HEFAD, no.8, pp.47-61, 2023 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
The Central Anatolia Region, which serves as a transition point with its
strategic location in the center of Anatolia, has hosted a lot of cultures throughout history
and this area of high plateaus formed the core region of the Hittite State since the Late
Bronze Age. The Hittite state, which had achieved political unification of a large part of
Anatolia from the 17th century BC onward, lost power in the process, called the “crisis
years” between the late 13th century and early 12th century BC in the Eastern
Mediterranean Basin; this process culminated in the withdrawal of the Hittite state from the
historical arena, thus initiating a new but unstable period for the lands in question. The
Early Iron Age, the beginning of this period that is called the Dark Age due to the lack of
written sources, is represented by a process in which material culture changed, by
migrations and by rural communities living in a dispersed way. The Middle and Late Iron
Age, in which figures of power were seen and political actors increased in the Central
Anatolian Region after a long time, witnessed the struggles of powers such as Phrygian,
Tabal, Assyrian and Urartian first, and then Lydia, Medes and Persians. This contest for
domination effort determined the historical process of the region. In this study, the process
from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age in Central Anatolia is
examined in the light of written sources and archaeological evidence, and the study is
intended to make a general assessment on the process undergone by the region.