Ancient Phrygia in the west of the Anatolian
plateau, the country around the sources of the Sakarya
Nehri (river) within the triangle of the modern cities of Afyon,
Eskisehir and Ankara,
was named after the western Indo-Europeans who came here from Europe around
1200 BC and left their mark as skilled craftsmen with a culture of their
own. It was a country clearly with many towns and cities, lying on the
routes to the east from Lydia and Caria.
Today it has only three major cities: Afyon, the opium city, Eskisehir, a hub of industry and the main railroad junction, and Kütahya, a centre for ceramics and the mining of brown coal. Here in many places the westerlies and southerlies can still carry rain deep into the mountains, bringing denser settlement and a greater degree of cultivation in their train. This farming potential enabled Phrygia even in early classical times to develop a powerful kingdom of its own with many towns and cities. Its fringes, where east met west, were a battleground for Persians and Lydians, Romans and Galatians, Arabs and Romans, Crusaders and Seljuks, Ottomans and Mongols, Byzantines and Turks. Ruins and age-old monuments abound up on the rolling plateau around the upper reaches of the Sakarya, with here and there towering rocky outcrops and a few scraggy trees, although nowadays signs of settlement are few and far between.
The Phrygian language, which died out in the 6th c. AD, was closely related to Greek, as can be seen from 80 ancient Phrygian inscriptions (7th-4th c. BC.), written in a script rather like Greek and over 110 neo-Phrygian writings in Greek from Roman times.
As Thracian invaders, the Phrygians played a decisive role in the destruction of the Hittite Kingdom and the fall of Troy. Their independent Phrygian kingdom of the 8th and 7th c BC maintained close contacts with the Aryans in the east and the Greeks in the west. Its early history is only briefly chronicled (Herodotus), recounting the suicide of its last king, Midas, in Gordion when it fell to the Cimmerians (676 BC.). With the establishment of the Galatians in eastern Phrygia the fertility cult of Cybele, the mother goddess, spread widely amongst town dwellers, while country folk tended to worship Men, the moon god, ruler of Paradise and the Underworld. In 188 BC Phrygia came under Pergamum, followed by Rome, who made it a province in 133 BC.
The early spread of Christianity here was
largely due to St Paul but the 2nd c AD also saw
the development of two extreme sects: Montanism, derived from the locally
born Prophet Montanus who preached that the end of the world was high,
and Novationism, named after the Roman theologian and later Bishop Novatian,
whose followers called themselves "the pure", in Greek "katharoi" (hence
the Cathar heresy of the Middle Ages) and refused to allow any lapsed Christians
back into the Church.
The Phrygians arrived in Anatolia in
1200 BC, among the migrating tribes known as the "people of the Aegean
Sea". At first they lived in Central Anatolia,
building settlements over the ashes of Hittite
cities like Hattusas, Alacahöyük,
Pazarli and Alisar. At the beginning of the 8th century BC they set up
their capital at Gordion.
We are familiar with King Midas from his epic, and from the discovery of his burial chamber. Midas, who succeeded to the throne in 738 BC, defended the frontiers of Phrygia quite well, but could not resist the attacks of the Cimmerians advancing from the Caucasian region. After his defeat by Cimmerians in 695 BC, it is said that he committed suicide by drinking bull's blood. Phrygians built the largest mound (tumulus) in Gordion known as the Tumulus of Midas; it is 53 meters high and 300 meters wide.
The large, almost square-shaped burial chamber is 6.20m by 5.15m. The skeleton of King Midas was laid on a large bench, surrounded by other benches full of gifts for the afterworld. Close observation of the skeleton revealed that King Midas died when he was around 60 years old and he was 1.59m tall. On the floor of the chamber were found 166 bronze funeral gifts and 145 bronze fibula laid at the head of the deceased. The lack of gold reveals that it was not a custom among the Phrygians to present funerary gifts of gold.
Influenced by Hittite art, Phrygian art, in
turn, influenced Etruscan art in Italy. However, they were also directly
influenced by the Urartu in Eastern
Anatolia. For instance, they imported the Urartu
figure of a bull's head and worked it on a cauldron of strictly Phrygian
form. Metal ores were known and used in metalwork during the Early and
Mid-Bronze Ages, from 2500 BC onwards. However, it was only around 1000
BC that Phrygian metalwork forms borrowed from pottery and metal vessels
entered popular use. Phrygian art can be divided
into three categories:
1- Local Phrygian ware
2- Urartu import ware
3- Assyrian import ware.
These groups are again divided into two major phases consisting of
artifacts found in mounds dating before 695 BC.
The pottery of the Phrygian period was fine polychrome ware, which can be distinguished basically as early and late ware. Because of the Lydian domination of Anatolia during the late period, it bears western Anatolian influence after 695 BC.
As a contrast to the Hittite based motifs of the early period, in later ware we see studded patterns within lozenge shaped frames, and again studded motifs on animal forms. Complicated motifs took the place of very simple and geometric motifs from the old period. Instead of one color painted over another color, they started to be painted in many colors. Where animal shapes previously took on a schematic look to them, pieces from the late period showed evolvement. In addition, the late period witnessed motifs of meander, dots and plaited hair. Filtered vessels that had little application in daily life were seen to be popular as a funerary gift. Today Phrygian works of art are on exhibit at the Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara.
Apart from their capital Gordion were you can visit the Tumulus of King Midas and nearby small museum, Pessinus was also a major Phrygian settlement. Examples of megaron planned, semerdam roofed houses were carved into the rock tombs. These may be seen around Afyon Arslantas and Eskisehir Yazilikaya.
The Arslantas rock monument near Afyon and the ruins of Midas near Eskisehir are among the most important Phrygian monuments in Anatolia, and are where the Phrygians worshipped their major deity Cybele and her lover Attis.
The Phrygian language belonged to the Indo-European group of
languages.
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