[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
This edited volume is dedicated to Geoffrey (Geoff) and Françoise Summers and their contribution to the archaeology of Anatolia. Editors and contributors are colleagues and former students, including members of the Kerkenes Dağı project, which they conducted for several decades. As such, it is fitting that the focus is on the Middle to Late Iron Age, a time of rising and failing kingdoms and empires that results in a particularly complex period in Anatolian history. This chronological focus on the period from the late eighth to the first half of the sixth century BCE is made explicit by the title’s reference to the span of time from the rule of Midas to the conquest of Cyrus the Great (ca 700–550 BCE). The volume brings together synthetic and summarizing studies together with new case studies.
It is wonderful to see a publication celebrating Geoff and Françoise Summers. To say that their research and teaching was important is an understatement—their contribution to the archaeology of Anatolian highlands has been immense. Their studies range widely from detailed and site-specific to broad and interpretative, often joining up separate pieces at the interface of Greek and Anatolian history of the pre-Classical period, which presents many problems related to questions of typology and chronology. Their engagement was also methodological: they were early adopters of landscape reconnaissance techniques via remote sensing and took part in foundational early experimentation with the method. The key to their contribution to Anatolian studies, however, lies in the manner in which they carried out their research: their dedicated two-decades-long work at the fascinating site of Kerkenes Dağı went beyond focusing on archaeological research, eco-tourism, and sustainable building technologies. It welcomed and hosted generations of students and colleagues.
In the informative introduction Catherine Draycott outlines the scope of the volume and its structure. Following a bibliographic list of the Summerses’ scholarly work, the volume is organized in loosely thematic sections, first geographically (places where the Summerses did research), starting with Kerkenes Dağı and the Halys Bend, Phrygia, and eventually expanding further towards the west and east, from Troad to Cilicia, and then thematically (areas in which the Summerses made intellectual contributions), focusing on cultural practices, chronology and historical tradition. The final section presents personal reflections from Geoff’s teachers and an epilogue (also by Draycott).
The core of the volume opens with Kerkenes Dağı. Chapter 3 (Scott Branting et al.) outlines the historiography of the site’s exploration and provides a useful guiding discussion of the formation of our understanding of Kerkenes as a short-lived, densely occupied, planned urban space. It also demonstrates the impact of cutting-edge technology adopted in Kerkenes, such as aerial imagery and geophysical prospection, combined with early transition to spatial digital recording to supplement established methods of survey and excavation.
Chapter 4 (Jürgen Seeher and Hermann Genz) centers on Boğazköy, the Late Bronze Age Hittite center of the region. Before Kerkenes, Hattuša was identified as a good candidate for the city of Pteria, known only from Greek ancient sources, before the Summerses advanced the argument that Kerkenes would be a better candidate. This chapter summarizes the changes experienced by Iron Age Hattuša. Notable is the evidence for incomers from the north who settled in the imperial Hittite ruins in the Early Iron Age, followed by intensification of activity in the Middle Iron Age in the area of Büyükkaya (so-called Level 4) and a near abandonment (Level 3) and shift of activity to Büyükkale (Levels II-I), Northwest Slope, Nişantepe, and the Südburg.
Chapters 5 (Kim C. Codella and Mary M. Voigt) and 6 (G. Kenneth Sams) deal with aspects of the development of Middle Phrygian Gordion, the Early Iron Age center of the Anatolia plateau. Chapter 5 presents a detailed overview of the excavations of domestic structures of the Middle Phrygian Levels (YHSS 5 and 4) excavated under the directorship of Voigt and provides historical context to the work from the 1950s. It explains the reasoning behind changes to Rodney Young’s original dating, refining the chronology and stratigraphy of several domestic units of the eighth to the sixth centuries BCE. It also discusses the architecture and layout of household structures and the characteristics of activities such as cooking, storage, and even metalworking in three distinct neighborhoods: the Northwest and Southwest zones on the Citadel Mound as well as the Southern Lower Town. This comparison usefully demonstrates how the differences can be understood as proxies for different characteristics of inhabitants and their socio-economic status.
While Chapter 5 focuses on the micro-scale of household units and changes thereabout, Chapter 6 takes a more expansive view and discusses correspondences between different areas of the capital and its surroundings after its destruction in 800 BCE. Sams suggests redating several forms of material culture at Gordion—pottery, sculpture, and small finds related to a breadth of activities associated with the realms of both the living and the dead—into the seventh century BCE. Like many chapters throughout the volume, it contributes to the question of the Cimmerian activities in Anatolia and posits a possible Cimmerian incursion at Gordion around 644 BCE, corresponding with the abandonment of houses on the Northeast Ridge and the destruction layers in the South Cellar and the PP Building.
Pivoting west, Chapter 7 (Carolyn C. Aslan) visits the late eighth and the first half of the seventh century BCE, when evidence for activity at Troy and in the Troad increases. This can be interpreted as a result of more activity, as suggested by the author, but without divorcing it from the generally increased visibility of Late Geometric and early Archaic material assemblages. The mid-seventh century BCE is a turning point in the cultural development of Troy. It is marked by destruction and a shift away from the cult buildings associated with LBA areas of use, and increasing activity and Aegean material culture in the Troad. Rather than assigning it to the phenomenon of Greek ‘colonization’, Aslan suggests that this area may have instead opened to the strengthening and expanding networks of trade and interaction beyond the Troad.
Travelling further east, Chapter 8 (Sanna Aro) discusses the end of Tabalian and Tuwanian polities and sheds light on the textual and material disparity between the eighth and the seventh centuries BCE. Considering regional developments in pottery, sculpture, and inscriptions, she suggests that some of the eighth century BCE material should be dated to the seventh century BCE—an analogous argument to that of Sams and a topic also close to some threads of the Summerses’ scholarship. Indeed, the struggle to identify material changes of the seventh century BCE resonates throughout the volume. This is a complex period in the central and southeastern Anatolian historical trajectory, with many questions related to the form and role of neo-Hittite states, their relationship to Neo-Assyria, and a possible link to the disappearance of the Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions not satisfactorily settled yet.
This theme of dynamics between states and smaller entities is indirectly developed in Chapter 9 (Marie-Henriette Gates and Charles Gates) on the scale of a single settlement, Kinet Höyük, a crucial port on the eastern edge of the Cilician plain. Kinet is a fascinating site, as its material culture often reflects regime changes in the region. This chapter discusses the period between the Assyrian presence and Persian control (late seventh century until the mid-sixth century BCE), and outlines environmental, cultural, and political considerations that enabled a re-calibration of regional trade away from empires in this period. A lull between periods of imperial domination enabled Kinet’s inhabitants to resituate themselves within networks of maritime commerce spurred by the Eastern Aegean communities, as the power vacuum left after Assyrian withdrawal allowed Ionian merchants to expand their activities in this area.
Chapter 10 (Susanne Berndt) discusses rock-cut monuments featuring Matar, the Phrygian mother goddess. The rock-cut facades under consideration all feature several doorframes, often framed by projecting cross beams and in some cases also including lintels, and visually indicate framing taken to represent the architecture of megara, Phrygian elite buildings. Berndt argues that the image of the mother goddess stands inside the chamber by the back wall rather than at the entrance. She advances this reasoning further by suggesting that being able to glimpse the anthropomorphic version of the cult statue was at first restricted, but that the access broadened in the Middle Phrygian period. Phrygian rock-cut façades contained reliefs or statues of the Mother Goddess as if seen through the doorway of a megaron.
Chapter 11 (Yılmaz Selim Erdal) presents evidence for trepanation during the Iron Age in the region surrounding Lake Van, which provides rare examples of this technique in the first millennium BCE Anatolia. The five presented examples show no-to-minimal healing, and the author uses later Greek medical texts to suggest positive motives for the procedure. These might have ranged from therapeutic procedures to training purposes.
Returning to Kerkenes, Chapter 12 (Peter Ian Kuniholm, Charlotte L. Pearson and Tomasz J. Ważny) provides a thorough update on dendrochronological investigations on samples dated between the tenth and the seventh centuries BCE. Their discussion is a good reminder of the reflective nature required when constructing absolute sequences of this kind, interweaving clear archaeological understanding of stratigraphy with willingness to continually revisit previous results.
Chapter 13 (J. David Hawkins and Mark Weeden) turns the reader’s attention to the hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions in the Konya region. It reviews Tabalian inscriptions, among which are the much-discussed Kızıldağ-Karadağ group, and contributes further points to the debate on the reading and dating of KIZILDAĞ 4 (assigning it to the twelfth century BCE); KIZILDAĞ 1, 2, and 3 (assigning them to the eighth century BCE); and TOPADA, with its archaizing features (also assigned to the eighth century BCE). This reconstruction would either allow for the presence of two kings named Hartapu four centuries apart or a significant allusion to the earlier period by the eighth century BCE rulers with respect to titulary and writing convention. In an addendum written more closely to the time of publication, the authors argue that the new Harpatu inscription discovered at Türkmenkarahöyük in 2019 would not significantly affect this hypothesis.
While the phantom of the Cimmerians is present throughout the book, it is fully tackled in Chapter 14 (Selim Ferruh Adalı). Adalı thoroughly discusses the presence of Cimmerians in Anatolia, primarily drawing on Assyrian and Greek written sources. Cimmerians loom large in these sources, but the destructions previously assigned to them at Sardis and Gordion have now been divorced from them through close archaeological inspection. Rather, it seems that the migrating steppe people, known in ancient sources cumulatively as the Cimmerians, might have been responsible only for part of the various destructions experienced by cities during the mid-seventh century BCE. While some tribes of the group were indeed of concern to the Assyrians in Eastern Anatolia at the beginning of the second quarter of the seventh century, the chapter concludes that most of their activity shifted westwards under the helm of Lygdamis.
Chapter 15 (Christopher J. Tuplin) considers the presence of another type of intruder in Anatolia—the Medes. Like Adalı, Tuplin cites a range of sources to allow for the possibility of Median presence in Anatolia. He argues for military and political impact of the Medes—not an empire, following modern consensus, but a presence strong enough to leave lasting impact, preserved, for example, in their association with the Persians in minds of the ‘others’ (Greeks and Egyptians).
The last two chapters contain meditations by the Summerses’ mentors, contributions that represent some of their last writings. Chapter 16 (Charles Burney) stays in the same zone and time as many previous chapters and follows the beginning of an eclipse of the kingdom of Urartu (in the seventh and the early sixth century BCE). Its slipping position in the increasingly complicated melee of military competition and alliances in a fraught political situation supplements previous chapters. Chapter 17 (Oscar White Muscarella) concludes the core of the volume with anecdotes on cultural heritage. Muscarella discusses his role in the repatriation effort and presents previously undisclosed information on the Metropolitan Museum’s infamous handling of the so-called Lydian hoard, a collection of objects that were looted from tumuli around Güre in the modern municipality of Uşak.
Finally, the epilogue (Catherine Draycott) weaves together several central themes, making the overall contribution of the collection clear and accessible. The volume, overall, relates to a number of more and less recent debates concerning the study of Iron Age Anatolian archaeology. I suggest less, as the publisher’s production of the volume, which was started just before the pandemic, took a significant time, which affects some of its currency, as most of its contributions were finalized in 2019 and the volume was published in 2023.
Authors and Titles
- Filling in the gaps and joining up the dots of the seventh century BC in Anatolia and beyond: an introduction (Catherine M. Draycott)
- Bibliography of Geoffrey and Françoise Summers (Joseph W. Lehner)
- Exploration of the metropolis at Kerkenes Dağı (Scott Branting, Joseph W. Lehner, Dominique Langis-Barsetti, Tuna Kalaycı, Nilüfer Baturayoğlu Yöney, Yasemin Özarslan, Noël Siver, Nurdan Atalan Çayırezmez and Ben Claasz Coockson)
- The Late Iron Age at Boğazköy (Jürgen Seeher and Hermann Genz)
- Domestic architecture at Middle Phrygian Gordion (Kim C. Codella and Mary M. Voigt)
- Gordion and Phrygia in the seventh century BC (G. Kenneth Sams)
- Troy, the Troad and the Hellespont, 700–550 BC (Carolyn C. Aslan)
- Vanishing kingdoms: Tabal and Tuwana during the seventh century BC (Sanna Aro)
- After the Assyrians, before the Persians: Kinet Höyük and its Cilician context (Marie-Henriette Gates and Charles Gates)
- Epiphany of the Mother Goddess. A renewed examination of the Phrygian rock-cut façades (Susanne Berndt)
- Multiple drills on skulls: trepanation with boring-and-cutting in eastern Anatolia during the Iron Age (Yılmaz Selim Erdal)
- Dendrochronological investigations at Kerkenes and beyond (Peter Ian Kuniholm, Charlotte L. Pearson and Tomasz J Ważny)
- The dating of the Tabalian inscriptions: archaic or archaising? (J. David Hawkins and Mark Weeden)
- The phantom menace? The chronology of Cimmerian expeditions, territories and zones of influence in Anatolia (Selim Ferruh Adalı)
- The Medes in Anatolia: a return visit (Christopher J. Tuplin)
- Urartu in its later age and its external relations (Charles Burney)
- The adventure of the Lydian Hoard (Oscar White Muscarella)
- Epilogue: Reflections and questions on ethno-cultures, polities and dynamics in Anatolia between Midas and Cyrus (Catherine M. Draycott)