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List of ancient peoples of Anatolia

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Preclassical Age regions of Anatolia/Asia Minor with main settlements.
Classical regions of Asia Minor/Anatolia
Regions of Asia Minor/Anatolia, c. 500 BC. Aegean Greek settlements italicised

This is a list of peoples who inhabited Anatolia in antiquity. The essential purpose of the list is to identify prehistoric cultures in the region but many of the peoples continued to inhabit Anatolia into and through classical and late antiquity, so the actual scope of the list encompasses the history of Anatolia from prehistory to the Eastern Roman Empire (4th to 7th centuries AD), during which transition to the early medieval occurred.

Anatolia was inhabited by numerous peoples and its history is characterised by different waves of population movement. The earliest recorded inhabitants of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians, non-Indo-European peoples who lived in Anatolia as early as c. 2300 BC. Indo-European Hittites came to Anatolia and gradually absorbed the Hattians and Hurrians c. 2000 – c. 1700 BC. Besides Hittites, Anatolian peoples included Luwians, Palaic peoples and Lydians. They spoke Anatolian languages. Other incoming people include Armenians, Greeks, Phrygians and Thracians[citation needed].

Ancient Assyrians spoke multiple languages such as Akkadian language, Sumerian and Aramaic languages

The Hattians occupied the land of Hatti in central Anatolia and are documented at least as early as the empire of Sargon of Akkad (c. 2300 BC).[1] Possibly connected to Northwest Caucasians.

  • Mitanni (seem to have been Hurrian with an Indo-Aryan ruling class)
  • Isuwans (seem to have been a mixed Anatolian, Hurrian, and Mitanni population)
  • Kizzuwatnans
  • Urartu (predecessors of the Armenians, they spoke a language similar to Hurrians)

Western Anatolian

Possible Anatolian (Indo-European) peoples

  • Mysians? (possibly they were more related to the Phrygians, a non Anatolian Indo-European people, and therefore they were possibly not an Anatolian Indo-European people, Mysia was also known as Phrygia Hellespontica, however they probably had a mixing with an Anatolian people closer to the Lydians that would explain contradictory statements by ancient authors)
  • Isuwans? (seem to have been a mixed Anatolian, Hurrian, and Mitanni population)
  • Mysians (possibly they were more related to the Phrygians, a non Anatolian Indo-European people, and therefore they were possibly not an Anatolian Indo-European people, Mysia was also known as Phrygia Hellespontica, however they probably had a mixing with an Anatolian people closer to the Lydians that would explain contradictory statements by ancient authors)

Possible Indo-European peoples

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  • Urumu (Proto-Armenians?), allied with Mushki and Kaskians, possibly Arimi of Greek sources and Arme/Urme/Armini of Urartian sources
  • Mentioned by Assyrians as one of the Nairi tribes inhabiting the Palu or Mush regions, later mentioned by Urartians in the vicinity of Kars Province, probably the Taochoi of Greek sources

Possible Kartvelian peoples

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Possibly connected to Hattians and/or Northwest Caucasians.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Trevor Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites: New Edition, Oxford University Press, 2005. p.12

Further reading

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  • Steadman, Sharon R.; McMahon, Gregory (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195376142.