kizilirmak and Sakarya rivers, woodworks, ceramic production and the objects made both for daily use and for artistic purposes showed a great development. The capital of the Phrygian Kingdom was Gordian, their chief goddess was Kybele and their most famous king was Midas.

The Lydian Kingdom

The most important historical characteristic of the Lydian Kingdom which was founded in Western Anatolia (700-550 B.C. was the coining of the first metal coin in the world.

Ionian City States

The settlement centers founded in Western Anatolia since 3000-2000 B.C. carried on relations with the Aegean world on one hand and Anatolia on the other. The resulting cultural and artistic interaction created the Orientalising style during the 8^th and 7^th centuries B.C. This development, influenced the art of the following Archaic and Classical ages.

The Persian Period and Graeco-Persian Style

After the Lydian Kingdom was defeated by the Persian king Cyrus, Anatolia came under the control of the Persians. The most important works remaining from this period which lasted between 546-334 B.C. are the famous Royal Road and the Halicarnassus Mausoleum.

The Hellenistic Period

This period which started by the defeat of Persian dominance by Alexander the Great lasted between 330-30 B.C. A major part of Anatolia came under the power of Pergamon after Alexander's death. Pergamon contributed a great deal to the world history of culture and art in the field of sculpture and by using parchment as a writing material.

The Roman Period

When the last king of Pergamon bequeathed his kingdom to Rome, Anatolia came under the sovereignty of Rome. In the beginning of this era which laster between 30 B.C.-330 A.D. the influence of the Hellenistic style preserved its being in the Anatolian art and culture. Although the influence of Roman art and culture was later imposed, the traditional culture nevertheless survived and regional characteristics in art developed. The most important cultural and artistic centers of the period were Aphrodisian and Perge.

The Byzantine Period

The Byzantine era which lasted for nearly a thousand years between 330-1453 A.D. was greatly influenced by the former civilisation accumulation. When regional characteristics were combined with the influences of Christianity, new styles were created. Istanbul renowned worldwide as a cultural and artistic center, played an important role in turning over the art of the archaic ages to the medieval age. The Byzantine architecture which reached its summit with Hagia Sofia, gave its most beautiful examples with fortresses, water archways and cisterns, bridges and places. The Byzantine era also witnessed great developments in sculpture, mosaic, gilding and ornaments.

Seljuk Period

This period which started by Alpaslan's victory (the nephew of Seljuk Bey, founder of the Seljuk dynasty) in 1071, laster until 1300 A.D. After the collapse of the Great Seljuk Empire in 1157, the Anatolian Seljuks centred their state in Konya. This state which had its most glorious period during Sultan Alaaddin Keykubat's reign, gained supremacy over Anatolia. Roads, bridges, caravanserais were built during this period. The Seljuks, while having close links with Persian maintained their own art and culture brought from Central Asia by the Turkish migrations. They created the Turkish-Islamic culture by the synthesis, of the Anatolian cultural accumulation and other cultural influences. The mosques, medreses, baths formed the finest examples of the period in architecture. Developments in various fields of art was so great as to influence the following ages. One of the greatest contributions of the Seljuks to the Anatoian civilisation was the introduction of knotted-carpet making.

The Ottoman Period

This period which lasted between 1299-1923, is the era when not only Anatolia but also the land on the European side was attached to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman art based on the Turkish-Islamic and Anatolian artistic synthesis created during the Seljuk period, developed further under the direction of the palace by adopting the new techniques of the age and created a characteristic Ottoman style. However, the Westernisation trend of the 18^th century, gave way to the Western influence and consequently the traditional Ottoman art gradually lost its impact. The Ottomans, besides all the other fields of art also proved their superiority in architecture by mosques, tombs, medreses, libraries, covered bazaars, baths, places, caravanserais, kiosks, mansions, aqueducts and bridges. The most famous architect of the Ottoman period was Sinan and the finest example of his work is the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne. 

Source: Antika; The Turkish Journal of Collectable Art, September 1985, Issue: 6

Anatolia: The Last Ten Thousand Years

Bluffer's Guide to the Anatolian Iron Age

By Roger Norman / Turkish Daily News

This is the second Bluffer's Guide, and takes over more or less where the first one ended, at the close of the Anatolian Bronze Age and the time of the upheavals of the 13th and 12th centuries B.C. caused by largescale migrations in the Aegean region. The end of the 13th century saw the end of the Hittite Empire that had dominated Anatolian history for 500 years.
When to date the end of the Iron Age is a matter of taste, since in some ways it can be said to be still continuing. For the purposes of this guide, the end of the 6th century B.C. has been somewhat arbitrarily taken as the terminal date, on the grounds that the 5th century onwards can better be considered under the heading of Anatolia in classical times. We are thus dealing approximately with the period 1200 to 500 B.C. As in the Bronze Age, the center of power in the region remains the Near East, first in the shape of the vast Assyrian Empire of Sargon II, afterwards with the emergence of the Medes and Persians. Phrygia, and then Lydia, were the dominant Anatolian powers, and Greek cities were starting to appear on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, and, later, on the Black Sea. Cyrus the Great died in 530 B.C. and Croesus of Lydia around the same time.

ARMENIANS -- A tribe, possibly of PHRYGIAN origin, which gradually occupied the region of URARTIA towards the end of the 7th century. The position of a kingdom sandwiched between the MEDES, the ASSYRIANS and whoever was the dominant power in Anatolia proper guaranteed a chequered career for the first Armenians, and for most of their successors. Armenia was to be ruled successively by Medes, Persians, Seleucids, Romans etc. etc.

ASSYRIANS -- After a period of relative decline in the 12th and 11th centuries, the Assyrian Empire not only recovered but expanded rapidly, especially during the reign of Sargon II (722-706), so that by the end of the 8th century B.C., Assyria comprised the whole of present day Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Palestine and extensive territories in present day Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Assyrian kings even ruled in Egypt for 20 years in the mid 7th century. The empire collapsed with impressive speed, however, during the final decades of the 7th century, defeated by a coalition of MEDES and Babylonians. The Assyrian capital Nineveh fell in 612.

CIMMERIANS -- One of the "destroyers" of historical record and, like others before and after them, originating from somewhere in the broad steppes of southern Russia. Swept into Anatolian history at the end of the 8th century, first harrying the URARTIANS, then destroying the Phrygian capital GORDIUM in 695 and burning Lydian SARDIS 50 years later. Always described as historians as advancing in "hordes", technically an anachronism, since the word horde comes from the Turkish <ITALIK ordu ITALIK> meaning army.

CROESUS -- Lydian king who reigned c. 560 to 547 B.C. Like the Phrygian Midas, a byword for great wealth, possibly because the LYDIANS were the first to mint coins. Croesus was the subject of the famous dialogue with Solon related by Herodotus. In reply to Croesus' leading question "Who is the most fortunate of men?", Solon irritatingly replied by naming various unknown and defunct Greeks, making the point that no man could be called happy until he was dead. It was also Croesus who was fooled by the ambiguous reply of the Delphic oracle -- "If you attack, you will destroy a great nation". It turned out to be his own, and Croesus became an (honored) captive of the Persian king Cyrus. Croesus has come down to us as a very human and rather sympathetic character, thanks largely to Herodotus. History proper starts somewhere here, one might say.

CYBELE -- The chief Phrygian divinity and their version of the Anatolian mother goddess. She was suckled by wild creatures as an infant, ministered to as a deity by castrated priests and her cult was apparently characterized by frenzied orgies. A symbol of fertility, often depicted as pregnant, sometimes many-breasted. Atys was her omprehensively defeated (although somewhat unfairly, some would say, because Cyrus apparently used the smell of his pack camels to deter the Lydian cavalry) in 547 B.C. Sardis was taken and Lydia became a Persian satrapy.

MEDES -- An Iranian tribe who first appear as the Mada and start threatening the power of Assyria in the 7th century. Together with Babylonian forces they destroyed Nineveh in 612 and soon afterwards took control of URARTIA. They were later defeated by the Persian King Cyrus and were incorporated into the empire of the PERSIANS. The Greeks tended to refer to the Persians as Medes and Cyrus as "the Mede". In the later Persian Empire, the Medes were associated with the Magi, a sacerdotal caste who followed the teachings of Zoroaster (Zarathustra).

MIDAS -- Known as Mita to the Assyrians and Egyptians. Famous in legend for the "Midas touch" which turned everything, even his food, to gold. Yet oddly there was no gold found in the immense burial mound near GORDIUM that has come to be known as Midas' tomb. There were however, a large number of wonderful bronze cauldrons and other vessels which can now be seen in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. Actually, there is a second so-called Tomb of Midas, an intriguing temple, possibly dedicated to CYBELE and to be found some 60 kilometers southeast of Eskisehir. It consists of a huge facade sculptured on the living rock. Midas himself was probably the last of the independent PHRYGIAN kings and is said to have committed suicide after the defeat by the CIMMERIANS.

MOPSUS -- A Greek by the name of Mopsus has the honor of being the very first figure of Greek legend to be authenticated as a historical personality. (Remember that there is still no <ITALIK proof ITALIK> that there were ever such people as Agamemnon or Achilles.) Legend said that one Mopsus wandered the Anatolian peninsula after the fall of Troy and ended up founding Greek colonies in Pamphylia and Cilicia (on the Mediterranean coast). He appears in a Hittite document with the unappealing name of Mukshush and also in an inscription at Karatepe in Cilicia. He is said to have founded Aspendus, Phaselis and Mopsuestia.

NEO-HITTITES -- Remnants of the Hittites, mixed with Hurrians, Hattians and others, who occupied a series of city states in the northern regions of present day Syria and southern Turkey. The art and architecture of the Neo-Hittite cities owe a good deal to Hittite traditions. Carchemish and Zincirli, close to the present day Turco-Syrian border are the best known of these.

PERSIANS -- An Iranian people who probably arrived in the region of present day Iran during the 8th century B.C., a little later than the MEDES, whom they later defeated and assimilated. It was under Cyrus the Great that the Persians began to build the great empire that was to be the dominant power of the Near East on and off for nearly a millennium. The early period of Persian glory is usually referred to by the name of its ruling dynasty, the Achaemenids, who were overthrown by Alexander. (They were succeeded in turn by the Seleucids -- named after Alexander's general Seleucus, the Parthians -- who fought the Romans over three centuries, and the Sassanians -- who were finally defeated by the Arabs.) Cyrus took Lydia and Babylonia; his son Cambyses occupied Egypt; and Darius I, who became king in 486 B.C., was responsible for introducing a gold coinage, building a huge network of roads -- including the Royal Road from SARDIS to Susa and fostering commerce throughout the empire.

PHRYGIANS -- Federation of tribes who moved into Anatolia from Eastern Europe during the last century of the Bronze Age and who established a powerful kingdom centered on GORDIUM which included Troy and Hierapolis. Replaced the Hittite Empire as the dominant force in central Anatolia, building modest walled towns on the ruins of the old Hittite cities -- at Bogazkoy, Alaca Hoyuk, Kultepe and elsewhere. Came up against Sargon II of ASSYRIA in the 8th century and were wiped out by the fierce CIMMERIANS at the beginning of the 7th century. Phrygian inscriptions remain unintelligible and the reputation the Phrygian people have left behind them makes strange reading. Stubborn, effeminate, servile and voluptuous according to various Greek readers, they were famous as makers of grave and solemn music and also for the wearing of a peculiar conical cap which was later worn by freed Roman slaves and thus became a symbol of liberty to the French revolutionaries of 1789. Phrygia was also known among Greeks as a land of fabulous wealth (see MIDAS).Their Chief divinity was CYBELE.

SARDIS -- Lydian capital, situated in the broad and fertile valley of the Gediz Cayi. There's not much left now of the Lydian city, although American excavators claim to have found the remains of the first ever mint (see CROESUS). Ten kilometers to the north lies Bin Tepe, the Lydian necropolis, where there are scores of burial mounds dating from the great age of the Lydian kingdom. The largest of these, the Tomb of Alyattes (father of Croesus), took ten minutes to ride around according to the nineteenth century traveller W.J. Hamilton.

URARTIANS -- Possibly a Hurrian people, since their language is closely related. Settled the area around Lake Van and established a kingdom that included Mt. Ararat and the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates. First mentioned in ASSYRIAN texts in the 13th century B.C., reached their zenith three or four centuries later when they built a characteristic series of massive hill fortresses in the region. Came into conflict with the Assyrian Empire in the 8th century B.C. and disappeared from history somewhat mysteriously in the 6th century at which period they were replaced by the ARMENIANS. Urartia is sometimes known as the Kingdom of Van, or the Vannic kingdom.

Anatolia: The Last Ten Thousand Years

Art is an indispensable feature of communal life, quite irrespective of the structure of the community. Every change in form and colour to be found in nature, in the sky or in the waters, constitutes a source of artistic inspiration in man. In a sense, art lies at the root of all tradition.

Art exists, at least to some degree, even in periods of political upheaval or stagnation. The reason is obvious. Man, like nature, is productive and creative. It is thus impossible to keep man bound and inactive in face of the myriad forms and colours of nature. Even if his hands were bound he would express himself in songs and poems.

The phenomenon we know as progress is the result of a certain synthesis. The products of the fusion of art with the habits and preferences of everyday life remain to future generations as master-pieces of tradition.

Have you ever wondered how many drawing have been made of a leaf?

How can we tell how many times the lines of joy or grief on the human face have formed the subject of a drawing? As infinite in number as instances of joy and grief themselves are infinite.

Even today there are scores of communities and societies of which we know absolutely nothing! Where, we wonder, are the sources of their poems, their songs, their pictures and decorations concealed?

And to this series of questions we can add another -a question that is continually cropping up-the question of modernity.

We tend to think that everything produced in the age in which we live is art, and that all the art we produce is modern and original. Art cannot begin by repudiating the master-pieces of the past. No matter what names we apply to the objects we create, and no matter how fantastically we behave, it doesn't necessarily mean that we are modern and progressive.

Art is a process of reduction. The power to reduce to the simplest terms.

Tens of thousands of years ago anonymous craftsmen using the most primitive tools produced works of art that could well have been produced today. What name would you give to the following, for example?

"Even running towards you is cool water for thirst."

Or to this?

"This is a grave, there is no corpse within it.

This is a corpse, there is no grave around it.

This corpse is buried in itself."

Or this?

"You are in love with your own beauty,

It is as if held a mirror to your face."

What period do you think these little extracts belong? We certainly enjoy reading them. Could they all be the work of contemporary poets?

The writer of the first couplet was an Egyptian poet who lived four thousand years ago. We know the name of the second writer. He was called Agation and lived in the Byzantine period. The third couplet is by Omer Khayam.

And let us not forget Yunus Emre, who could write lines like:

"I saw my moon on the ground.

The rain falls from the ground upon me."

There are so many poems, paintings, statues and decorative compositions created by artists who lived thousands of years ago that still remain fresh and alive today.

But please don't inter from this that there are no modern artist whose works will survive. The important thing is not to boast of being modern, of producing work for the future. Since when has incompetence and ineptitude been regarded as art?

Another disease lies in the rejection of all the art and architecture of the past.

Universality is difficult to achieve. One must mature and ripen, like Yunus in the dervish convent. But modern man is always in a hurry. And he is also a chatterer.

Let us not forget that we till the same soil as previous civilisations and breathe the same air. What is more, all our skills are based, like those of our forefathers, on man and nature. In other words, there is not a square inch of soil that has been left undisturbed. And yet the soil of Anatolia goes so deep that there must be thousands of unexamined, unheard of, unseen poems, statues and works of art awaiting the interested researcher.

And what will happen when all these are unearthed?

It was Shakespeare, not myself, who said, "The past is a preface to the present."

Anatolia possesses ten thousand years of history. Some of this is underground, some of it above. During this long adventure of ten thousand years there have been periods of war and periods of peace, but people and communities have always gone out in pursuit of beauty and art. The source of beauty and art lies in man and the soil. That is what I meant when I said that "there is not a square inch of the soil that has been left undisturbed." Every community has its poet of hope, love and grief. And I doubt if they differed very much from the poets in our own society. They also roamed about, sang their songs, set up a home and tried to penetrate to the essence of the real. But most of us are quite unaware of all this. We regard the 20th century as the sole reality!

The question of the new and the modern all comes down to this, and it is a solution to this question that all the most distinguished scholars of our day are seeking. Unanswered questions remain, concerning thousands of works produced in Ancient Egyptian, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian, Ionian, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman times.

Many of these questions rest in the soil of Anatolia. You may seek out the answers to these or you may simply ignore them. But everyone loves gossip. There was gossip thousands of years ago.

Everything begins with a symbol. In primitive art the symbol acts as a guide. A system of communication. Gradually this symbol becomes an indispensable feature of ritual worship in both monotheistic and polytheistic religions.

Who will transform these symbols into sketches, idols or icons, or into words or music for religious ceremonies? Let he who feels he has the necessary power step forward!

Behold the anonymous artists and master craftsmen!

The Anatolian Adventure

The inhabitants of Anatolia who lived through the great Neolithic revolution ten thousand years ago attempted to solve the change in nature by adopting a sedentary life. The finds yielded by the excavations in the village of Hacilar near Burdur were the generous gifts of the rain, the soil, the daylight, the water, the sun and man himself. They were the precursors of civilisation.

The finds from Hacilar, Çatalhöyük, Kültepe and Çayönü may well be described as a world of symbols.

Everything imaginable is to be found in this world of symbols. Murals, seals, jewellery, figurines of the mother goddess. Men who had embarked on agriculture and cattle-raising must obviously have feared the forces of nature. But here the question is: Why did they feel this need for the beautiful?

No one could ever deny the beauty of form and line possessed by the seals and jewellery.

It is very understandable that special importance should be given to seals symbolising property and ownership of property. Seals quite distinct one from the other, with their own particular form and line. But what aesthetic aspiration can explain meticulous attention to line and form in the earthenware vessels from which they drank their water or sipped their wine, and in which they sometimes stored the produce? The conscious conception of art was a phenomenon that was to evolve thousands of years later. As for the pursuit of the beautiful, they may be the answer to our question.

But now we are confronted with the world of symbols in quite a different form. Heralds of a totally new world are to be found in centres such as Alacahöyük. Horoztepe and Hasanoglu.

The men of that period seemed to be rebelling against nature.

I stubbornly insist on asking the question "What example of simple figural abstraction do you wish to see?"

The Horoztepe figurine of a mother and child? The statuette of a goddess encircled with gold bands? The gold goblet with grooved neck found in the royal graves? The twin idols holding each other by the hand with their fertility transformed into buttons and perforations? The bull and stag figures freely symbolising nature and the universe?

Fear and devotion could never produce anything so beautiful. Leaving aside the technique employed in shaping the bronze or the gold, what fear or anxiety could give rise to such abstraction?

Let's leave aside the period and provenance. Which of them are not contemporary? Which of them are not contemporary? Which of them conflict with the contemporary approach to sculpture?

Of those who share the same soil thousands of years later the inhabitants of Alacahöyük, Horoztepe or Alisar for example-which of them can be said to share the same evolution?

The statues and utensils of copper, lead, bronze or gold must be regarded as memorials of the point in evolution attained by human thought.

But this is not the end of the story of polytheism in Anatolia. We are still, as it were, at the beginning. Now we have the Anatolian woman, adorned with her jewellery, tidying up her hearth and home. At Troy, what is more!.. Or were they preparing themselves a different future with their ear-rings, gold brooches, idols and lapis lazuli symbols?

In my opinion, the only aim of the artist in those days was that the objects he created should please. If we had been in their place, God knows what we would have done with all our advertisers and publicity agents!

Who could have guessed that the old concentric, geometrical forms would still be found in the 20th century Anatolian kilim? It is as if it had all been loaded on to a caravan thousands of years ago!

Beyond The Hittites

To express it in the simplest terms, a work of art consists of line, form and interpretation. So many lines are timid and hesitant, so many colours are dull and insipid when compared with the beauty of nature.

The Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilisations contains two clay figures of the sky-god in a chariot drawn by bulls.

Have you ever looked at them closely? I am proud to say that I have actually handled them, with the greatest reverence. I thrilled with emotion. What craftsman, or what craftsmen created these statuettes two or three thousand years ago? They would appear to be utterly free of all sin. They were so lovable that I felt like embracing them. Their line and colour and interpretation might well have been the work of a distinguished contemporary artist!

And here is a vase from the Hittite Principalities discovered in the Kültepe excavations. It has all the appearance of being produced in the 20th century. The body, widening out from a narrow base with all the mastery of geometrical form, ends in a beak stretching out to infinity. What are the two small projections on the smooth surface of the body? Might they be symbols of the fertility of the mother goddess?

I have no idea what the Hittite craftsman was seeking to create, but today I look upon it as a statue.

This Hittite potter is challenged by the craftsman who created the gold pitcher found at Horoztepe, leaving questions for the world of symbols in its circles, spiral grooves and swastikas. This fantastic specimen is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Line is of prime importance in painting, sculpture, music and architecture. The path traced by the line might well be accepted as the path traced by art.

The various communities that contributed to the Anatolian communities lent each other a helping hand in both peace and war. It is enough just to follow a single line traced on the soil, to observe the changes it undergoes and the meanings with which it was endowed. In this line you can observe all the destruction, all the annihilation, all the revival and resuscitation that occurred around it.

If you are a community that asks questions you can find all these questions asked thousands of years ago.

Let us not boast. Reality is not confined to the one age that is reality to us. They too were fully aware of the natural and human reality. We must admit to only one true reality; the reality of man and nature in there partnership and rivalry. Communities find their identity in this reality, and it is in art alone that this reality is enshrined.

Bulls, Men And Decorative Design

Any mention of King Midas immediately brings the Phrygians to mind. But before turning to the Phrygians and the Mother Goddess they took under their protection I should like to make one further remark about the Hittites. In the Hittite Kingdom the king was not the representative of God on earth as he was in the East and in the Indo-European countries.

According to the customs and traditions prevailing in the first quarter of the second millennium a women, on getting married, was neither purchased by nor handed over to the man. Undoubtedly, many examples of their laws which are still valid today must also have exerted an influence on art. Concrete evidence of this is to be found both in love letters and commercial correspondence.

The Urartu civilisation that reigned for three hundred years in the Van region was characterised by its skill in metalwork. The bronze artefacts they produced have been found in Phrygia, Samos, Delphi and Olympia. This shows how long and how extensive is the path traced by art.

Midas, the Phrygian King!

When Midas ascended the throne in 738 B.C. his own nation occupied the lands of the Hittites. It is a matter of no small significance that a legend created by the folk should describe how King Midas preferred the melodies produced by the pipe of Pan in the musical contest between the gods Pan and Apollo, and that Apollo should have punished him by giving him the ears of an ass.

For at that time Phrygia was renowned for its music.

Furthermore, the goblets manufactured on Phrygian soil and the drinking vessels in the form of eagles and rams were exported to Greece, in the same way as Phrygian music had influenced Hellenic civilisation.

The two bronze cauldrons found in the grave of Midas at Altuntepe and Gordian come to mind, one adorned with bull's heads, the other with unsmiling human faces. In each case I would define the workmanship as absolutely contemporary. And yet both of them are products of the old Urartian civilisation.

In the drinking vessels consisting of animal figures fashioned in clay by the Phrygians there is a whole unsmiling world. It had been so since the time of the Hittites. Or even since the first introduction of metal.

All these specimens demonstrate the utmost skill in the use of line. Even the simplest Phrygian bowl or utensil displays a mastery of line and volume.

Every one of the artefacts produced in the Mesopotamian tradition display the stamp of their own particular period. It should not be forgotten that the floors of the houses in Gordion are adorned with coloured pebbles.

If we leave Troy, an important settlement from the Bronze Age onwards, and continue down to the shores of the Aegean we shall encounter the Lydians, Carians, lonians and Lycians.

These were all dominated by a Mediterranean culture that combined a polytheistic religion with a monumentally style of architecture.

Two thousand five hundred years ago, in 585 B.C. to be precise, Thales foretold an eclipse of the sun a full year before the event. This scientific achievement exerted a great influence on the Turks and the Arabs, who laid the foundations for the scientific progress that flourished in Europe during the Renaissance and in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Miletus and the Ionian cities were centres of poetry and the arts, while the temple and statues of Artemis at Ephesus continued the tradition of the "Mother Goddess" on Anatolian soil. The influence of Ionian architecture, first felt in Athens, became increasily pervasive in Europe and America up to the beginning of the 20th century, and traces of it are still to be seen in contemporary monumental architecture. In parenthesis we may mention that Aphrodisiacs has always been a city famous for its sculpture.

On entering the ancient cities of Kaunos, Xanthos, Patara, Letoon, Phaselis or Termessos you will find yourself in a completely different world. But again it is a question of houses, with a monumental decoration of spirals and meanders, as from the time of the Hittites onwards. Only the lives of the builders and the period to which they belong are different.

An examination of tradition allows us to see the lines of the civilisations before our own. Doesn't the single path taken by the Mother Goddess, the goddess of beauty and fertility, Kybele, Artemis and Aphrodite, suffice for the aim attained by art.

"My birthday will be celebrated every month and every year. In these ceremonies, the gods, the head priest and myself will, on my own authority and the authority generously given by the laws, don Persian costume and place golden wreaths on the statues of the gods, my ancestors and my self. For each one of us a great abundance of incense will be burned. Due sacrifices will be made. The sacred tables will be loaded with the finest foods and wines. My people will gather here eat their fill and rejoice."

So commanded King Antiochos of Commagene two thousand five hundred years ago. I have already quoted this noble and generous decree in a number of different contexts. I keep coming back to lovely things of this nature. The more often we remind ourselves of such things the better.

We live amid the remains of a great sultanate, a magnificent sultanate that harbours a host of cities and civilisations to which we have not, so far, referred.

Byzantine, Seljuk, Ottoman…

So many legends are enshrined in the world that extends from Cappadocia to the Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors at Sultanahmet and the frescoes and mosaics of Kariye and Ayasofya that one becomes utterly confused and bewildered. One is overwhelmed by the luxuriant fertility of the civilisations.

I see a picture before me. It is probably by Mondrian. It draws me into a labyrinth of yellows, greens, blues, reds, blacks and whites.

I read the label beneath the picture. 15^th century, Topkapi Palace Museum… It must be a leaf from an album. And it's Seljuk.

What does this all mean? Let's put our heads together and think about it. Is it line that is infinite, or is it the civilisation that produced the creators of the line? Or both? Or is it a case of man coming to terms with himself in the midst of empires, catastrophes, extinctions, joys and sorrows?

There are so many examples of this on the soil of Anatolia a soil on which the unknown far exceeds the known. And should we rush to a hasty conclusion both on what existed before us and what we ourselves have created?

The creations of every age necessarily differ from those of the previous ages. But we must recognise that the 20^th century is not the sole possessor of truth and reality.

I ask again. What is meant by modernity?

Beware of assuming the infinity of man and nature.

The best thing is to lose oneself in the decorative designs of the great 16^th century master Karamemi or the saz yolu compositions of Shah Kulu, forced to leave Tabriz for Amasya at the beginning of the 16^th century.

The choice is yours.

Source: Türkiyemiz, Culture and Art Magazine, October 1991

By : Gürol Sözen

Anatolian Jewelry

Jewelry of the Hittites of a Thousand Gods

At the beginning of the 2^nd Millennium B.C., Hittite art was born with the Assyrian trading colonies during the period of the Hittite principalities. This art acquired a distinctive character integrating the native Anatolian Hatti culture with the cultures of Northern Syria and of Mesopotamia and during the Royal and Imperial ages of the Hittites. This art turned into a religious palace art. It was during this period that the production of large dimension plastic works such as orthostats and cliff reliefs began, examples of which we do not previously encounter in Anatolia.

In addition to the Procession of the Gods in relief at Yazilikaya, an open-air temple near the capital city of Hattushash (modern Bogazkoy), the lion and sphinx reliefs on the city gates at Alacahoyuk are the most impressive examples of this art. Just as they are visible in this gigantic art, the influences of the art of the imperial religious cult also made themselves clearly felt in small plastic production as well (Figure 1, a-b).

There are few pieces of jewelry which have managed to survive from the Royal and Imperial Hittite Periods down to the present day. Gold rings without stones were also used as seals. On some examples of these we find figures worked in by an engraving technique (Figure 2), and in others we find helical motifs surround by cuneiform and hieroglyphic script (Figure 3).

Figures of gods and goddesses (Figure 1.b) done in cast gold, silver, or bronze, or produced by means of carving techniques from materials such as ivory or quartz are also examples of amulets, which were part of the religious art. Ivory, in addition to being used in jewerly, was also worked for use as a decoration for furniture and similar wooden objects.

Popular Hittite Jewelry

At archaeological excavations carried out in recent years near Gordium (Machteld, Melling, 1956) and Afyon Yanarlar (Emre, 1978), materials acquired from two Hittite graves indicate the existence of a popular art a Hittite jewelry in addition to that of the palace. Among these finds are necklaces made of sea shells, which are examples of a tradition continuing from Neolithic times. These widely divergent types of sea shells found in great profusion in excavations of Assyrian city (Figure 5) were most probably used in popular jewelry as charms or as fertility magic.

One encounters the metal needles found in the graves mentioned above for the first time in the Bronze Age in the Royal Grave at Alacahoyuk (Figure 6), and the Troy and other contemporary settlements. Use of this material continued with the Hittites.

Lost Graves and Undiscovered Jewelry

The quartz figurine of a god at the Adana Museum shows that form the Early Bronze Age onwards, the Hittites were quite successful in working hard gems. Nevertheless there are a number of reasons why one does not encounter the typical Early Bronze Age high-quality gem and chased metal jewelry, found in the Hittite kings and of the nobility have not been located. In addition, it should not be forgotten that the looting by the Muski tribes coming down from the strats and invading Anatolia in the 1200^th Century B.C. was so thorough as to erase the name of the Hittites from history.

With the destruction of the Hittite Empire, Anatolia entered upon a Dark Ages of three to four hundred years duration, during which time small states emerged. The contributions made by these to the art and techniques of jewelry may be summarised as follows.

From Empire to City-State

The Late Hittite Principalities, which developed in the Southeastern Anatolia-Northern Syria region (1200-700 B.C.), on the one had continued the art of the Hittite Empire, while on the they other were influenced by Babylonian, Assyrian, and Aramaic art. We know from their orthostats, cliff reliefs, and statutes that they too were excellent masters of stone work. Similarly the large-dimension works of this period provide information about men's and women's jewelry. The famous relief of Ivriz and the statue of King Tarhunza show that the men of the age also made great use of jewelry (Figures 7, 8). By means of trade routes, late Hittite art had considerable impact on the developing art of Ionia and Lydia in western Anatolia.

The Urartus-Master Jewelers of Eastern Anatolia

The Urartu State, which grew up around the shores of Lake Van between 900 and 600 B.C. created an extremely theocratic style of palace art, and at the same time remained to a large degree under the influence of Assyrian art. The oldest examples of Urartu art were unearthed at the royal graves at Altintepe (Figure 9). In the Urartu art of jewelry making, the techniques of casting, granulation, and embossing were used quite effectively, and a vertical or horizontal symmetry is dominant. The figures in this jewelry show the stylistic features of the larger plastic works. The Urartus were also masters in working ivory, and large quantities of pieces set with carved ivory and of animal figures were produced (Figure 10). Oval, cylindrical, and spherical gate beads in a variety of dimensions were also quite common. Such agates are for the most part of homogeneous colour and the occasional exposure of the colour of the interior in fragmented pieces could be considered proof that the Urartus aware of the technique of colouring agate (figure 11).

Urartu tripod handled cauldrons produced with a casting technique and worked with figures of bulls, gryphons, and human beings were carried by trade routes as far as Italy. Embossed Urartu shields and helmets and their harness ornaments are all works of art of superior quality. Popular arts, which developed among the Urartus alongside the art of the palace was more stylised and primitive, but nevertheless, its livelier figures and compositions are evident.

Phrygia-the Country of Midas (750-300 B.C.)

The Phrygians were one group of the sea tribes which overthrew the Hittite Empire. Around 750 B.C. they founded a kingdom whose capital was Gordium (near modern Polatli). During the reign of Midas, who in mythology is known as the kings who turned everything the touched to gold and who was adorned with donkey's ears, they established their dominion over the whole of Central and Southeastern Anatolia. The Cimmerians who arrived from the east in 695 B.C. destroyed Gordium, whereupon according to legend, King Middas committed suicide by drinking the blood of a bull. A short time later, Phrygia was conquered by the Lydians (650 B.C.) and then subsequently continued its existence under Persian rule. Despite the fact that the Phrygians were a Balkan tribe, in a short time the became Anatolian, creating a unique culture affected by Late Hittite and Ionian art. In addition to such arts as woodworking, furniture making, and weaving, they were also masters of metal casting three-legged cauldrons and fiale bowls (similar to Ottoman bath bowls) are examples of this famous Phrygian bronze work. The Phrygians greatest contributions to jewelry making were their fibulae made in various sizes (Figure 12). These were nass produced using a casting technique, and spreading along trade routes as fas as Italy the created a fashion in their day.

In the mounds around Gordium, articles of well worked ivory have also been found in addition to such works of bronze (Figure 13). The rich adornments on the Mother Goddess, which appear on rather large perfume bottle made of onyx in he shape of the Mother Goddess Cybele, give use information about the superior jewelry making abilities of the Phrygians.

Ionia-The Integration of East and West in the Aegean (1050-550 B.C.)

Starting from around 1050 B.C., the Ionian cities in Western Anatolia continued their existence as primitive agricultural societies for about three hundred years. On the one hand affected by the island cultures to their west, these cities (Ephesus, Miletus, Didyma, Erythrae, etc.) after the 750's B.C. to a large degree adopted Egyptian, Phoenician, Assyrian, and Late Hittite art as a result of their commercial relations, and internalising it, they grew. It was these original synthesis which gave birth to "Orientalising" in Greek art. At the same time between 800 and 600 B.C., the important contemporary neighbours of the Ionians in Anatolia such as the Lydians and the Phrygians were also alive, and there was continuous cultural interplay among them. The temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World was an important center of the Mother Gooddes cult. The oldest (800-700 B.C.) examples of Ionian jewelry are fibulae and rings found around Izmir. These are in the form of simple bronze or silver rings or spirals. The fibulae are generally of Aegean island types. Rich ivory carvings, jewelry, and small statuettes offered to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in the orientalising and Early Archaic Periods (700-600 B.C.) are among the important finds of this period (Akurgal, 1951). Some of the ivory articles appear to have been imported from various eastern sources by traders. Ionian ivory articles, produced under the influence of these imported wares can be distinguished from those of foreign sources by means of the softness of their lines.

The composite creatures of Eastern mythology such as sphinxes, sirens, and gryphons were adopted and employed in Ionian ivory carvings (Figure 14).

Among gold jewelry one finds boat-shaped earrings (Figure 15), uniquely Anatolian pins, fibulae (Figure 16), and brooches. Brooches in the shape of the bee (Figure 17), an animal sacred to Artemis, and of a sparrow hawk are interesting examples. Quartz crystals, which are common in the area, were also worked masterfully in the manufacture of bead jewelry (Figure 18). It should not be forgotten that some of the neighbouring country of Lydia, where the pinnacle was reached in gold mining and well-entrenched jewelry making. It is known that from time to time the Ionian cities remained under the rule of Lydia.

Sardis, the Capital of Lydia and City of Gold and Jewelry Making

There is not much known about the origins of the Lydian's. Whose capital was Sardis (around modern Salihli). They begin to show their presence after 700 B.C. Although their language is of Indo-European roots, it also bears elements of older Anatolian languages. Expanding from time to time, Lydia also took within its borders its neighbours such as Phrygia and Ionia. Following occupation of Anatolia by the Persians in 546 B.C. the Lydians collapsed, and like all other Anatolian cities, Sardis was a satrapy under Persian domination. This period at the same time corresponds to the development of an artistic style known their architecture, they themselves were to a great degree inspired by Ionian culture.

Sardis was at a point where east-west trade routes converged. To put it more correctly, all roads passed through Sardis, the reason being that gold collected from Mount Tmolos (Bozdag in the south by the river Paktalos (Sart Cayi) collected in the alluvial mud of the vally. Aware of this fact, the Sardians were masters of working and purifying gold ore. Until that time, goldenrods were used as a medium of exchange in commerce.

The Lydians for the first time produced miniature ingots of a natural alley of silver and gold known as electrum and stamped them with Heir seal, thus becoming the first country in history to employ a minted coinage. At first believed to be a different metal to which they gave the name "white gold", the Lydians managed to separate the silver in electrum, and purify the gold, creating a well-entrenched jeweler's art.

Thouchstones (a hard silicate stone with a fine grain) which were employed in the measurement of the purity of gold passed into archaeological history as "Lydian Stones". Geologist today have given the name "Lyddite" to stones which they find in the mountains to the south of Sardis.

Professor Greenewald, a valuable archaeologist and friend who has been carrying out the excavations at Sardis for years, found what is perhaps the world's oldest touchstone last year during the course of excavation work, thus emphasising one more the significance of Sardis in the art of gold working. We are proud that the should have allowed us to announce this event here for the first time in this article.

Where decorative stones were concerned, the Sardians were as much expert geologists as they were miners who extracted gold from the streams. They made lavish use of such bright coloured, semi-precious stones as fire opals, banded agate and chalcedony (Figures 19.29).

The fact that such stones are readily available in the vicinity leads one to suppose that the Sardians took advantage of them. There is evidence to prove this supposition.

The fact that the famous Simav opals were sought after in Europe as "Croesus Stones" until sixty or seventy years ago (Bauer, 1911), the presence of mine shafts in the chalcedony deposits at Eskisehir whose age cannot be ascertained (the name o this blue stone is taken from the pre-Byzantine harbour of Chalcedon, modern Kadikoy in Istanbul, from where it is quite probable that the stones were exported), and the fact that agate consisting of alternating bands of mat brown and white is called "sardonyx" or "sard" may all be evidence of this lapidary skill. In addition to this, as can be seen from examples of beadwork finds at Sardis shown by our good friend Professor Greenewald, a wide variety of agates and opals were worked and shaped. Among these the sardonyx type is widespread.

Sardian Jewelry under the Persian Rule of Anatolia and its Aftermath

Starting from the 6^th Century B.C. onward, the use of decorative stones in Lydian jewelry increased, particularly in the Graeco-Persian period. Ring stones in the form of the sacred sacrab (appearing under the influence of Egyptian art). Figures on crowns, rings engraved for the purpose of being seals, and silver or bronze pendant seals are all the products of this period (Figures 26,29). During the Graeco-Persian period, an art arose out of the fusion of the orders which the Persian ruling class gave in line with their own religious and aesthetic cultures to domestic artisans together with Anatolian Hellenic styles and techniques. This tradition of jewelry making also continued in the city of Sardis in the subsequent Hellenistic period.

Source: Antika; The Turkish Journal of Collectable Art, February 1986, Issue: 11

By Altan Ture-M.Yilmaz Savascin

Anatolian Jewelry

The Hellenistic Age (330-30 B.C.)

Classical Culture before the Hellenistic Age

During the Greco -Persian Period, which began with the Persian occupation of Anatolia and its subjection to their Empire, Gordium, Ephesus, Sardis, Miletus, Phocaea, Sinope, and a great many other cities scattered about Anatolia continued the tradition of ancient Anatolian art. Nevertheless, as a result of the adaptation of the Middle Eastern culture brought by the Persians with these local cultures, a new thesis -called "Greco-Persian"- emerged and it showed itself in jewelry, as it did in all other branches of the arts.

While this development was taking place in Anatolia, Classical Culture was born in mainland Greece (5^th Century B.C.) in which Athens played a leading role. In the fields of thought and art, a bright period of development was created based upon an observational dialectic and idealism. The source of this Classical Culture was that of ancient Mediterranean cultures. Bracelets with animals head at their extremities, which were very popular in such Middle Eastern cultures as the Assyrian and Late Hittite, were also adopted during the Classical Age, a fact which is an example of this influence. In bracelet designs, granule-decorated cones and spherical beads decorated with filigree were also common during the Classical Age.

From the Macedonian Kingdom to the Empire of Alexander the Great (Hellenistic Age)

Founded in the 7^th Century B.C., the Kingdom of Macedonia came under the influence of Greek language and culture in the 5^th Century B.C. During the reign of Philip, Alexander's father, the gold mines in western Thrace began to be worked, and Greece came under Macedonian hegemony. As a result of the expeditions of his son, Alexander the Great in Anatolia, the Persian Empire was destroyed, and in its place was founded the Empire of Alexander the Great, which extended from India to North Africa. As a result of this fusion of Greek culture with the cultures surrounding the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, Hellenistic culture arose as a result of the poly-national empire thus created.

Nevertheless, with the death of Alexander at an early age, the empire was unable to maintain its integrity, and following long disputes and civil wars, independent Hellenistic kingdoms emerged. Among these, the Kingdom of Pergamon in western Anatolia and the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt grew as the rivals of their age in a climate of uninterrupted cultural and artistic competition.

The Kingdom of Pergamon took over 5^th Century Classical Culture from Athens and kept it alive. The largest school of sculpture of the Hellenistic Age was founded at Pergamon, which subsequently influenced Roman Sculpture Cites such as Ephesus, Tralleis (modern Aydin), Aphrodesias, and Miletus which won their independence during this period, are also among the leaders in the cultural and artistic activities of the Hellenistic Age.

Although the Kingdom of Pergamon became part of the Roman Empire in 30 B.C. as a result of a bequest and the Hellenistic Age thus came to a close, this culture was predominant in Anatolia until the end of the its Century A.D.

The Entry of Gold Jewelry into Daily Life

In the earlier Archaic and Classical Ages, gold jewelry was generally made to be left as votive offerings in temples or in graves. During the Hellenistic Age however with the capture of the Persian treasury on the one hand and the operation of the gold mines of western Thrace on the other, the use of gold jewelry in daily life became widespread. The upper classes and the increasingly wealthier class of merchants copied the Persians in their excessive demand for artistically produced jewelry, a rich output was produced which was decorated with extremely fine workmanship. The most important jewelry-manufacturing centers of the age were Antioch (modern Antakya), Lapsakos (modern Lapseki), and Alexandria (in Egypt).

Rich, Exciting, Colorful Jewelry

The variety of forms of jewelry increased during the Hellenistic Age, most of which were excessively complex arrangements. As is the case in sculpture and the other plastic arts, these striking, effective features are also to be observed in jewelry.

An important innovation during this period was the entry of color into the art of jewelry. Although semi-precious stones were rarely employed in Classical Greek jewelry, the use of colored stone, glass, and enamelling in Hellenistic Age jewelry gains for it a bright and sparkling appearance. The most popular stones were carnelians, garnets, chalcedony, quartz, amethysts, and emeralds, which were used together with pearls, fired ceramics and enamel. This development is a product of the influence of Anatolian, Middle Eastern, and Egyptian cultures. The technology of jewelry was quite superior. Filigree and granulation adornments reached the delicacy of Late Etruscan art.

The motif known as the Knot of Hercules, consisting of two intertwined loops, is rarely encountered in ancient Egyptian and Minoan jewelry, but during the Hellenistic Age jewelry it began to be widely used as a symbol of health and happiness.

The Use of Animal and Human Figures in Jewelry

During the Hellenistic Age the forms of earrings changed entirely. Crescent and boat-shaped earrings, which were quite popular throughout the long period from the Bronze Age to the Classical Age, began to be abandoned in the 4^th Century B.C. The most characteristic earring forms of this period are ring-shaped with human or animal heads (bulls, wild goats, lions, etc.) on their extremities.

The circular parts of these earrings are made of three or four gold wires twisted together with their ends beaten together and drawn out. The extremity of the ring fits into a smaller ring located below the head. The figures of animal or human heads were made in two parts using a beating technique and joined. Between them was placed a filler which prevented them from being damaged. This type of earring was further enriched at the beginning of the 1^st Century B.C. with the addition of pendants and colored stone beads, and dolphins were added to the animals whose heads were employed.

Another new type of earring were those in the form of rosettes and pendants. Pendants have motifs such as the heads of Nikes, Eros, and Bacchantes as well as amphorae. Knot-shaped earrings enjoyed a brief popularity but disappeared by the end of the 3^rd Century B.C. Crowns made of golden laurel or oak leaves were ceremonial jewelry from men which was popular during the Classical Period. These were enriched in the Hellenistic Age with figures of Nikes and Eros and with the addition of colored stones. Diadems with relief figures were quite common during the early periods of the Hellenistic Age. Under a strong Persian influence in the 2^nd Century B.C., rich diadems decorated with Knots of Hercules, pendants, and colored stones became popular.

During the classical period, necklaces were used which consisted of pendants attached to woven bands of gold wire. These were given a more effective appearance with the addition in the Hellenistic Age of cone motifs together with pendants consisting of human and animal heads and colored stones. In addition to this, new types of necklaces also emerged; necklaces in the form of chains with animal heads attached were a popular type of jewelry in this period.

Necklaces manufactured by joining together geometrically designed parts decorated with colored stones also became widespread during the Late Hellenistic period, and continued into Ramon times.

Bracelets were either hinged and had clasps or else were in one piece in the form of rings. The serpentine bracelets of the Classical Age also continued into the Hellenistic period. In some examples of these, the upper portion of the figure of the snake is in the form of a Triton (a mythological sea creature), while their tails were given the shape of Knots of Hercules.

Rings were designed and produced in various forms, and the use of stones became increasingly more widespread. Stone seal rings engraved with figures make up an important group.

A number of Greek colonies adapted pins and fibulae, the first examples of which are observed in the Bronze Age, to Hellenistic styles.

Developing Gem Technology and the Blue Lady of Pergamon

The Hellenistic Age is a period in which empires changed hands, rose, and fell, but in which local cultures preserved their unique natures. The Hellenistic kingdoms which were established as the empires fell returned to the regional characteristics now melded the Hellenistic crucible. Gem working, a heritage from much earlier periods in Anatolia, continued its existence in the Hellenistic period as well. The heritage of the master craftsmen who produced their Sardian seals, scarabs, and rings stones of such hard gems as chalcedony, carnelian, and opal during the Greco-Persian phase was now taken over in the Kingdom of Pergamon. These important works remaining from this period are proof that the technology was developed to the utmost.

The first of these in a miniature spherical agate vase small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand and which is also hollowed out around the opening. The second work is a chalcedony brooch, stemming from a journey of a thousand years which began in Mesopotamia spreading to the civilisations of Anatolia, Egypt and Greece, and which may serve as a symbol of the summit at Pergamon of such techniques as engraved rings stones, and brooches with their figures carved in relief. This piece, which we propose here be called the "Blue Lady of Pergamon", like the previous small vase is in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

It is a pity that we lack more Anatolian examples from this period in which such superior works were produced. For as we know from the book on the subject of gems by the natural historian Theophrastus, who was born on the Island of Lesbos in 372 B.C. and was a student of the Platonic School and of Aristotle, sards, sardonyx, and a host of other gems took their names from their presence and artistic production in Anatolia.

Source: Antika; The Turkish Journal of Collectable Art, March 1986, Issue: 12

By M.Yilmaz Savascin-Altan Ture

Coins as Antiques

The iron or bronze mould for minting stamp or decoration on valuable metals, the stamp or decoration minted on metal, and minted metal money is called "coin".

The usage of coins as a means of exchange, guaranteed by the minting of the official stamp of the state, goes back only 27 centuries. But the history of exchange is as old as the history of mankind. As generally accepted today, the first coin was used by the Lydians in Western Anatolia circa 640-630 B.C. Those coins which were made of electrum found in river beds and which were minted with only very simple decoration by the technique of the age, are valuable remains from the Lydian Kingdom to our day. Although the metal ingots or rods which were previously used as a means of exchange suit to the qualities in our description, it is accepted that they were converted into round coins due to the usage difficulties presented by ingots or rods, and the first coins in that shape were the ones made of electrum. The fact that the medallions and souvenir coins prepared for the 18th European Council's Exhibition of Anatolian Civilisations were decorated with this first coin minted in Anatolia accentuates the value of electrum.

The coins bearing the portrait of the king and sometimes the queen, or the detailed illustration of temples, ceremonies, plants and sacred animals, are documents of the most proximity to facts covering an era 22-25 centuries prior to our age written sources about which are not available. The coins with a long past until our day, are selected as objects for collection by a great majority, because they can easily be found and carried (due to their small size). The fact that coins are helpful for the History of Art by reflecting some characteristics of their age and the concerned state, and are helpful for History by means of the information they bear, is a sufficient proof of their being one of the most precious sources.

It is possible to perceive in the coins the degree of mastery of the engraver who made the moulds by quite simple methods until the 17th century. It is observed that the calligraphy style is also reflected on the coin by the mastery of the same engraver. Unfortunately, we do not find the names of these masters on their works. The masters who by engraving on the coins immortalised kings, rare plants, ceremonies, gods and contests, did not, with a few exceptions, engrave their names (or signs) on the coins. We can find some names only after the official mint was established and coining became easier and orderly. Nevertheless, we more often find those names and signs on medals. Since every state and principality had the right to mint coins, the coin collectioners can occupy themselves in a vast field. Usually the demonetised coins gain antique value. The collectioner who collects ancient Rome coins, Greek coins, Ottoman coins etc, makes an order related to the town and date of minting. Collections based on different evaluations may also be formed. There are as many kinds of coins as states found on earth. The abundance of quantity and the vast field of circulation covering even the farthest countries by means of trade enabled the spread of the coins. Their being made of valuable metals provided the vast circulation throughout the world.

The small probability of breaking and thus devaluation on one hand, and the great possibility of theft and conversion into ingot by melting on the other hand are the respective advantages and disadvantages of coins as objects of collection. But considering the ambition of search and the enthusiasm of learning that it provokes in the collectioners, it may most possibly be said that the universally most widespread kind of collection together with philatelism is coin collecting.

Source : Antika, The Turkish Journal of Collectable Art, October 1985, Issue 7

By : Tuncay Aykut