The Konya region in the Iron Age and its relations with Cilicia

Abstract

Located in the central region of the Anatolian mainland, Konya has played an important role in east-west and north-south cultural interactions since prehistoric times. In order to investigate the cultural geography of this region from prehistoric times to the Classical period surveys and museum work have been carried out since 1987 (Bahar 1991; Bahar et al 1996). In the course of this work some observations have been made on the Iron Age, which is a problematic subject for the central Anatolian region as well as for Anatolia as a whole. During the Iron Age the grey pottery known as Phrygian ware occurs over a wide region from the basin of the Meander in the west into central Anatolia (Mellaart 1955: 117; Dupré 1983: 82; Summers 1994: 241-52). We have previously suggested that this ware should be renamed ‘inner-west Anatolian ware’ or ‘Luwian ware’ (Bahar et al 1996: 65-7). It is significant that this pottery is encountered especially around Sarayönü and Kadınhanı where Luwian peoples were intensively settled in the second millennium BC.