50,000 B.C. History of Turkey and Anatolia

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Paleontologic ages... First men are living in caves hunting their preys with scraped stones. Traces of prehistoric man in a cave.

Glacial periods reign Anatolia.

Karain cave is one of the oldest settlement known in Anatolia (Turkey) and it has been inhabited for milleniums.

42000 years later....

Neolithic ages (8000-5500 B.C)

The most advanced civilizations of this age, except Jericho, are in Anatolia. Catalhoyuk is the biggest town on earth with 6000 inhabitants.The houses in this town have entrance openings on the roof, there are small windows around the entrance hole.The citizens of this urban center eat wheat, lentils and other vegetables they grow in the plains and animals they hunt such as sheep, goat. They worship the mother goddess and the taurus, symbol of fertility. The paintings, including the first landscape painting in history, reliefs on the walls, fine pottery they make are their most important artistic achievement. Women do their make-up in front of the mirror! Dogs are the only pets.

A puzzle: Why did men settle down and started agriculture ?

By the end of 5000 B.C. Anatolia enters into an era which will last more than two milleniums during which time will stop and man will almost live the same day over an over again until...

3000-2000 B.C.

Map of Troy
The first inhabitants, Mediterraneans, of the legendary city of Troy dwelled in this tiny town. Their ancient culture which is western and unrelated to Central Anatolia will leave a remarkable presence in the Bronze Age . This village on top of a hill, overlooking the blue of the Aegean Sea has been the target of the people from the other coast of the sea. Troy will be the scene of the mythical Trojan wars, the first multinational war. And it will be conquered many times, destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt throughout milleniums.

Symrna (Today Izmir) and Ephesus in the Aegean coast (West) of Anatolia step into the historical scene around 3000 B.C. like Troy.

Picture In the central plains lived Hattis, indigeneous to Anatolia. The Assyrien caravans of 200-300 mules would bring tin, clothing and textiles to Hattis and get gold and silver in return. Assyrien commercial colonies in Anatolia had palaces ornamented with ivory, crystal and gold objects.

The Hatti treasure, of mysterious objects made of gold and silver shadow even the treasure of Troy. This culture had an advanced intellectual level in the Anatolian Bronze Age.

2000-1200 B.C.

Hittites

The indo-european people are moving from the East to Anatolia, the land of the Hattis, and settle along the biggest river. Annita, the first prince of this new kingdom, starts expanding his land by acquiring villages and towns of the Hattis. These people, called Hittites, worship the thousand gods of the Hattis. They built palaces and temples. They drink wine and blood of bull. The fledgling Hittite empire, in the centuries to follow, is destined to become one of the super powers of the Ancient World along with Egypt and Babylone.

The wars they wage to Egypt in 1200 B.C. end with the first written peace agreement between states in history. The treaty is signed with King Ramses of Egypt and King Moursil of Hittite.

The empire comes to an end with a torrential invasion of European origin that destroy their towns as well as Troy and other cities in Anatolia.

Anatolia enters a dark age for almost 500 years until the simultaneous flourishing of

the most advanced civilisations on earth:

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