page_title: Phrygians
section_title: 8th to 7th centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Phrygians / History / 8th to 7th centuries
context_page_description: The Phrygians were an ancient Indo-European people, initially dwelling in the southern Balkans – according to Herodotus – under the name of Bryges, changing it to Phryges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the Hellespont. However, the Balkan origins of the Phrygians are debated by modern scholars.
  From tribal and village beginnings, the state of Phrygia arose in the 8th century BC with its capital at Gordium.
  The Phrygian Kingdom, based out of Gordium, arose in the eighth century BC. Around 690 BC, it was invaded by the Cimmerians. Phrygia was briefly conquered by its neighbour Lydia, before it passed successively into the Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great and later the empire of Alexander and his successors. Later, it was taken by the Attalids of Pergamon, and eventually became part of the Roman Empire. The last mention of the Phrygian language in literature dates to the 5th century AD and it was likely extinct by the 17th century.
context_section_description: Assyrian sources from the 8th century BC speak of a king Mita of the Mushki, identified with king Midas of Phrygia. An Assyrian inscription records Mita as an ally of Sargon of Assyria in 709 BC. A distinctive Phrygian pottery called Polished Ware appears in the 8th century BC. The Phrygians founded a powerful kingdom which lasted until the Lydian ascendancy (7th century BC). Under kings alternately named Gordias and Midas, the independent Phrygian kingdom of the 8th and 7th centuries BC maintained close trade contacts with her neighbours in the east and the Greeks in the west. Phrygia seems to have been able to co-exist with whatever power was dominant in eastern Anatolia at the time.
  The invasion of Anatolia in the late 8th century BC to early 7th century BC by the Cimmerians was to prove fatal to independent Phrygia.  Cimmerian pressure and attacks culminated in the suicide of its last king, Midas, according to legend.  Gordium fell to the Cimmerians in 696 BC and was sacked and burnt, as reported much later by Herodotus.
  A series of digs have opened Gordium as one of Turkey's most revealing archeological sites. Excavations confirm a violent destruction of Gordion around 675 BC. A tomb of the Midas period, popularly identified as the "Tomb of Midas" revealed a wooden structure deeply buried under a vast tumulus, containing grave goods, a coffin, furniture, and food offerings (Archaeological Museum, Ankara). The Gordium site contains a considerable later building program, perhaps by Alyattes, the Lydian king, in the 6th century BC.
  Minor Phrygian kingdoms continued to exist after the end of the Phrygian empire, and the Phrygian art and culture continued to flourish. Cimmerian people stayed in Anatolia but do not appear to have created a kingdom of their own. The Lydians repulsed the Cimmerians in the 620s, and Phrygia was subsumed into a short-lived Lydian empire. The eastern part of the former Phrygian empire fell into the hands of the Medes in 585 BC.
caption: Phrygian costumes
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