Phrygia from c. 1180 to 700 bce

The early Phrygians probably were not organized in one strong and centrally governed kingdom. Their origins and the affiliations of their language are still enshrouded in mystery. Greek tradition—still in many cases the best source available—usually dates their migration into Anatolia from Europe about the period of the Trojan War (early 12th century bce), and the Greeks were convinced that the Phrygians came from Macedonia and Thrace. Thus, the Phrygian language once was believed to be related to Thracian or Illyrian. Most linguists, however, now view Phrygian as a separate Indo-European language that shares a number of isoglosses with ancient Greek.

From the middle of the 8th century bce, the Phrygians were almost certainly the people called Mushki by the Assyrians, though it is possible that the Assyrians had earlier used that name as a label for northern tribes of various affiliations, in which case the name might also include newly arrived Armenians. The area occupied by the Phrygians in that early period (12th–9th century bce) is uncertain; many authorities believe they were confined to the area west of the Kızıl River. Parts of the former Hittite capital, Boğazköy, were reoccupied well before 800 bce. The new settlement was an open unfortified collection of small, often one-room, houses. The occupants apparently were dissociated from and unaware of the great Hittite past, but it is not certain that they were Phrygians.

By the 8th century the Phrygians had formed a centrally organized kingdom in the west with its centres at Gordium and Midas City. Their three main areas of settlement were the hilly country between modern Eskişehir and Afyon; the central regions around their capital, Gordium; and the region around Ancyra (modern Ankara), where Phrygian tombs and architectural remains of the 8th–6th century have been found. To the east, settlements such as Alaca Hüyük, Boğazköy-Hattusas, and Pazarlı temporarily belonged to the Phrygian sphere of influence. Alişar Hüyük and Çalapverdi were in a kind of no-man’s-land between the Phrygians and their Luwian neighbours to the east. The Kaska by that time probably had penetrated into the region between the Kızıl and the upper Euphrates River. At the time of its zenith in the late 8th century, the Phrygian kingdom made up so large a part of Anatolia that geographically it can in a sense be characterized as the political heir to the Hittite empire. The invasion of the Cimmerians from beyond the Caucasus at the beginning of the 7th century bce, however, prevented the full realization of that possibility. Excavations in Gordium and in the neighbouring burial tumuli provide evidence of the great wealth of the Phrygian rulers, reflected in the Greek legends about the Phrygian king Midas, while excavations in Midas City provide insight into later Phrygian culture.

Phrygia’s relations with Assyria are attested to by Assyrian documents. A letter of King Sargon II (ruled 721–705 bce) to the Assyrian provincial governor of Que, apparently dating to 709 bce, indicates a temporary collaboration between the two powers on an equal basis. Assyro-Phrygian relations, however, were not always friendly; between 715 and 709 bce the provincial governor of Que twice fought the Phrygians before finally achieving success in 709. Sargon II himself had undertaken a campaign against them in 715. Between 718 and 709, a number of East Anatolian and North Syrian Luwian princes sought help from Phrygia in a failed attempt to protect themselves from Assyrian expansionism. The Luwian states, however, were defeated and turned into Assyrian dependencies. According to the official Assyrian interpretation, King Midas in 709 sent an embassy to Sargon offering submission. During the reign of Sargon’s successor, Sennacherib (704–681), the Cimmerians swept through Anatolia, bringing an end to Phrygia as a major political power. Tradition has it that Midas then committed suicide, and some archaeologists have tried to identify a royal tomb excavated at Gordium as that of the legendary king. Evidence of the Cimmerian destruction of the city is unmistakable. After about 690 the site was abandoned; late in the 7th or early in the 6th century bce it was reinhabited and a new city was built. That late Gordium functioned as the centre of a provincial district, probably limited to the upper valley of the Sangarius River.

Excavations at Gordium show that the building and fortification, woodcutting, metalwork, and ivory carving techniques of the Phrygians had reached a high level of perfection. The excellence of Phrygian textiles is known from ancient writings. Cauldrons with bullhead attachments show the influence of Urartian craftsmanship, but the differences are significant enough to indicate an independent local school of bronze working. Other objects reflect the influence of Assyria. Bronze fibulae (clasps), traditionally held to have been a Phrygian invention, have been found in great numbers. Evidence that the Phrygians, through King Midas, had contacts with Greek coastal cities of western Anatolia is provided by Greek sources, which also show that Midas was married to a Greek woman from Aeolic Cyme and was the first non-Greek ruler to send offerings to the oracle of Delphi.

Two main types of pottery have been found at sites associated with Phrygia, one polychrome with geometric designs and the other mainly gray or red monochrome. Some archaeologists believe that the polychrome variety, first found in eastern Anatolia and usually called Early Phrygian or Alişar IV, is actually Luwian; it is certain that there was extensive cultural contact between the eastern Phrygians and their Luwian neighbours. Geometric patterns typical of Phrygian sculpture appear in Luwian rock reliefs of İvriz Harabesi and Bor. Conversely, Luwian influence clearly is present in Phrygian sculptures found at Ankara. There is a cultural, if not a political, division in this period between more purely native Phrygians in the west and the eastern Phrygians, with their neo-Hittite affiliations.

Before the middle of the 8th century bce, the Phrygians adopted an alphabetic script ultimately derived from the Phoenician alphabet. There is some question as to whether the Phrygians acquired their alphabet from a Greek source in the west or south or whether the Phrygian form of the alphabet was the parent of the Greek. The first supposition seems more likely, since the Greeks probably had more contact with the seagoing Phoenicians than did the inland Phrygians. The oldest Phrygian inscriptions found at Gordium date from the second half of the 8th century bce. Another inscription at Tyana from the same general period, but perhaps slightly later, seems to refer to King Midas. His name, or possibly his title, is mentioned on the stone. Toward the end of the 8th century bce, Büyükkale, the citadel of Boğazköy-Hattusas, undoubtedly was a Phrygian settlement. In the early 7th century, perhaps as a result of the Cimmerian invasion, a new system of fortification was added. Later in that century the settlement extended beyond the citadel to cover most of the area of the former Hittite capital. The Phrygian character of this city is clearly shown by graffiti in Phrygian script and especially by a cult image of Cybele, the main Phrygian goddess, found in a niche at the southeast gate of the citadel. Cybele, the “Great Mother of the Gods,” was similar to the goddess known to the Luwians as Kubaba, who played an important role in the religion of Carchemish. The importance of Cybele seems to have increased during the Phrygian period, and the statue of her at Boğazköy seems to show the influence of 6th-century Greek art, as do comparable cult statues from Gordium, Ayaş (west of Ankara), and Ankara.