Names of Anatolia
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The oldest known name for Anatolia, "Land of the Hatti" was found for the first time on Mesopotamic cuneiform tablets from the period of the Akkadian dynasty (2350–2150 BC). On those tablets Assyrian traders implored the help of the Akkadian king Sargon. This appellation continued to exist for about 1500 years till 630 BC, as stated in Assyrian chronicles.
Later, the Anatolian peninsula was given the name Asia (Ἀσία), presumably after the name of the Assuwa confederation in western Anatolia. As the name Asia came to be extended to other areas east of the Mediterranean, the name for Anatolian became specified as Asia Minor ("Lesser Asia", Μικρὰ Ἀσία) in Late Antiquity.
The name Anatolia comes from the Greek Aνατολή (anatolē) meaning the "East" or more literally "sunrise", comparable to the Latin terms "Levant" or "Orient" (and words for "east" in other languages).[1] The precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring only to the Ionian colonies along the coast.
In the Byzantine Empire, Anatolikon called also Theme of the Anatolics (ανατολικόν θέμα) was a theme covering the western and central parts of Turkey's present-day Central Anatolian Region.[2][3]
The name "Turkey" (Türkiye) means "land of the Turks" and was never used as a name of Anatolia specifically. The modern Turkish name of Anatolia remains Anadolu, loaned from the Greek.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon". http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%237638.
- ^ "On the First Thema, Called Anatolikon. This theme is called Anatolikon or Theme of the Anatolics "ανατολικόν θέμα", not because it is above and in the direction of the east where the sun rises, but because it lies East of Byzantium and Europe." Constantine VII Porphyogenitus, De Thematibus, ed. A. Pertusi. Vatican: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1952, pp. 59–61.[clarification needed]
- ^ John Haldon, "Byzantium, a History", 2002. PAge 32.
