5 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The first settlement of the Cimmerians in Anatolia may be Büklükale

Archaeologists estimated that the first settlement in Anatolia of the Cimmerians, who left Southern Ukraine before Christ (about 8th century BC), was Büklükale.

Büklükale is located about 100 kilometers from Ankara, Turkey’s capital city, where the road from Ankara to Kaman passes the Kızılrmak, Turkey’s longest river. Since ancient times, this region has been a major transit junction, and Büklükale has had control over it.

Büklükale excavations are carried out on behalf of the Japanese-Anatolian Archeology Institute, under the direction of Kırşehir Ahi Evran University, associate professor Kimiyoshi MATSUMURA. Büklükale is a city belonging to the last half of the 2nd millennium B.C. or the Hittite Empire Period. During the excavations carried out since 2009, cultural layers dated to the Ottoman Period, Iron Age, and Late, Middle, and Early Bronze Ages were identified.

Head of Excavation associate professor Kimiyoshi Matsumura told Now Archeology that the Cimmerians who came to Anatolia during the archaeological excavations guessed that the first settlement in Anatolia was Büklükale.

Büklükale site consists of two archeological areas, namely “Lower City” and “Upper City”. Photo: İHA

Matsumura, “We have identified objects with animal motifs peculiar to the Cimmerians or Scythians,” he said.

Stating that the excavations are continuing, Matsumura said, “peoples called Cimmerians came to Anatolia from the Ukraine region. The settlement or castle was built by them. We have identified it here for the first time in Anatolia.”

There is a very large fortification wall behind. “We think about it, and we have identified animal motifs and objects unique to the Cimmerians or Scythians in its contemporary architecture. Now we continue to work under it.”

Photo: İHA

Cimmerians

The Cimmerians, a nomadic people, are known from several Assyrian texts calling them Ga-mir or Gi-mir-aa. These peoples, about whom we do not know much, may have lived in southern Ukraine, where the Crimea is, according to some scholars.

Archaeologists have identified them with the Novocerkassk culture on the grass plains between the river Prut and the Lower Don (c.900-c.650 BCE).

In the eighth century, many Cimmerians moved to the southeast, to the region north of the Caucasus. Here, they threatened the kingdom of Urartu. The Urartian king Rusa decided upon a preventive attack but was defeated (c.720).  The Cimmerians invaded Urartu and looted the country as far south as Lake Urmia.

Cimmerian mounted warriors on a Nimrud bas-relief.

This caused panic in Phrygia, a kingdom in western Turkey. In 710/709, a king who is, in our Assyrian sources, called Mit-ta-a (= Midas?), was forced to ask for help from the Assyrian king Sargon II. However, this did not prevent the Cimmerian invasion. In 696/695, Midas committed suicide after he had lost a battle. This was the end of Phrygia. Probably, Cimmerians settled on the Phrygian plain, which was perfectly suited to their cavalry.

They attacked the Lydian kingdom, which was established after Phrygia for a while. They were repelled by king Gyges, but twenty years later, they were back and in 644, they defeated the Lydians and looted their capital Sardes. Gyges was killed by the Cimmerian leader Lygdamis (Dugdammê).

The Cimmerians raided Greek cities in Aeolia and Ionia, looted Paphlagonia, and seized Sinope. Lygdamis attacked Assyria again after 640 but was defeated both times. The Cimmerians were defeated once more by the Lydian king Alyattes (c.600-560), after which they vanished from history.

However, a settlement belonging to the Cimmerians has not been identified in Anatolia until today.

Related Articles

Royal-Memorial Inscription Attributed to King Sargon II Discovered in Western Iran

25 April 2021

25 April 2021

In western Iran, Iranian archaeologists discovered a part of a royal memorial inscription attributed to the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II....

Exploring the life story of a high-status woman from isotope data in Hungary’s largest Bronze Age cemetery

29 July 2021

29 July 2021

Researchers examined 29 tombs from Szigetszentmiklós-Ürgehegy, one of Hungary’s largest Middle Bronze Age cemeteries, and one of them, a high-status...

Croatian Team Finds a Way to Effectively and Permanently Preserve Stuka Aircraft Wreck Under the Sea

11 December 2024

11 December 2024

 The ICUA Zadar team of conservators and archaeologists carried out in situ underwater conservation of the wreckage of the Junkers...

A surprising discovery in Lublin countryside! Ancient figurines of Egyptian and Roman gods found

6 May 2023

6 May 2023

Two ancient figurines depicting the Egyptian god Osiris and a bust of the Roman god Bacchus were found in the...

Ancient objects found in Jerusalem could be hand grenades used 1000 years ago, New study says

27 April 2022

27 April 2022

New analysis into the residue inside ancient ceramic pots from 11th–12th century Jerusalem has found that they were potentially used...

An Ancient Large Clay Vessel “Hum” 1.75 Meters High Unearthed in Kyrgyzstan

9 March 2024

9 March 2024

During recent archaeological excavations in the town of Uzgen in the Osh province of Kyrgyzstan, a 1.75-meter-high clay vessel known...

Deer stone discovered in Kyrgyzstan

10 April 2023

10 April 2023

A deer stone was found in the Tarmal-Sai settlement in the Kochkor district of the Naryn region in eastern Kyrgyzstan....

4,000-year-old Rock Art From A Previously Unknown Ancient Culture uncovered in Venezuela

4 July 2024

4 July 2024

An archaeological team in Venezuela has uncovered 20 ancient rock art sites in Canaima National Park in the southeastern part...

Archaeologists Discovered Remarkably Preserved Shrines inside the Assyrian Temple of Ninurta, in Nimrud

29 December 2024

29 December 2024

Recent archaeological work in Nimrud, led by the Penn Museum in collaboration with Iraqi archaeologists, has uncovered two remarkably well-preserved...

Sacred Seduction: Kamasutra Feminism and the Legacy of Ancient Erotic Temples

8 April 2025

8 April 2025

For many, the Kamasutra is merely a name linked to condom brands and erotic chocolates, often dismissed as just a...

A Giant Stone Panel Discovered in Mexico Reveals the Name of a Previously Unknown Maya King’s

14 August 2024

14 August 2024

Archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have discovered a fascinating panel containing an extensive Maya hieroglyphic...

Extraordinary discovery for the Western Baltic Sea region: a 400-year-old shipwreck Found at Bottom of German River

3 August 2022

3 August 2022

During a routine measurement at Trave, near Lübeck, in the northern part of Germany,  Kiel-Holtenau Waterways and Shipping Authority (Wasserstraßen-...

New evidence pushes the origins of the Great Wall back by 300 years

19 February 2025

19 February 2025

Recently discovered evidence from the Changqing district of Jinan, located in East China’s Shandong Province, reveals that the origins of...

Celtiberian Inscription Found at La Peña del Castro: One of the Earliest Examples of Alphabetic Writing in Northern Iberia

26 February 2025

26 February 2025

La Ercina, León, Spain – Archaeological research at the La Peña del Castro site has unveiled an important discovery that...

Archaeologists discovered the earliest Iron Age house in Athens and Attica

26 May 2023

26 May 2023

A research team from the University of Göttingen discovered the earliest  Iron Age house in Athens and Attica. Archaeologists from...