During the 900-730 BCE period the region of the Konya Plain was occupied by small independent states, that likely first evolved during the Neo-Hittite period. After the Assyrian invasion they became tribute-sending states to the Mesopotamian Empire but were otherwise "free to rule their states in whatever manner they wished, without interference from the Assyrian king".
[1]
Known as the kingdoms of ’Tabal’, the term an Assyrian administrative designation rather than a political one
[2]
[2]
, there were, according to Assyrian records, 24 of them in the mid-9th century BCE. This number had reduced by the middle of the 8th century, which suggests that the states conquered each other or had otherwise joined together to become larger kingdoms.
[3]
Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in the mid-late 8th century listed five tributaries he possessed in Tabal: Tabal, Atuna, Tuhana, Ishtu(a)nda, and Hupishna.
[4]
Bryce (2012) adds a sixth kingdom to Tabal, Shinuhtu, which is "attested both in Luwian and Assyrian inscriptions dating to the reign of Sargon II. Shinuhtu’s ruler at that time was a man called Kiyakiya (Assyrian Kiakki)."
[4]
The best-known Tabalean principality was Tuhana. Its capital was at the city later known as Tyana whose ruins lie in the modern Turkish village of Kemerhisar; here a stela of king Warpalawas was found in 1860.
[5]
[1]: (Bryce 2012, 243) T Bryce. 2012. The World of The Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
[2]: Competition, and Conflict in a Contested Periphery." in Richardson, Seth. ed. 2010. Rebellions and Peripheries in the Mesopotamian World. American Oriental Series 91. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake.
[3]: (Bryce 2002, 43) T Bryce. 2002. Life and Society in the Hittite World. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
[4]: (Bryce 2012, 141) T Bryce. 2012. The World of The Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
[5]: (Radner 2013) Karen Radner. 2013. Tabal and Phrygia: problem neighbours in the West. Assyrian empire builders. University College London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/countries/tabalandphrygia/
| nominal allegiance to [---] | |
| alliance with [---] |
| Neo-Hittite |
| Assyrian Empire |
| continuity |
| Succeeding: Phrygian Kingdom (tr_phrygian_k) [continuity] | |
| Preceding: Neo-Hittite Kingdoms (tr_neo_hittite_k) [continuity] |
| quasi-polity |
| absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| present |
| unknown |
| present |
| absent |
| present |
| absent |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| present |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| unknown |
| present |
| inferred present |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| inferred present |
| absent |
| unknown |
| present |
| present |
| unknown |
| present |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| present |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| present |
| absent |
| unknown |
| Year Range | Tabal Kingdoms (tr_tabal_k) was in: |
|---|---|
| (900 BCE 837 BCE) | Konya Plain |
"The term ’Tabal’ is something of an Assyrian administrative convenience. A regional designator rather than a political one, Tabal encompassed a number of city-states, whose porous, shifting borders no doubt made the generalization expedient." [1] [2] "Beyond the Taurus there was Tabal, a confederation of minor kingdoms, which at times managed to gain independence. All these states were concentrated in the valleys and the plains between the mountains, and were separated from each other by the Taurus Mountains. Therefore, the states were located in key positions, allowing control over cultivated areas, the necessary routes for communication, and access to those natural resources necessary for the manufacture of iron." [3] "Tabal is employed as a blanket designation in an Assyrian administrative note written sometime between 743 and 738 BC, which lists the tribute payments of nine kings of Tabal" [4]
[1]: (Melville 2010, 87-109) Melville, Sarah. "Kings of Tabal: Politics
[2]: Competition, and Conflict in a Contested Periphery." in Richardson, Seth. ed. 2010. Rebellions and Peripheries in the Mesopotamian World. American Oriental Series 91. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake.
[3]: (Liverani 2014, 451) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London.
[4]: Radner, Karen. 2013. Tabal and Phrygia: problem neighbours in the West. Assyrian empire builders. University College London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/countries/tabalandphrygia/
Northern Tabal: "Its capital may have been located on the site of modern Kululu, which lies 30 km north-east of Kayseri." c837 BCE the capital was probably the royal city, Artulu.
[1]
Tuwana: "Its capital is probably to be identified with Classical Tyana (Kemerhisar), 20 km south-west of modern Nigde, though at one time the royal seat ay have been located at Nahitiya, on the site of Nigde itself."
[2]
"Tuhana is the best known of the Tabalean principalities. Its capital of the same name can be safely identified with the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine city of Tyana whose ruins lie in the modern Turkish village of Kemerhisar, south of Nigde, where a stela of king Warpalawas was found in 1860. Rock monuments in nearby Ivriz and Bulgarmaden mention this king of Tuhana, the latter as the overlord of a local ruler. Finds of Luwian inscriptions suggest the region of Kayseri as the location of Bit-Purutaš/Tabal; the site of Kululu, where monuments of a number of kings of Tabal have been found, is the most likely to correspond to its capital."
[3]
[1]: (Bryce 2012, 142)
[2]: (Bryce 2012, 148)
[3]: Radner, Karen. 2013. Tabal and Phrygia: problem neighbours in the West. Assyrian empire builders. University College London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/countries/tabalandphrygia/
Northern Tabal: "Its capital may have been located on the site of modern Kululu, which lies 30 km north-east of Kayseri." c837 BCE the capital was probably the royal city, Artulu.
[1]
Tuwana: "Its capital is probably to be identified with Classical Tyana (Kemerhisar), 20 km south-west of modern Nigde, though at one time the royal seat ay have been located at Nahitiya, on the site of Nigde itself."
[2]
"Tuhana is the best known of the Tabalean principalities. Its capital of the same name can be safely identified with the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine city of Tyana whose ruins lie in the modern Turkish village of Kemerhisar, south of Nigde, where a stela of king Warpalawas was found in 1860. Rock monuments in nearby Ivriz and Bulgarmaden mention this king of Tuhana, the latter as the overlord of a local ruler. Finds of Luwian inscriptions suggest the region of Kayseri as the location of Bit-Purutaš/Tabal; the site of Kululu, where monuments of a number of kings of Tabal have been found, is the most likely to correspond to its capital."
[3]
[1]: (Bryce 2012, 142)
[2]: (Bryce 2012, 148)
[3]: Radner, Karen. 2013. Tabal and Phrygia: problem neighbours in the West. Assyrian empire builders. University College London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/countries/tabalandphrygia/
mid-9th century BCE Assyrian records suggest Tabal "consisted of a number of small independent states (which may have evolved several centuries earlier) whose rulers became tributaries of Assyria. Shalmaneser claims to have received gifts from twenty-four kings of Tabal during a campaign which he conducted in the region in 837 ... However, by the middle of the following century, many of the states were apparently consolidated into a small number of larger kingdoms."
[1]
Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III lists five kingdoms of Tabal "among his tributaries": Tabal (’Proper’) ... Atuna, Tuhana (Luwian Tuwana), Ishtu(a)nda, and Hupishna ..."
[2]
"To this list of kingdoms in the Tabal region we can add a sixth, Shinuhtu, attested both in Luwian and Assyrian inscriptions dating to the reign of Sargon II. Shinuhtu’s ruler at that time was a man called Kiyakiya (Assyrian Kiakki)."
[2]
"...generally speaking, local rulers were free to rule their states in whatever manner they wished, without interference from the Assyrian king, unless they took actions which were prejudicial to Assyrian interests, such as participation in an anti-Assyrian alliance with other rulers."
[3]
alliances negotiated between Neo-Hittite kingdoms against one another and against the Assyrians
[4]
"What precisely was the nature of Assyrian authority in the west as a consequence of Shalmaneser’s many campaigns there? At this stage, direct Assyrian rule over the local kingdoms had not yet been established. It would be another century or so before these kingdoms were absorbed into the Assyrian provincial system. By and large, the imposition of Assyrian authority over the local states meant that their kings accepted tributary status and made regular payments, in one form or another, into the Assyrian royal coffers, and (or else) conceded the Assyrians access to resource-rich regions, particularly the forested areas of the Levantine and northern Syrian coast. We do not know whether the relationship between a local ruler and the Assyrian king was formalized by a written pact - though in at least some instances there may well have been some form of agreement drawn up. But generally speaking, local rulers were free to rule their states in whatever manner they wished, without interference from the Assyrian king, unless they took actions which were prejudicial to Assyrian interests, such as participation in an anti-Assyrian alliance with other rulers."
[3]
[1]: (Bryce 2002, 43)
[2]: (Bryce 2012, 141)
[3]: (Bryce 2012, 243)
[4]: (Thuesen 2002, 46)
mid-9th century BCE Assyrian records suggest Tabal "consisted of a number of small independent states (which may have evolved several centuries earlier) whose rulers became tributaries of Assyria. Shalmaneser claims to have received gifts from twenty-four kings of Tabal during a campaign which he conducted in the region in 837 ... However, by the middle of the following century, many of the states were apparently consolidated into a small number of larger kingdoms."
[1]
Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III lists five kingdoms of Tabal "among his tributaries": Tabal (’Proper’) ... Atuna, Tuhana (Luwian Tuwana), Ishtu(a)nda, and Hupishna ..."
[2]
"To this list of kingdoms in the Tabal region we can add a sixth, Shinuhtu, attested both in Luwian and Assyrian inscriptions dating to the reign of Sargon II. Shinuhtu’s ruler at that time was a man called Kiyakiya (Assyrian Kiakki)."
[2]
"...generally speaking, local rulers were free to rule their states in whatever manner they wished, without interference from the Assyrian king, unless they took actions which were prejudicial to Assyrian interests, such as participation in an anti-Assyrian alliance with other rulers."
[3]
alliances negotiated between Neo-Hittite kingdoms against one another and against the Assyrians
[4]
"What precisely was the nature of Assyrian authority in the west as a consequence of Shalmaneser’s many campaigns there? At this stage, direct Assyrian rule over the local kingdoms had not yet been established. It would be another century or so before these kingdoms were absorbed into the Assyrian provincial system. By and large, the imposition of Assyrian authority over the local states meant that their kings accepted tributary status and made regular payments, in one form or another, into the Assyrian royal coffers, and (or else) conceded the Assyrians access to resource-rich regions, particularly the forested areas of the Levantine and northern Syrian coast. We do not know whether the relationship between a local ruler and the Assyrian king was formalized by a written pact - though in at least some instances there may well have been some form of agreement drawn up. But generally speaking, local rulers were free to rule their states in whatever manner they wished, without interference from the Assyrian king, unless they took actions which were prejudicial to Assyrian interests, such as participation in an anti-Assyrian alliance with other rulers."
[3]
[1]: (Bryce 2002, 43)
[2]: (Bryce 2012, 141)
[3]: (Bryce 2012, 243)
[4]: (Thuesen 2002, 46)
Tabal region: "There is nothing in the material record to indicate that it was significantly affected by the upheavals at the end of the Late Bronze Age, or by the collapse of the Hittite empire. Certainly there is no evidence of a shift of peoples from it in this period." [1] Tuwana: "Conceivably, the kingdom arose in the wake of the Hittite empire’s fall, with a population perhaps largely made up of Luwian elements from Tuwanuwa." [2]
[1]: (Bryce 2002, 43)
[2]: (Bryce 2012, 148)
"According to Greek tradition, the earliest Phrygians were immigrants from Macedon and Thrace. ... In all probability, the references to the Phrygians in the Iliad are anachronistic. The arrival of this people in Anatolia almost certainly dates to the early Iron Age, to the decade immediately following the Hittite kingdom’s collapse early in the 12th century. ... Probably by the end of the millennium, a Phrygian state had begun to evolve." [1]
[1]: (Bryce 2002, 39-40)
Tabal region: "There is nothing in the material record to indicate that it was significantly affected by the upheavals at the end of the Late Bronze Age, or by the collapse of the Hittite empire. Certainly there is no evidence of a shift of peoples from it in this period." [1] Tuwana: "Conceivably, the kingdom arose in the wake of the Hittite empire’s fall, with a population perhaps largely made up of Luwian elements from Tuwanuwa." [2]
[1]: (Bryce 2002, 43)
[2]: (Bryce 2012, 148)
mid-9th century BCE Assyrian records suggest Tabal "consisted of a number of small independent states (which may have evolved several centuries earlier) whose rulers became tributaries of Assyria. Shalmaneser claims to have received gifts from twenty-four kings of Tabal during a campaign which he conducted in the region in 837 ... However, by the middle of the following century, many of the states were apparently consolidated into a small number of larger kingdoms."
[1]
"from the time written records begin for the individual states that lay within the land called Hatti in Iron Age texts, it is clear that there was no sense of these states constituting a single political entity, or any form of political federation. Each was entirely independent from the others, each had its own autonomous ruler."
[2]
[1]: (Bryce 2002, 43)
[2]: (Bryce 2012, 52)
in squared kilometers. Total area divided by 20 (approximate number of kings). 110,000 / 20 = 5,500 km2 for size of average polity.
Assyrian annals refer to about 20 kings paying tribute following the invasion of 836 BCE and this number roughly corresponds to the number of early Iron Age sites found in the region. "The large number of kings mentioned implies that the area was divided into city-states controlled by autonomous or semi-autonomous rulers. Since Tuatti is referred to by name and apparently held sway over several towns, one suspects that he was the most powerful of these kings."
[1]
[2]
"The exact location and extent of the ancient polities remain stubbornly elusive, but sources indicate that greater Tabal was bounded in the north by the southern bend of the Halys River, in the west by Phrygia, in the east by Tilgarimmu, Melid, and Urartu, and in the south by Hilakku and Quwe."
[1]
[2]
"The region called Tabal in the Iron Age extended over a large part of south-eastern Anatolia, southwards from the southern curve of the Halys river (Kizil Irmak) toward the Taurus mountains, westwards to the Konya Plain and eastwards towards the anti-Taurus range. The population of the region was very likely a predominantly Luwian one, as it had been throughout the Late Bronze Age and perhaps already in the early second millennium."
[3]
"Tabal covered much of what was called the Lower Land in Late Bronze Age Hittite texts, including the territory of the Classical Tyanitis. Westwards, it extended to the Konya Plain, encompassing the sites now known as Kizildag and Karadag."
[4]
"The Neo-Hittite states varied considerably in size, from a few to several hundred square kilometres. The smaller Tabalian kingdoms are examples of the former, Hamath and Bit-Burutash of the latter."
[5]
Northern Tabal (Tabal ’Proper’) was the largest of the Tabal kingdoms, probably contained sub-regions, "it corresponded roughly to the modern provinces of Kayseri and Nigde."
[6]
[7]
[1]: (Melville 2010, 87-109) Melville, Sarah. "Kings of Tabal: Politics
[2]: Competition, and Conflict in a Contested Periphery." in Richardson, Seth. ed. 2010. Rebellions and Peripheries in the Mesopotamian World. American Oriental Series 91. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake.
[3]: (Bryce 2012, 141)
[4]: (Bryce 2002, 43)
[5]: (Bryce 2012, 80)
[6]: (Bryce 2012, 142)
[7]: (Bryce 2012, 141-142)
levels.
1. City
2. Town"Since Tuatti is referred to by name and apparently held sway over several towns, one suspects that he was the most powerfulof these kings."
[1]
[2]
3. Village
[1]: (Melville 2010, 87-109) Melville, Sarah. "Kings of Tabal: Politics
[2]: Competition, and Conflict in a Contested Periphery." in Richardson, Seth. ed. 2010. Rebellions and Peripheries in the Mesopotamian World. American Oriental Series 91. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake.
levels.
The Assyrians in 836 BCE found the local settlements fortified "so it is likely that fortifications were built in response to local conditions, rather than foreign invasion."
[1]
[2]
The armed forces, likewise, might equally have been well-organized, albeit on a small scale.
1. King
2. Chief officer, general, or head retainer3. Another level of command?4. Individual soldier
[1]: (Melville 2010, 87-109) Melville, Sarah. "Kings of Tabal: Politics
[2]: Competition, and Conflict in a Contested Periphery." in Richardson, Seth. ed. 2010. Rebellions and Peripheries in the Mesopotamian World. American Oriental Series 91. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake.
levels.
Assyrian annals refer to about 20 kings paying tribute following the invasion of 836 BCE and this number roughly corresponds to the number of early Iron Age sites found in the region. "The large number of kings mentioned implies that the area was divided into city-states controlled by autonomous or semi-autonomous rulers. Since Tuatti is referred to by name and apparently held sway over several towns, one suspects that he was the most powerfulof these kings."
[1]
[2]
1. King
Rulers of Northern Tabal claimed the ruling titles "Great King" and "Hero"
[3]
_Central administration_
2.Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: "The focus of each state was an administrative centre where the royal seat was located."
[4]
3.
4.
_Provincial government_
2. Sub-kingNorthern Tabal (Tabal ’Proper’): the largest of the kingdoms, probably contained sub-regions
[5]
Tuwana: "Tuwana’s importance in the 8th century, if not also earlier, is indicated by the fact that it contained at least one sub-kingdom, as attested in the inscription CHLI I: X.45. BULGARMADEN (521-5)."
[6]
3. Local leader
[1]: (Melville 2010, 87-109) Melville, Sarah. "Kings of Tabal: Politics
[2]: Competition, and Conflict in a Contested Periphery." in Richardson, Seth. ed. 2010. Rebellions and Peripheries in the Mesopotamian World. American Oriental Series 91. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake.
[3]: (Bryce 2012, 142)
[4]: (Bryce 2012, 80)
[5]: (Bryce 2012, 141-142)
[6]: (Bryce 2012, 148)
The Assyrians in 836 BCE found the local settlements fortified "so it is likely that fortifications were built in response to local conditions, rather than foreign invasion." [1] [2] The armed forces, likewise, might equally have been well-organized, albeit on a small scale, but the evidence is not conclusive.
[1]: (Melville 2010, 87-109) Melville, Sarah. "Kings of Tabal: Politics
[2]: Competition, and Conflict in a Contested Periphery." in Richardson, Seth. ed. 2010. Rebellions and Peripheries in the Mesopotamian World. American Oriental Series 91. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake.
unknown. The Assyrians in 836 BCE found the local settlements fortified "so it is likely that fortifications were built in response to local conditions, rather than foreign invasion." [1] [2] The armed forces, likewise, might equally have been well-organized, albeit on a small scale. However, this does not mean the chief officers were full-time, specialist military officers, who did not also have other jobs.
[1]: (Melville 2010, 87-109) Melville, Sarah. "Kings of Tabal: Politics
[2]: Competition, and Conflict in a Contested Periphery." in Richardson, Seth. ed. 2010. Rebellions and Peripheries in the Mesopotamian World. American Oriental Series 91. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake.
City-states must have had small scale administrations and were unlikely to have needed examination system to sort candidates even if such a concept existed at the time, of which we do not know.
Location very close to Tabal kingdoms: "A unique document marking this final phase of independence is the bilingual inscription(in Phoenician and Luwian hieroglyphs) from Karatepe. It was written in the second half of the eighth century BC. The inscription belongs to a certain Asatiwata, who celebrated the construction of his fortress, Asatiwatiya (Karatepe) .. Asatiwata was not an independent ruler, but a vassal of Urikki of the ’House of Mopsos’, a king of Que (known as Adana in Hittite and Danunim in Phoenician)" [1]
[1]: (Liverani 2014, 453-454) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London.
Luwian inscriptions [1] "shared cultural traditions that are best demonstrated by the numerous Luwian inscriptions and rock reliefs found in the Western Taurus." [2]
[1]: (Bryce 2002, 43)
[2]: Radner, Karen. 2013. Tabal and Phrygia: problem neighbours in the West. Assyrian empire builders. University College London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/countries/tabalandphrygia/
’Urartu’s craftsmen used iron picks and hammers to forge horizontal planes out of bedrock on which to erect the empire’s numerous and imposing stone fortresses.’ [1]
[1]: Lori Khatchadourian, ‘The Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 480
the stone is shaped with iron picks and hammers, not bound together with mortar. ’Urartu’s craftsmen used iron picks and hammers to forge horizontal planes out of bedrock on which to erect the empire’s numerous and imposing stone fortresses.’ [1]
[1]: Lori Khatchadourian, ‘The Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 480
Urartu’s craftsmen used iron picks and hammers to forge horizontal planes out of bedrock on which to erect the empire’s numerous and imposing stone fortresses. [1]
[1]: Lori Khatchadourian, ‘The Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 480
Cannon equipped reinforced star forts are not yet in use
Based on previous polity fortifications and the stone fortresses built in this time, it seems safe to say the history of complex fortifications continue here
This code was previously omitted so I added it here and coded as present as bronze had been in use by the previous polity and iron swords have been uncovered in Anatolia during this time [1]
[1]: Altan Çilingiroğlu, ‘Ayanis: An Iron age Site in the East’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 1060
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records. [1] Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone". [2] Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE. [3] The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did. [4] Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE. [5] The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons. [6] There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300
[2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi.
[3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
[4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill.
[5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley
[6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
The counter-weight trebuchet was first used by the Byzantines in 1165 CE.
‘Knives, daggers, swords, arrowheads, spearheads, armor scales, and helmets discovered in these fortresses were produced on a mass scale and speak to an impressive military apparatus, unprecedented for this region. [1] "Composite bows are known from both Mesopotamia and the Great Steppe from the III millennium BCE. The Scythian bow was different from the Mesopotamian one primarily in its overall dimensions - it was smaller so that it could be used from the horseback. At the same time, self bows were also in use, but because of their large size they were not suitable for use by horse riders." [2]
[1]: Lori Khatchadourian, ‘The Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 480
[2]: Sergey A Nefedov, RAN Institute of History and Archaeology, Yekaterinburg, Russia. Personal Communication to Peter Turchin. January 2018.
"Composite bows are known from both Mesopotamia and the Great Steppe from the III millennium BCE. The Scythian bow was different from the Mesopotamian one primarily in its overall dimensions - it was smaller so that it could be used from the horseback. At the same time, self bows were also in use, but because of their large size they were not suitable for use by horse riders." [1]
[1]: Sergey A Nefedov, RAN Institute of History and Archaeology, Yekaterinburg, Russia. Personal Communication to Peter Turchin. January 2018.
Not mentioned in literature and extremely unlikely to be present, being a weapon of the Americas
Swords had long been in use and have been uncovered in Anatolia during this time. [1] "All armies after the seventeenth century B.C.E. carried the sword, but in none was it a major weapon of close combat; rather, it was used when the soldier’s primary weapons, the spear and axe, were lost or broken." [2]
[1]: Altan Çilingiroğlu, ‘Ayanis: An Iron age Site in the East’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 1060
[2]: (Gabriel 2002, 26-27) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport.
‘Knives, daggers, swords, arrowheads, spearheads, armor scales, and helmets discovered in these fortresses were produced on a mass scale and speak to an impressive military apparatus, unprecedented for this region. [1] Spear-using phalanx first used in Sumer 2500 BCE. The phalanx was in use until the 1st century BCE. [2]
[1]: Lori Khatchadourian, ‘The Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 480
[2]: (Gabriel 2002, 25) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport.
‘Knives, daggers, swords, arrowheads, spearheads, armor scales, and helmets discovered in these fortresses were produced on a mass scale and speak to an impressive military apparatus, unprecedented for this region. [1]
[1]: Lori Khatchadourian, ‘The Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 480
Based on previous polities, it is clear horses were a large part of warfare in the region, particularly chariots
‘Knives, daggers, swords, arrowheads, spearheads, armor scales, and helmets discovered in these fortresses were produced on a mass scale and speak to an impressive military apparatus, unprecedented for this region. [1]
[1]: Lori Khatchadourian, ‘The Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 480
Closest reference in Anatolia is the Hittite period. [1] In Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply." [2]
[1]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15
[2]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport.
‘Knives, daggers, swords, arrowheads, spearheads, armor scales, and helmets discovered in these fortresses were produced on a mass scale and speak to an impressive military apparatus, unprecedented for this region. [1]
[1]: Lori Khatchadourian, ‘The Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 480
not mentioned in literature
boats had been in use in the region for thousands of years
not mentioned in literature