WEST OF TROY – AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-04-04

Prehistoric Thrace is of particular interest due to its proximity to Northwest Asia Minor and above all to Troy. It is widely accepted that East Thrace and West Asia Minor have maintained close cultural contacts since the beginning of the Chalcolithic period (since 6000 BC). However, the links between Thrace and Northwest Asia Minor are not equally intense in all periods. Like in the chalkolitic period, a significant proximity can be observed towards the end of the Bronze Age (see Aslan et al. 2014, 204). The ceramic findings lead Hnila (2012, 214-216) to assume the immigration of new populations from Thrace for Troy VIIb2. Though the detailed interpretation of the findings points to a complex scenario, this analysis seems to be widely accepted (see Grave et al. 2013).
The paper starts at this point. It wants to augment the archaeological findings on the Thracian-Anatolian contacts with findings
from other disciplines as follows:
• Linguistics has recently gained a more precise picture of prehistoric migrations (see Anthony/Ringe 2015). The linguistic
prehistory of Thrace has also been illuminated by new finds from the first pre-Christian millennium (see Brixhe/
Panayotou 1994; Brixhe 2006).
• Archaeogenetics is now able to precisely trace the development of populations in Europe and Asia Minor into the late
Bronze Age (see Allentoft et al 2015; Haak 2015; Kristiansen 2017).

The interdisciplinary combination of the available information should lead to new scenarios and sketch the environment of prehistoric Northwest Asia Minor more clearly than hitherto possible.


Author(s): Hajnal, Ivo (University of Innsbruck)