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Explore the rise of civilizations in Anatolia, from early towns like Çatalhöyük to the power struggles of the Hittites and the emergence of Rome. Discover the trade, culture, and conflicts that shaped ancient Anatolia.
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Early Towns in Anatolia • Small towns became growing economic centers in parts of Anatolia as early as 3600 B.C. • Communities like Çatalhöyük failed to develop the necessary administrative and social mechanisms to cope with the increased complexity of the settlement and its trading activities. • The town failed, and Anatolians of the fifth millennium B.C. reverted to village life.
Early Towns in Anatolia • Small fortified villages flourished in the fourth millennium B.C. • One of them, Troy I, dates to just after 3000 B.C. • Troy II, founded in about 2300 B.C., was a fortified town with more elaborate architecture and fine gold and bronze metallurgy. • By this time, the Anatolians were trading widely over the highlands and into the Aegean, and chieftaincies were scattered over mineral-rich areas. About 1900 B.C., the Assyrians set up a trading colony at Kanesh in central Anatolia.
Balance of Power: The Hittites • The Hittites assumed power in Anatolia in about 1650 B.C. • They held a vital place in the history of their time, for they played the Assyrians off against the Egyptians. • Hittite power was based on diplomatic and trading skills until about 1200 B.C., when international trade in the eastern Mediterranean collapsed and a period of confusion ensued, partly the work of the Sea Peoples.
The Sea Peoples and the Rise of Israel • This was a time (1200 B.C.) of piracy and widespread suffering, much of it at the hands of warlike bands known to archaeologists as the Sea Peoples. • The state of Israel was born during this interregnum, among agricultural and herding peoples in the highlands behind the eastern Mediterranean coast. • They existed between the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations.
The Phoenicians • Phoenicians - The general economic recovery of the first millennium B.C. was in large part attributable them. • Their ships were soon carrying Lebanese cedarwood to Cyprus and the Nile. • North of Israel, powerful Phoenician cities like Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos now expanded this trade. • Their ships took over the copper and iron ore trade of the Mediterranean.
The Aegean and Greece • Farming settlements developed in Greece and the Aegean islands before 5000 B.C. • There were radical changes in the late second millennium B.C. when the cultivation of the olive and the grapevine became widespread and the trading of minerals, stoneware, and other products expanded rapidly. • Numerous small towns flourished throughout the Aegean and eastern Greece by 2500 B.C., linked by regular trading routes.
The Minoans • The Minoan civilization of Crete developed in about 2000 B.C. and lasted until approximately 1450 B.C. • The great volcanic explosion of its satellite island, Thera, in the seventeenth century B.C. may have weakened Minoan power for a while.
The Mycenaeans • After 1400 B.C., the center of civilization passed to the mainland, where the Mycenaeans flourished until 1150 B.C. • Mycenaean civilization collapsed as a result of internal dissension and possibly the exhaustion of agricultural land.
Greek City-States After Mycenae • Trading activities continued to expand in the Aegean after the decline of Mycenae. Small city-states flourished, unifying only in the face of a common danger, such as the Persian invasions of the fifth century B.C. • The Athenians enjoyed a long period of supremacy among city-states, the period of classical Greek civilization in the fifth century B.C. • Alexander the Great built an enormous empire across Southwest Asia, of which Greece was part, in the late fourth century B.C.
The Etruscans and the Romans • The Roman Empire, which followed, marks the entry of the entire Mediterranean area into historic times. Developed from Villanovan and Etruscan roots in Italy, Imperial Roman power was based on the ruins of Alexander’s empire.
The Etruscans and the Romans • The Etruscans • Villanovan culture - By approximately 1000 B.C., some Urnfield people from central Europe had settled south of the Alps in the Po Valley. • They developed a skilled bronze-working tradition in which products were traded far into central Europe and throughout Italy.
The Etruscans and the Romans • The Etruscans (cont.) • Iron tools and extensive trading contacts won the Villanovans political control over much of northern and western Italy. • They established colonies on the islands of Elba and Corsica. • Several centuries of trade and other contacts culminated in the literate Etruscan civilization.
The Etruscans and the Romans • The Romans • The Etruscans had been the first people to fortify the seven famed hills of Rome. • In 509 B.C., the native Romans evicted this foreign dynasty of rulers and began to develop their own distinctive city-state. • The next few centuries saw the emergence of Rome from a cluster of simple villages by the Tiber River to the leadership of the Mediterranean and far beyond.
