Phrygia

Phrygia, ancient district in west-central Anatolia, named after a people whom the Greeks called Phryges and who dominated Asia Minor between the Hittite collapse (12th century bc) and the Lydian ascendancy (7th century bc). The Phrygians, perhaps of Thracian origin, settled in northwestern Anatolia late in the 2nd millennium. Upon the disintegration of the Hittite kingdom they moved into the central highlands, founding their capital at Gordium and an important religious centre at “Midas City” (modern Yazılıkaya, Tur.). The site is a tableland 3,000–5,000 feet (900–1,500 m) high, with mountains.

Between the 12th and 9th centuries Phrygia formed the western part of a loose confederation of peoples (identified as “Mushki” in Assyrian records) that dominated the entire Anatolian peninsula. This early civilization borrowed heavily from the Hittites, whom they had replaced, and established a system of roads later utilized by the Persians. About 730 the Assyrians detached the eastern part of the confederation, and the locus of power shifted to Phrygia proper under the rule of the legendary king Midas.

Midas’ kingdom came to an abrupt end (c. 700) with the invasions of the Cimmerians, a Transcaucasian people who burned Gordium and transferred the hegemony of western Anatolia to the Lydians. After the Cimmerian invasion Phrygia lingered as a geographic expression under the successive rulers of Anatolia; its people were valued as slaves by the Greeks. The Phrygians excelled in metalwork and wood carving and are said to have originated the art of embroidery. Phrygian carpets were famous. Some magnificently carved stone tombs and shrines were uncovered after World War II by American archaeologists. Among the various Phrygian religious practices, the cult of the Great Mother (Cybele) predominated and was passed on to the Greeks.

Little else is known of Phrygian society. Vast lands were owned by the great shrines such as Pessinus, the high priests being virtually autonomous rulers. Society was probably feudal. An intelligent and evidently cultivated elite (they were able to read and write) existed at Gordium and Midas City, together with an important nucleus of craftsmen and merchants, some doubtless being foreigners—Greeks, Phoenicians, Syrians, and Urartaeans.

A staple industry was sheep rearing, which provided a fine wool much in demand in Miletus, Pergamum, and other Greek centres of industry. The neighbourhood of Midas City harboured considerable forestland, and timber was clearly an important economic factor. Another specialty was horse rearing, the Phrygians probably being, like many of the Indo-Europeans, an equestrian aristocracy ruling over other native peoples.