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Anatolia ( Greek ανατολη (anatole) for "rising of the sun" or "East"; compare " Orient" and " Levant", by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana "mother" and dolu "filled"), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to the Asian portion of Turkey.Asia Minor lies east of the Bosporus, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean (See also).
Because of its strategic location at the intersection of Asia and Europe, Anatolia has been a cradle for several civilizations since prehistoric ages, with neolithic settlements such as Catal Höyük (pottery neolithic), Cayönü ( Pre-Pottery Neolithic A to pottery Neolithic), Nevali CoriNevali Cori is an early Neolithic settlement in the upper Euphrates valley, eastern Turkey, around 490 m high. It is located near the steeply cut Kantara Cay, a tributary of the Euphrates. The settlement is dated back to around 8000 BC. In this period ( P ( PPN BPre-Pottery Neolithic B is a division of the Neolithic developed by Dame Kathleen Kenyon during her archaeological excavations at Jericho in Israel. It differs from the earlier Pre-Pottery Neolithic A in that people living during this period began to intr), Hacilar (pottery neolithic), Göbekli TepeGobekli Tepe is an early Neolithic site in southeastern Turkey. Location The site is located 15 km northeast of Urfa on the top of a range of limestone-hills that forms the southeastern extension of the Taurus-mountains. The name means "hill with a navel" ( PPN A) and MersinMersin is the capital city of Icel Province, in Turkey. It is located in the South Anatolia Region, to the southeast of the country, south of the Taurus Mountains, by the Mediterranean coast. History Since Mersin has always been a port city through histor. The settlement of TroyThis article is about the city of Troy / Ilion as described in the works of Homer, and the location of an ancient city associated with it. For other uses see Troy (disambiguation) and Ilion (disambiguation). Troy ( Greek Τροα Troia ( starts in the Neolithic, but continues up into the Iron age.
Major civilizations and peoples that have settled in or conquered Anatolia include the HattiansThe Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in Asia Minor in the 3rd to 2nd millennia BC. They spoke a non-Indo-European language of uncertain affiliation called Hattic (now believed by some to be related to the Northwest Caucasian, Luwians, HittitesHittites is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa (the modern village of Bogazkoy in todays's north-central Turkey), through most of the second millen, Phrygians, Cimmerians, Lydians, Persians, Celts, Tabals, Meshechs, Greeks, Pelasgians, Armenians, Romans, Goths, Kurds, Byzantines, Seljuk Turks and Ottomans. These peoples belonged to many varied ethnic and linguistic traditions. Through recorded history, Anatolians have spoken both Indo-European and Semitic languages, as well as many languages of uncertain affiliation. In fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical center from which the Indo-European languages have radiated. Other authors have proposed an Anatolian origin for the Etruscans of ancient Italy.
Today the inhabitants of Anatolia are mostly Turkish speakers, due to the conquest of Anatolia by Turkic peoples (and subsequent Islamification) in mediaeval times. A significant Kurdish ethnic and linguistic minority exists in the southern regions, next to the frontiers with Iraq and Iran.
