Güzin Eren

Making Place for Early Lydian Polity in Iron Age Anatolia: Architectural Contexts of the Ninth-Eighth Centuries BCE at Sardis

Güzin Eren

Thanks to the generous postdoctoral fellowship of ANAMED, I am fortunate to continue my research on the Lydians and their polity. The Lydians were an Anatolian population, present in this land since the late third millennium BCE. In scholarship, however, their polity is often placed in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE with the rise of the Mermnad Dynasty and considered a late and rapid development among the competing territorial kingdoms of the Iron Age (ca. 1200–550 BCE). In my research, I focus on two specific episodes of their long history at the capital city of Sardis: the formative stages of the ruling elite before the Mermnads and the process of imperialization by the later Mermnad rulers.

For this research, I primarily study spatial and building practices along with associated material assemblages as a proxy for socio-political organization. Oversized constructions—defined by scales much larger than required for their specific functions, elaborate design, durable and costly building materials, and embodiment of luxury goods—have long been associated with the power of rulers in hierarchical societies, since they signify central authority to control large sums of resources and labor.[1] Recent research has moved towards more diverse themes: logistics of monumental constructions and their impact on environment,[2] social processes of their emergence,^[3] mobilization of collaborative or coerced labor for public good vs. elite benefit,[4] roles in modeling urban/architectural spaces with respect to circulation and social interaction,[5] and assigned meanings and perception by users and viewers of the past and present.^[6] Activating the human element in archaeological spaces that were once lived in but now only statically preserved, I implement such socio-economic and phenomenological perspectives into the study of Lydian society and their polity.

Combined historical and archaeological research previously indicated that the Mermnad Dynasty rapidly converted Lydia from a small polity to an empire from the seventh to the mid-sixth century BCE. They subjugated neighboring communities, made war and alliances with the major powers of their time, and controlled much of western Anatolia by the sixth century BCE.[7] Mermnad kings also commissioned a series of ambitious building programs to glorify their capital, Sardis. These include, in particular, colossal mudbrick fortifications that created a conspicuous landmark in the region and impressive terrace platforms that transformed the topography of the two central and elevated hills with enormous fills to make a space for the royal palace.[8] For two major reasons, these political and architectonic accomplishments have long been seen without precedents in scholarship. Firstly, the pre-Mermnad dynasties of Lydia—known from a variety of Greek and Roman literary sources that were narrated centuries after Lydia’s loss of sovereignty—are embellished by legendary tales.[9] Secondly, the earlier generation of field campaigns at Sardis, conducted in areas that are now known to be suburban, yielded only small-scale domestic buildings with relatively poor ceramic assemblages.[10] Collectively, they suggested no power structures, either engineered or socio-politically construed, existed in Sardis before the Mermnads. However, our recent discoveries of a long sequence of monumental constructions dating back to the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2000 BCE) in the same central precinct as the Mermnad palatial complex have started to challenge this understanding.[11]

Within this long sequence, the architectural contexts of the ninth and eighth centuries BCE are of particular significance. They include, in the central precinct:

• mudbrick buildings with substantial timber framework, placed in multiple tiers on the hilltop and slope of the two neighboring hills, in the fashion of terraced residences, in the ninth century BCE (Lydian IV)
• polygonal boulder terraces that encircled the hill’s lower slopes in the eighth century BCE (Lydian III).

Compared to their contemporary domestic structures on the valley ground, they stand out by their costlier production, which necessitated large construction crews working simultaneously. Building materials were exported from relatively longer distances—such as green clay, loads of timber, and schist boulders, most of which weigh more than one ton—and hauled up to the top of the naturally elevated hills. The former settlementscape was also extensively transformed for their creation. Builders sometimes reshaped the natural topography and incorporated it into architecture and sometimes artificially filled in slopes to create platforms. Further, their prominent position allowed the inhabitants to observe the performance of laborers (as they reshaped the central precinct), instilling a certain sense of awe and mental perception of dominance and control. In my doctoral dissertation research, I demonstrated how these structures and the way they (re)created a dominant center represent—in a sequence—the formation and stabilization of the Lydian elite throughout the two centuries before the Mermnads in Sardis.[12] Whilst at ANAMED, I partly drafted a journal article on our changing understanding of socio-spatial organization in these centuries at Sardis.

As part of my fellowship, I focus on situating these monumental building practices in their Anatolian context, using the extensive library facilities at ANAMED and nearby institutions. For this research, I evaluate the early Lydian construction techniques and modes of power display in Sardis vis a vis sites in overall Anatolia. All the capitals (to the east of Lydia) in the Syro-Anatolian and Phrygian spheres feature a ruling elite district situated in a prominent location, monumentalized by elite constructions that are encircled by tall citadel walls. This spatial arrangement, symbolizing an “eastern” royal ideology, was emulated and continuously followed by the Lydian elite precinct. One major difference is that the early Lydian elite never closed off their precinct with separate defenses, delineating the monumental terracing practice as a Lydian mode of elite placemaking. This terracing practice in the Lydian IV period (as multi-tier residences) appears remarkably different from monumental constructions (of ritual nature) at the low-density and decentralized sites on the western Anatolian coast. Yet, the arrangement of Lydian III polygonal terraces shows affinities to the spatial logic of sacred spaces in the Greek world, while their construction styles find close matches in the emerging refuge citadels in western Anatolia, which might have been a result of the stabilizing early Lydian elite’s attempts at a western expansion. An increase in the number of imported Greek ceramics in Sardis also supports this westerly shift of focus. That these practices advocate the expanding horizons of the Lydian elite and an urge to make place for them on the map of Iron Age Anatolia earlier—as previously unsuspected actors shaping its political landscape—form the core a paper that I presented at a conference at Bilkent University and will publish in Anatolian Studies.

Providing a background to the Mermnad Dynasty, the last part of my research deals with their imperialization of Lydia from the late seventh to the mid-sixth centuries BCE. Research on this period has often been oriented outward from its core to the peripheries, recording the achievements of Lydia’s last two kings, Alyattes and Croesus, mentioned in historical sources, as well as their growing influence in Anatolia. Building on this, I study the manifestations of imperialization at the core capital, focusing on material changes in the cityscape and building practices. Whilst at ANAMED, I delivered a conference paper (online, based in Trento University, Italy) and a public talk in Ankara (ARIT-TAA) on this topic, and I continue to draft it for the peer-reviewed proceedings volume on Anatolian Interactions.

The process of Lydia’s imperialization is seen at its capital Sardis by increasing extents of socio-spatial hierarchy, conspicuous consumption in monumental production, and hybridity in their conceptual design principles and construction styles. The city reached its largest extent from the seventh century BCE onwards[13] and had a multi-tier socio-spatial organization achieved by enormous building programs. The most visible military-palatial acropolis and the elevated palatial complex at its outskirts (perhaps connected by tunnels) formed the highest social tier. This is indicated by the non-domestic nature of this area: demarcated by limestone ashlar terraces and buildings adorned with painted architectural terracottas and luxury objects, some of which were used for administrative purposes.[14] Centering this elite complex, the lower city was encircled with a fortification wall, the mass of which finds parallels only at prominent cities of the Assyrian empire, such as Khorsabad and Nimrud. Between these fortifications and the palatial complex lay houses of well-to-do inhabitants, forming the second social tier. In the extramural zone, occupation continued along the Pactolus River—with mixed-use structures for housing, small-scale industry, burials, and cultic practices—that formed the third tier. Further out of Sardis, small satellite settlements sprinkled the landscape.

An increasing extent of hybridity is featured in the palatial terraces and fortifications in this process, taking place particularly during the reign of Croesus. His palatial complex towering over the settlement still maintained the eastern royal ideologies of power display. Yet, a shift in the design of its terraces—from a multi-tier, stepped-terrace arrangement to standalone high-rising platforms—went hand-in-hand with a development in the Greek world: the emergence of temples raised on podium-type platforms. Given the historical context of Croesus’ lavish donations to Greek temples to consult oracles and sometimes to fund their construction (such as in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus),[15] it seems likely that he adopted this architectural form and combined it with the eastern concept of a palace when designing his royal complex.

Another kind of hybridity is observed in the fortifications. In its sixth century phase, parts of the mudbrick superstructure were replaced by tall stone walls, perhaps to attach a new earthen glacis to the structure.[16] This new stone masonry came with a great diversity of styles. Assyrian-style rusticated ashlar masonry and a continued local polygonal technique combined with various styles known from the Aegean world. But all were patchworked into the long-term Anatolian model of defensive construction: stone foundations elevating a mudbrick superstructure supported by internal wooden beams and a glacis. While the pursuance of this building practice signifies the imperial Lydian rulers’ ties to ancestral architectural traditions, the multiplicity in masonry styles may be seen as indicative of construction labor drawn from the subject lands of Lydia. Thus, this labor mobilization in the imperialization process suggests the expanding territories of Lydia and growing power of the Mermnad rulers, but, now, with a much deeper history going back to the Bronze and earlier Iron Ages.

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[1] E. M. Abrams, “Architecture and Energy: An Evolutionary Perspective,” Archaeological Method and Theory 1 (1989): 47–87; E. M. Abrams, How the Maya Built Their World: Energetics and Ancient Architecture (Austin: University of Texas, 1994); B. G. Trigger, “Monumental Architecture: A Thermodynamic Explanation of Symbolic Behaviour,” World Archaeology 22, no. 2 (1990): 119–32; E. DeMarrais, L. J. Castillo, and T. Earle, “Ideology, Materialization, and Power Strategies,” Current Anthropology 37 (1996): 15–31; F. D. Neiman, “Conspicuous Consumption as Wasteful Advertising: A Darwinian Perspective on Spatial Patterns in Classic Maya Terminal Monument Dates,” in Rediscovering Darwin: Evolutionary Theory and Archaeological Explanation, eds. C. M. Barton and G. A. Clark (Arlington: American Anthropological Association, 1996), 267–90.

[2] A. Brysbaert, ed., Constructing Monuments, Perceiving Monumentality & The Economics of Building (Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2018); L. McCurdy and A. M. Abrams, eds., Architectural Energetics in Archaeology: Analytical Expansions and Global Explorations (London and New York: Routledge, 2019); F. Buccellati, S. Hageneuer, S. van der Heyden, and F. Levenson, eds., Size Matters—Understanding Monumentality Across Ancient Civilizations (Wetzlar: Transcript Verlag, 2019); S. J. Barker, C. Courault, J. Á. Domingo, and D. Maschek, From Concept to Monument: Time and Costs of Construction in the Ancient World. Papers in Honour of Janet DeLaine (Oxford: Archaeopress, forthcoming).

[3] R. Bradley, The Significance of Monuments. On the Shaping of Human Experience in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe (London and New York: Routledge, 1998); R. Joyce, “Unintended Consequences? Monumentality as a Novel Experience in Formative Mesoamerica,” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 11, no. 1 (2004): 5–29; E.Adams, “Social Strategies and Spatial Dynamics in Neopalatial Crete: An Analysis of the North-Central Area,” American Journal of Archaeology 110, no. 1 (2006): 1–36; J. Maran, “Architecture, Power and Social Practice: An Introduction,” in Constructing Power: Architecture, Ideology and Social Practice, eds. J. Maran, C. Juwig, H. Schwengel, and U. Thaler (Geschichte: Forschung und Wissenschaft 19. Hamburg: LIT Verlag, 2006), 9–14; J. C. Wright, “The Social Production of Space and the Architectural Reproduction of Society in the Bronze Age Aegean During the 2nd Millennium B.C.E.,” in Constructing Power: Architecture, Ideology and Social Practice, eds. J. Maran, C. Juwig, H. Schwengel, and U. Thaler (Geschichte: Forschung und Wissenschaft 19. Hamburg: LIT Verlag, 2006), 49–74; A. B. Knapp, “Monumental Architecture, Identity and Memory,” in Proceedings of the Symposium: Bronze Age Architectural Traditions in the East Mediterranean: Diffusion and Diversity, 07.-08. 05. 2008 in Munich, ed. Apostolos Kyriatsoulis (Weilheim: Verein zur Förderung der Aufarbeitung der Hellenischen Geschichte e.V, 2009), 47–59; R. D. Fitzsimons, “Monumental Architecture and the Construction of the Mycenaean State,” in State Formation in Italy and Greece: Questioning the Neoevolutionist Paradigm, eds. N. Terrenato and D. C. Haggis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 75–118.

[4] T.Pauketat, “The Tragedy of the Commoners,” in Agency in Archaeology, eds. M. A. Dobres and J. E. Robb (London: Routledge, 2000), 113–29; B. G. Trigger, “Early Cities: Craft Workers, Kings, and Controlling the Supernatural,” in The Ancient City New Perspectives on Urbanism in the Old and New World, eds. J. Marcus and J. A. Sabloff (Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research, 2008), 53–66.; D. M. Carballo, ed., Cooperation and Collective Action: Archaeological Perspectives (Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2013).

[5] K.Dovey, Framing Places, Mediating Power in Built Form (London and New York: Routledge, 1999); Q.Letesson, Du Phénotype au Génotype: Analyse de la Syntaxe Spatiale en Architecture Minoenne (MMIIIB – MRIB) (Leuven: Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2009); A. T. Smith, “The Making of an Urartian Landscape in Southern Transcaucasia: A Study of Political Architectonics,” American Journal of Archaeology 103, no. 1 (1999): 45–71; J. Maran, “Mycenaean Citadels as Performative Space,” in Constructing Power: Architecture, Ideology and Social Practice, Geschichte: Forschung und Wissenschaft 19, eds. J. Maran, C. Juwig, H. Schwengel, and U. Thaler (Hamburg: LIT Verlag, 2006), 75–88; E. Adams, “Approaching Monuments in the Prehistoric Built Environment: New Light on the Minoan Palaces,” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 26, no. 4 (2007): 359–94; K. D. Fisher, “Elite Place-Making and Social Interaction in the Late Cypriot Bronze Age,” Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 22, no. 2 (2009a): 183–209; K. D. Fisher, “Placing Social Interaction: An Integrative Approach to Analyzing Past Built Environments,” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28 (2009b): 439–57; C. Glatz and A. M. Plourde, “Landscape Monuments and Political Competition in Late Bronze Age Anatolia: An Investigation of Costly Signaling Theory,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 361 (2011): 33–66; Ö.Harmanşah, “Moving Landscapes, Making Place: Cities, Monuments and Commemoration at Malizi/Melid,” Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 24, no. 1 (2011a): 55–83; Ö. Harmanşah, “Event, Place, Performance: Rock Reliefs and Spring Monuments in Anatolia,” in Of Rocks and Water: An Archaeology of Place, ed. Ö. Harmanşah (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2014), 140–68; J. F. Osborne, “Communicating Power in the Bīt-Ḫilāni Palace,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 368 (2012): 29–66; J. F. Osborne, “Settlement Planning and Urban Symbology in Syro-Anatolian Cities,” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 24 (2014a): 195–214.

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