Scientists Proclaim a New Civilization in the Aegean Bronze Age

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Luwian Studies

May 12, 2016, 12:00 ET

ZURICH, May 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

A scientific publication, book and comprehensive website (http://www.luwianstudies.org) made public today by scientists at the Luwian Studies foundation in Zurich, Switzerland, advance and add weight to the view that Aegean prehistory (3000-1200 BCE) suffers from a pro-European bias.

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Warriors with feather crown headdresses appear in Egyptian temple inscription as the Sea Peoples who invaded the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean shortly after 1200 BCE. Scientists now think that these attackers came from western Asia Minor and that they belong to a civilization in its own right - the Luwians ( (c) Rosemary Robertson ) (PRNewsFoto/Luwian Studies)
Warriors with feather crown headdresses appear in Egyptian temple inscription as the Sea Peoples who invaded the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean shortly after 1200 BCE. Scientists now think that these attackers came from western Asia Minor and that they belong to a civilization in its own right - the Luwians ( (c) Rosemary Robertson ) (PRNewsFoto/Luwian Studies)

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The people who established Aegean prehistory as a discipline aimed to steer research interest towards Greece. As a consequence, they disregarded cultures on Anatolian soil. Despite the fact that Troy, the most important stratified archaeological site in the world, is situated in Anatolia.

On their foundation's website, researchers at Luwian Studies have today published a comprehensive database of Middle and Late Bronze Age archaeological sites in western Turkey. This unique catalog is the result of several years of literature research and field visits. It currently covers over 340 expansive settlements, including their coordinates and aerial photographs. Geographic information systems have placed the settlements into context with rivers, lakes, mineral deposits, trade routes, flood plains and farmland to provide quantifiable data on the relationship between humans and the landscape.

The number, size, and wealth of artifacts of Bronze Age sites in western Turkey shows that this region was covered by a network of settlements and petty states throughout the 2nd millennium BCE. The names of these petty states are well known from documents of that time. If these states had formed an alliance, it would probably have surpassed the Mycenaean or Hittite realms in terms of political, economic, and military power. Since western Asia Minor possessed its own writing system since 2000 BCE, it is justifiable to speak of a civilization in its own right. Many of the people in western Asia Minor spoke Luwian, a language in the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. For this reason, the newly recognized civilization is called "Luwian."

More information: http://www.luwianstudies.org

Book reference 

Eberhard Zangger (2016): The Luwian Civilization: The Missing Link in the Aegean Bronze Age. Ege Yayınları, Istanbul. 292 pages, 148 color illustrations. ISBN 978-605-9680-11-0

About Luwian Studies 

Luwian Studies is a non-governmental and non-profit foundation founded in 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland. As stated in the Canton Zurich commercial registry, the foundation's sole aim is to shed more light on the 2nd millennium BCE civilizations in western Asia Minor.

SOURCE Luwian Studies

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