HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS

When the Phrygians emerged as a political entity in the middle of the eighth century BC, they occupied the central part of Anatolia. They were often settled on sites which were previously occupied by the Hittites (Gordion, the city of Midas, Boğazköy, etc.).

Their arrival has long been associated with the collapse of the Hittite Empire (around 1200 BC). However, archeological findings more often than not reveal a hiatus on the relevant sites between the last Hittite level, generally punctuated by a catastrophe involving fire, and the first Phrygian level. In Hattusas/Boğazköy, the capital of the empire, following a fire on the citadel, Büyükkale (c. 1180 BC), about four centuries of abandonment seem to have preceded the Phrygian occupation (see Gunter 1991:106). In Gordion, however, where no break is observed between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, the first traces of a “European” presence are found from the very start of the first millennium (see Sams 1994).

Even so, Tiglathpilesar I of Assur (1112–1072 BC)speaks of his battles against the Mushkis, on the upper Tigris (cf. Der kleine Pauly, vol. IV, col. 822, s.v. Phryger [G. Neumann]).