IN SEARCH OF A ‘LUWIAN’ STATE: REGIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE LATE BRONZE AGE IN THE KONYA PLAIN, TURKEY
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-04-02

One of the largest challenges in archaeologically identifying ‘Luwian’ socio-political entities in Late Bronze Age Anatolia is the close association between Luwian monumental inscriptions and Hittite hegemony. In this paper we draw together wide-ranging data from the Konya Plain in south-central Turkey, in particular recent results of the Konya Regional Archaeological Survey Project (KRASP), to suggest that one such socio-political entity might be located in the Konya Plain. We discuss Luwian-inscribed mon-uments in the orographic margins of the Plain in relation to a number of meaningful patterns in settlement and land use. These include: 1) large-scale urbanization in the second millennium BC; 2) the proliferation of new settlements in marginal landscapes during the Late Bronze Age; 3) the establishment of a defensive network of hilltop fortifications around the Konya Plain by the early second millennium BC, and probably earlier.The paper revisits the Tarhuntašša problem, but supported by these extensive regional survey data and a comparative literature on the archaeological landscapes of early state entities. Whilst both the ‘Luwian’ identity of the Late Bronze Age inhabitants of  the  Konya  Plain  and  the  identification  of  one  or  more  sites  with  the  Tarhuntašša  capital  remains  conjectural  at  best,  future  research of KRASP will be guided by these and related considerations.”


Author(s): Bachhuber, Christoph (University of Oxford) - Massa, Michele (British Institute at Ankara)