THIRD MILLENNIUM B.C.
Probably as early as the epoch of the Agade dy nasty (28th century), Anatolia was invaded by Semites from Syria, who there founded a permanent colony, whose archives dating from the last centuries of the 3rd millennium have been discovered at Kiil-Tepe, near Kaisaryieh. A text, half historical, half legendary, belonging to the days of Sargon the Old (c. 2800), describes a campaign of this king from the other side of the Taurus in order to help a colony engaged in commerce, which complained of oppression at the hands of the inhabitants of the country. These archives consist of cuneiform tablets, letters and contracts, relating to the commercial undertakings of the great merchants of the district. They are written in the ancient Assyr ian language ; the writing resembles that used at the time of the Ur dynasty (25-24th centuries). An impression of a cylinder seal bearing a dedication to King Ibi-Sin of this dynasty, gives the earliest date of these tablets for it seems probable that this ancient seal was in long use, and that most of the tablets only date from C. 2100. Side by side with the Semitic names of the members of this colony appear those of the inhabitants of the country. They are Asianics of the type called "protohittite," speaking the dialect in use in Anatolia before the supremacy of invaders of Indo-European stock, who established successfully the Hittite confederation of the 2nd millennium B.C. On these tablets the impression of Asianic seals appears along with that of seals of the Semites of Cappadocia. The Asianic seals are flat, usually circular, of slight dimensions, ornamented with the heraldic eagle, with ornamental designs based on animal motives, with concen tric circles or with spirals. The Semitic seals are cylindrical, and, retaining the complexity of Sumerian art, by which they are in spired, represent the combat of the hero Gilgamesh with wild beasts, animals crossed in an X, a divinity seated on a chariot, and the adoration of an idol in the form of a bull. No single great monument can be attributed either to the Semites of Cappadocia or to the Asianic peoples who were their contem poraries.
The excavations on the hill which bears the famous city of Troy (Hissarlik) were begun by the German, Schliemann, assisted by Dorpfeld, in 187o, and were continued intermittently until 1894, on the site of nine successive cities, of - which only two are of real importance : Troy II., discovered by Schliemann and wrongly regarded as the Troy of Homer, which belonged to about 2400-1900 B.C., and Troy VI., discovered by Dorpfeld, which is really the Troy of Homer (1500-118o). The second Troy, which was destroyed by fire, had foundations of stones joined by a mortar of clay, on which rose walls of rough bricks with wood supports. The town was surrounded by a rampart with towers. At Troy II. appeared vases with human figures, and pitchers with vertical and elongated lips. Rich jewels, discovered by Schliemann in a hiding place, and erroneously described as "the treasure of Priam," comprise golden diadems with many small chains finished off with the simplified image of an idol, earrings of the same metal and technique, libation vases, one of which is in gold and is shaped like a sauce tureen with two handles. There are also flat bronze axes with widened edges, bronze knives and daggers, together with stone weapons, some times sumptuously set in a metal mount. The antiquities of Troy II. must be compared with those of Crete and the Aegean world rather than with the interior of Asia Minor, though as regards the period of Troy II. (2400-1900), our sole knowledge of the interior of Asia Minor consists of epigraphic material as in the "Cappa docian tablets."
