Anatolia and the Bronze Age: The History of the Earliest Kingdoms and Cities that Dominated the Region

While the Bronze Age is recognized as one of history’s most important phases, it’s been hard for historians to precisely date. The idea of the Bronze Age comes from a three-age system developed in the 19th century through which archaeologists and historians believe cultures evolve. These three ages are the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, and the concept of the system stems from the simultaneous development of museums in Europe during that time. In the Royal Museum of Nordic Antiquities in Denmark, Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, the director of the museum, began classifying objects of stone, bronze, or iron to better categorize and exhibit them. Each archaeological artifact was thus sorted according to their materials and further organized by shape and style. Through such methodology, working alongside archaeological reports, he was able to show how certain objects changed over time.

During the Late Bronze Age, from about 1500-1200 BCE, the Near East was a time and place where great kingdoms and empires vied for land and influence, playing high stakes diplomatic games, trading, and occasionally going to war with each other in the process. The Egyptians, Hittites, Babylonians, Assyrians, and several smaller Canaanite kingdoms were all part of this system, which was one of the first true “global” systems in world history and also one of the most materially prosperous eras in antiquity. The major kingdoms are well-known to most people, but among them were powerful neighbors, many of whom have been mostly overlooked.

One of the successor states that bridged the gap between the Old Assyrian Empire and Middle Assyrian Empire was the Kingdom of Mitanni, which remains somewhat of an enigma to modern scholars and has therefore so far failed to gain the attention of wider, popular audiences. However, while it existed, Mitanni affected the course of history in the Near East just as much as any of the other major kingdoms, and there is little doubt that the kingdom was just as powerful and technologically advanced as its peers during its apex.

The equally mysterious land of Arzawa is another Late Bronze Age kingdom whose Great Power status has been questioned by some archaeologists and historians. Arzawa was a state or a collection of states in western Anatolia that challenged the Hittites for supremacy in the region. Although Arzawa never extended its borders beyond Anatolia, even at the apex of its military, diplomatic, and economic power, it did draw the attention of the Egyptians and is mentioned in in two of the famous Amarna Letters. For that reason, many scholars have labeled Arzawa a Late Bronze Age Great Power, but the designation has done little to flesh out the details of their enigmatic culture. Historians, archaeologists, and philologists still argue over many elements of Arzawa and its people, including who they were, how powerful the kingdom was, and even where it was located. It is likely that not all of these questions will ever be answered, but an examination of Arzawa's culture and history, especially its relations with the Hittites, does help bring this Bronze Age culture into better focus.

The Hittites dominated Anatolia for centuries but remain somewhat enigmatic, and perhaps little known to most people, but their influence on the ancient Near East is undeniable. From high on their capital of Hattusa in central Anatolia, the Hittites were able to conquer and control a kingdom that roughly comprised the area of the modern nation-states of Turkey, Syria, and parts of Iraq and Lebanon through a combination of brute military force and shrewd diplomatic machinations.