Geoffrey Summers January 2024
This brief overview replaces earlier attempts at reconstructing the historical background.
In the Late Bronze Age Kerkenes Dağ was named Mount Daha, the abode of the Weather God of Zippalanda. The city of Zippalanda has been identified as Uşaklı Höyük, some 4 kms to the north of Kerkenes, as ongoing excavations confirm (Michel 2023). Hittite material has not yet been discovered on the Kerkenes Dağ itself.
No contemporaneous texts shed any light on the Iron Age history of Kerkenes apart from the inclusion of three personal names, Uva and Masa (the son) of Urgi(s), in the Kerkenes inscription Obrador-Cursach 2020. None of these three individuals are known from other sources Summers 2023. Reconstruction of the historical background to the city at Kerkenes is, therefore, entirely dependent on archaeological evidence Summers 2018. The Iron Age city built on the Kerkenes Dağ was a new foundation established by newcomers from the west whose language, cult and material culture were Phrygian. The archaeological evidence, which is set out in detail in the two volumes of final excavation reports Summers 2021; Summers 2022, very strongly suggests a date for the foundation at the cusp of the sixth century, a conclusion that is supported by but not proven by dendrochronological analysis Kuniholm 2024. Ongoing research by Branting and his team will no doubt refine chronological evidence.
The site is surely to be identified with the Pteria of Herodotus Przeworski 1929; Summers 1997, a Greek version of its Phrygian name. Later sources associate the destruction of Pteria with the conflict between Cyrus the Great of Persia and Croesus, King of Lydia in the war that was to culminate with the capture of Sardis. The fall of Sardis to Cyrus is dated to 547 BCE and it can be assumed that Kerkenes/Pteria surrendered to Croesus earlier in the same year. In all probability it was the Lydian king who torched the city on the approach of Cyrus and his army, either before or after the Battle of Pteria. A mid-sixth century date for the destruction appears to be unequivocal on archaeological evidence.
Broadly speaking, a date for the foundation of Kerkenes of about 600 BCE would position it sometime after the death of Midas, king of Phrygia, and before the Lydian takeover of Gordion. Precise dates for both events are uncertain. The last quarter of the seventh century was a period of the of great change and upheaval on the Anatolian plateau, and beyond, following the demise of the Neo-Hittite polities known to the Assyrians as Tabal, together with the Hieroglyphic Luwian script that they used for their display inscriptions. Not only did the Neo-Hittite states fade from our view, but in the east the kingdom of Urartu collapsed in the 640s, followed by the demise of Assyria with the fall of Nineveh to the combined forces of Babylon and Media in 612 BCE. Such shadowy information as we do have comes mainly from Assyrian sources that, in particular, provide some insight into the Cimmerian impact that is very difficult to identify in the archaeological record.
There is evidence for occupation on the Kale at Kerkenes in Achaemenid, Hellenistic and Byzantine times Summers and Summers 2013, but there is no evidence related to its ancient name Bittel 1960/61. In both periods the Kale was very probably an element in regional systems of control.
References Cited
1960/61 "Legenden vom Kerkenes-Dağ (Kappadokien)." Oriens 13/14: 29–34.
2023 "The Hittite Holy city of Zippalanda finally identified," Mespopotamian Briefs: https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/nos-blogs/breves-mesopotamiennes/la-ville-sainte-hittite-de-zippalanda-enfin-identifiee?fbclid=IwAR2piB15NvYlEgZB3LMQ6MYuNaoo4FZFVUlCFialbEcrMw3w79SvOqYq6Cs
2020 The Phrygian Language. (HOB 139.). Leiden: Brill.
1929 "Die Lage von Pteria." Archiv Orientalni 1: 312–315.
1997 "The Identification of the Iron Age City on the Kerkenes Dağ in Central Anatolia." Journal of Near Eastern Studies 56(2): 81–94.
2018 "Phrygians East of the Red River: Phrygianisation, Migration and Desertion." Anatolian Studies 68: 99–118.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066154618000042
2021 Kerkenes Final Excavation Reports I: Excavations at the Cappadocia Gate. Chicago: OIP 145.
https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/publications/oip/oip-145-excavations-cappadocia-gate
2022 Kerkenes Final Excavation Reports II: Excavations at the Palatial Complex.Chicago: OIP 148.
https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/publications/oip/oip-148-excavations-palatial-complex
2023 "Resizing Phrygia: Migration, State and Kingdom." Altorientalische Forschungen 50(1): 107–128.
https://doi.org/10.1515/aofo-2023-0009
2013 "The Kale at Kerkenes Dag: An Iron Age Capital in Central Anatolia." In Cities and Citadels in Turkey: From the Iron Age to the Seljuks, edited by Scott Redford and Nina Ergin, pp. 137–159. Leuven: Peeters Press.