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Midas.27 Since there is no evidence of scaffolding or other marks to indicate how these inscriptions might have been carved later, it is generally assumed that these inscriptions were created at the time the rest of the facade was carved, and thus it is probably a late 8th-century monument.

Graffiti in the niche appear to mention the great mother, Kybele.28 This goddess, who was to have enormous importance as late as the time of the Roman Empire, was particularly associated with the Phrygians. Frequently represented in art flanked by lions, some have sought to see her emergence in the Neolithic figurine from Çatalhöyük (Figure 4.9: 3), and she is unquestionably Anatolian in her origins. If the Phrygians are to be considered Iron Age intruders, as Herodotus and the classical tradition would have it, they came to be remembered for their association with one of the oldest divinities of their new homeland.

THE LYDIANS

In some ways Lydia parallels Phrygia. Its archaeology is overwhelmingly known from a single site, around which are scattered tumulus mounds. In each case, its capital controlled a large territory in western Anatolia, and its kings were remembered by the Greeks as powerful monarchs. The transition between Phrygian and Lydian control at Gordion takes place in the Middle Phrygian period without a noticeable break in the archaeological record. These were, however, kingdoms of very different origins, and their similarities were probably superficial. Unlike the Phrygians, the Lydians do not appear to be new to Anatolia in the Iron Age. Although there are no well-preserved Lydian inscriptions until the fifth and fourth centuries BC, long after the kingdom had lost its independence, there is linguistic evidence enough to indicate that the language belonged to the Anatolian family within Indo-European. In other words it is a close relative of Luwian, Palaic, and Hittite, but not Phrygian. Given the very small number of texts linguists have to work with, however, is not possible to be more precise about its ancestry.29

The historical record on the subject of Lydia is rich, thanks largely to the Histories of Herodotus. Some of his best stories are found in the opening book of this masterpiece, and they are repeated with every overview of Lydia. We must restrain ourselves here, however, because Herodotus provides little useful information for the early part of the Iron Age. He claims a dynasty descended from Heracles ruled for five hundred years before the accession of Gyges, the first king for whom we have any independent evidence. One episode he reports during this span has drawn more that a little comment from later scholars, although it is probably apocryphal. In response to a prolonged famine, he tells us, the Lydians divided into two groups, one of which sailed off to Italy and came to call themselves the Tyrsenoi, that is the Etruscans.30 Given the many mysteries surrounding the Etruscans, one of the few non-Indo-European speaking peoples in early Europe, this story has not always been rejected out of hand, although it makes no sense linguistically.

In any case, the verifiable history of the kingdom of Lydia begins in the first half of the 7th century BC, with Gyges, the founder of the Mermnad dynasty.31 Assurbanipal records that

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Gyges (Guggu), king of Lydia, sent ambassadors to the Assyrian court at Nineveh.32 One text records that Lydia was a region on the other side of the sea and so far away that earlier Assyrian kings had not heard of it. Another says that Gyges’ first messengers could not make themselves understood because their language was unknown.33 Besides indicating that the Assyrians did not know much about Lydia, these references establish a date for the man described by Herodotus.

The line Gyges founded included four more rulers: Ardys, Sadyattes, Alyattes, and, the best known of the Lydian kings, Croesus. At the beginning of this span, Gyges had to contend with the depredations of the Kimmerians, who had by this time been ravaging Anatolia for 50 years. Herodotus’s account of the rest of Lydian history focuses on the themes of the kingdom’s subjugation of the Greek city-states of Ionia, and the expansion of Lydia to the east, where it confronted the Medes coming from the opposite direction. One notable event is the indecisive battle fought between the Cyaxeres, the Median king, and Alyattes. This ended with an eclipse of the sun, supposedly predicted by the first great Ionian philosopher Thales, which can be dated astronomically to 585 BC.34 Following this, the Medes and the Lydians entered into a treaty, in which control of all of Anatolia west of the Kızılırmak went to the Lydians.

The type site for Lydian archaeology is Sardis, which was also the political capital of the kingdom. It lies 80 km inland from Izmir overlooking the valley of the Hermus River (Gediz Çayı), a major avenue of communication between the Aegean coast and the interior of Anatolia. Sherds and artefacts found out of context in the vicinity of Sardis go back as far as the Neolithic period and the earliest identified strata in the city are of the Late Bronze Age. It probably owed its existence to the commanding position of its citadel constructed on a towering crag at the edge of the Tmolus mountain range (Figure 10.9).35 Separately fortified settlement areas surround the north and west sides of this eminence, and the Pactolus River, flowing northward to the Hermus, is a major factor in the urban topography.

American expeditions have worked at Sardis for decades, beginning with a Princeton University project before the First World War, and currently conducted by a Harvard–Cornell expedition which has been excavating almost every year since 1958. A good part of these archaeological efforts has gone into uncovering ruins, some quite spectacular, of periods that postdate the Mermnad dynasty and are thus beyond the scope of our treatment. The very scale of later building projects here, as well as a considerable amount of erosion from the slopes of the citadel, has made it difficult to get an overall view of the 7thand 6th-century occupations that are so crucial for defining Lydia when it was a major independent civilization. Nevertheless, some key areas of Mermnad Sardis have been uncovered.

The most massive ruins of this period are a series of terraces and retaining walls on the lower slopes of the citadel. The latter are constructed of well-hewn ashlar (squared off) blocks that have inspired the suggestion that they influenced the builders of Pasargadae in the early Persian

Empire.36 There is also now a massive mud brick structure which seems to be a part of the fortification walls of the city, describing an arc well to the north of much smaller perimeter that the older city was felt to have.

Among the various places in which early Iron Age materials have been found is an excavation

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Figure 10.9 Sardis citadel (Photo: courtesy Christopher Roosevelt)

area known as the “House of Bronzes.” Here there is a deep stratigraphic sequence going back to the Late Bronze Age. The excavators identified three main Lydian levels, the earliest of which ends in a destruction level associated with the Kimmerians and thus Gyges, and the last with the Persian conquest.37 A broader exposure near the Pactolus River has revealed city dwellings that seem to begin only at the very end of this sequence, suggesting that the city expanded considerably under the Mermnads.

The Lydians were renowned for their gold, the metal behind the phrase “rich as Croesus,” and is is generally believed that the Lydians invented coinage. They began at some point in the 7th century with small, fixed weights or metal and eventually struck coins from units of electrum (an alloy of gold and silver). Probably before the mid-6th century they were making coins of pure elements, both silver and gold.38 The Sardis excavations in the Pactolus North area revealed evidence for how this was refined. In an open area, roughly one hundred small hollows averaging about 20 cm in diameter were found formed in the clay ground surface. These small basins, or “cupels,” were once filled with mixture of gold dust, charcoal, and lead and burned to a high temperature with a bellows. The metal would pool in the bottom of the cupel.39

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Figure 10.11 Bin Tepe (Photo: courtesy Christopher Roosevelt)

Lydian tumuli superficially resemble those at Gordion, but there are some important differences. Instead of having sealed wooden burial chambers, as the Phrygians did, the Lydian burials were essentially stone chamber tombs, with side benches and entrance ways. Again, superb workmanship on the part of stonemasons is in evidence here, and sometimes the interiors of the tombs were elaborately decorated with red, white and black painted designs. Bin Tepe is not the only place where these are found, nor were royalty the only people interred in them. Local Lydian elites constructed these tombs at various locations in the Lydian heartland.

Lydia was something of a bridging culture between the civilizations of the Near East and the Geek world. In spite of the hostilities involved in the Mermnad takeover of Ionia, one feels a distinct admiration for these kings in the writings of Herodotus. Archaeologically, East Greek and Lydian traits are so intertwined that it is often hard to tell them apart.41 In central Anatolia the largest and best known Lydian site is Gordion, where there is no abrupt cultural break in earlier traditions to mark the arrival of the new regime.

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