9 - Identities in Flux

Summary

Even when viewed at a distance of almost 3,000 years, the political and social upheavals of first millennium BCE Gordion are striking. The rise of Lydian influence across central Anatolia in the late MP period transformed local communities at Gordion, changing daily domestic practices and introducing new ways of enacting power. This transformation, commencing in the late seventh century BCE, was well underway at the time of the Persian conquest in the mid sixth century BCE. Evidence of this military attack is still visible in the siege works built against the Lower Town fortification system and the burnt remains of the Küçük Höyük mudbrick fortress. While widespread, the impact of Persian power and organizational structures across Anatolia was treated as largely ephemeral until recently (Dusinberre 2013; Khatchadourian 2012). The impacts of a Persian administrative presence were substantial, however, not only as disruptors of the local political order, but also as stimulants for new opportunities of group formation that superseded previous social, economic and political entanglements.