The ethno-cultural diversity of central anatolian early iron age inhabitants

The absence of town-like planned settlements, changes in the regional settlement pattern, and decentralized or locally distinct styles in public and domestic architecture in Central Anatolia during the Early Iron Age suggest that the end of the Hittite era heralded regionally significant but culturally inferior political and/or ethno-cultural realignments. The political and cultural environment that started to emerge in the second quarter of the 12th century BC in the core territory of former Hatti is still difficult to define or describe due to the absence of regionally relevant literary data and dearth of material records. Nevertheless, we may presume that the political vacuum created by the final demise of the Hittite Kingdom further exposed the towns and villages in the central plateau inhabited by majority and minority ethnicities which included the speakers of Indo-European languages, Hattians, Kaška, Hurrians, and possibly others. Dislocated local rural and urban groups on the move as well as intrusive tribal pastoralists from the Aegean, Balkans, Black Sea region (e.g. Kaška), and perhaps some also from the south and east could have caused long lasting frictions and territorial disputes among some ethno-cultural entities trying to establish economically significant political supremacy. No doubt commercial, cultural, social interaction as well as political realignments brought about by military defeats or victories could have resulted in slight changes in the composition of the Central Anatolian population during the Middle Iron Age, especially in relation to ethnic majority/minority proportions.