Periodisation and Terminology in the Central Anatolian Iron Age : Archaeology, History and Audiences

Abstract

This paper considers the complexities of chronology, periodisation and terminology in the Iron Age of the Anatolian Plateau, and particularly of the central portion of the region which lays to the east and north of the Kizilirmak (the Red River). Cultural and historical trajectories in this highland area were not always parallel to those in adjacent areas, such as Phrygia or the lands of Tabal, and notably different to more distant regions, including for example Assyria, Urartu, Persia or Lydia. Further, terminologies which might seem less than fully appropriate have become inexorably embedded in archaeological literature. There appears to be no viable alternative to the current situation in which each major excavation develops its own site-specific terms and chronological schemes.