Kingdom of Phrygia

Origins

The Phrygians, probably migrants from the Balkans after the Late Bronze Age collapse, settled the plateau west of the Kızılırmak. By the 9th century BCE they had built a fortified capital at Gordion on the Sakarya river, with a citadel of megaron halls. Assyrian texts call the people Mushki.

Rule and society

Phrygian kings ruled from Gordion and built huge burial mounds; Tumulus MM held a king with bronze vessels and fine wooden furniture. Midas, the Mita of Assyrian records, was a rival of Sargon II and sent gifts to Delphi. The Phrygians wrote in an alphabet adapted from Greek and worshipped the mother goddess Matar, later Cybele.

Decline and legacy

According to Greek tradition, Cimmerian invaders overran Phrygia in the early 7th century BCE and Midas killed himself; the great destruction of Gordion itself is now dated c. 800 BCE. Phrygia then fell under the Kingdom of Lydia and the Achaemenid Empire, though its language and cults survived for centuries.