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Landscapes of Terror and Control: Imperial Impacts in Paphlagonia

2004; American Schools of Oriental Research; Volume: 67; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/4132387

2325-5404

Roger Matthews,

Archaeology and ancient environmental studies

The region of north-central Anatolia, known to the Romans as Paphlagonia, was always a backwater populated by rough and troublesome tribes. A new archaeological survey has recovered evidence for distinctive settlement patterns from two major periods of the Paphlagonian past. The survey has revealed a network of fortified sites, tracks and look-out posts from the middle of the second millennium BCE that bear testimony to the efforts of the Hittite kings to control the belicose tribes that constantly threatened the security of their frontier during the Late Bronze Age. Much later, following the the Pax Romana, in the late Byzantine period, 700-1350 CE, the region saw a reversion to conflict as Arab and Turkish newcomers disrupted existing settlement patterns, obliging the inhabitants to build fortified refuge sites, generating a landscape of terror.