Late Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia: Problems and Assessments

Abstract

This study deals with the transformations in Eastern Anatolia that took place after the Urartian State came to a political end. Thus, cultural reflections of the variations in the political process in the Post-Urartian phases and in the period of the Medes as well as the continuation thereafter in the Achaemenid Period are investigated. A cultural change is evident in the region since the Post-Urartian Period. This alteration shows itself mainly in the ceramic forms. Later phases of the Achaemenid Period are characterized by the rich categories of intensive pottery finds. In the course that the civilian architecture cannot be defined due to the lack of data and that the cultural and historical reasons of the hiatus between the Post-Urartian and the Achaemenid Periods are investigated, it should be noted that there could have been a change in the settlement tradition of the population or the sound evidences are not discovered yet. Accordingly, the conclusions depend on the examination of the present cultural data from the few excavated sites with stratification.