History of the Ancient Near East · Part 17 · Kingdoms of the Iron Age · B2
Urartu, Phrygia and Lydia: Kingdoms of Anatolia
Part 17 of History of the Ancient Near East: in the mountains and plateaus of Anatolia, three kingdoms flourished after the Hittites: Urartu with its fortresses, Phrygia with its king Midas, and Lydia, where people first paid with coins. First and zero conditionals (if you cross the river, you will destroy a great empire) and money language (cost, pay for, spend on, be worth), with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
Everything he touched turned to gold, even his food, and he nearly starved. And later he was given donkey’s ears.
Tonight you will meet the real Midas. And the man who invented the coin in your purse, and the richest king in the world, who asked an oracle a question and misunderstood the answer.
Urartu was a kingdom in the mountains around Lake Van, in eastern Anatolia, from the 9th to the 6th century BCE. Its language was related to Hurrian. Its kings built great fortresses on rocky hills, and canals and reservoirs to water their valleys, and its bronze-workers were famous. It was the most dangerous northern enemy of Assyria. The name of Mount Ararat comes from Urartu.
Phrygia, in central Anatolia, had its capital at Gordion. Assyrian texts of the late 8th century BCE mention a king called Mita of Mushki: most scholars think this was Midas of Phrygia, the king of the Greek legends. Further west was Lydia, with its capital at Sardis, rich from the gold dust in its river, the Pactolus.
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