The Phrygian Kingdom

The Phrygian Kingdom:

Origins:


The Phrygians originate from Thrace, in what is now Macedonia and Bulgaria. They emigrated from their European homeland somewhere around the Iron Age 1000 BCE and settled in the plains of central Turkey. Their appearance was around the centuries after the collapse of the Hittite empire and the end of the Bronze Age. All this is according to Herodotus. The Phrygians and their kingdom lasted till the Persian conquest in around 550 BCE.The Phrygians achieved a remarkable level of culture and had their own form of writing based on Greek script.

Language & Writing:
The Phrygians spoke a language described as Thraco-Phrygian and it was related to the Hellenic branch of the Indo-European language group. The knowledge that we have of their language is derived from inscriptions and early text in the Phrygian language, which only appear around the 8th century.
Early texts in the Phrygian language the script used closely resemebe7ls Greek script.

Tombs:
There are numerous burial mounds or tumuli. The largest one is called Tomb MM, located in Gordion, the Phrygian capital, by its excavator, Rodney Young of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, back in the late 1950’s, was thought to be the tomb of the semi-legendry King Midas of Greek and Roman myth. However the tomb was shown to be an antecedent to the time of King Midas but may have been built by him. The other tumulus’s range from the Phrygian period and right up the Hellenistic period, when the Greek under Alexander the Great arrived there.

King Midas:

King Midas, or Mita as he was known to Assyrians in Northeren Mesopotamia , was a real person. He is also the only Phrygian monarch that we know anything about.He was an important player in the power politics of the day and stood in the way of Assyrian ambitions.

End game:
The Phrygian kingdom sees its end around the late 6th century BCE. The kingdom of Phrygia was attacked and destroyed by the Persians.