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History of Anatolia


The history of Anatolia (Asia Minor) can be roughly subdivided into prehistory, Ancient Near East (Bronze Age and Early Iron Age), Classical Anatolia, Hellenistic Anatolia, Byzantine Anatolia, the age of the Crusades followed by the gradual Seljuk/Ottoman conquest in the 13th to 14th centuries, Ottoman Anatolia (14th to 19th centuries) and the modern history of the Republic of Turkey.

In 2014 a stone tool was found in the Gediz River that was securely dated to 1.2 million years ago. The 27,000 years old homo sapiens footprints of Kula and Karain Cave are samples for human existence in Anatolia, in this period.

Because of its strategic location at the intersection of Asia and Europe, Anatolia has been the center of several civilizations since prehistoric times. Neolithic settlements include Çatalhöyük, Çayönü, Nevalı Çori, Hacılar, Göbekli Tepe, and Mersin.

By this time, bronze metallurgy spread to Anatolia from the Transcaucasian Kura-Araxes culture in the late 4th millennium BCE. Anatolia remained fully in the prehistoric period until it entered the sphere of influence of the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BCE under Sargon I. The interest of Akkad in the region as far as it is known was for exporting various materials for manufacturing. While Anatolia was well endowed with copper ores, there is no trace as yet of substantial workings of the tin required to make bronze in Bronze-Age Anatolia.Akkad suffered problematic climate changes in Mesopotamia, as well as a reduction in available manpower that affected trade. This led to the fall of the Akkadians around 2150 BCE at the hands of the Gutians.


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