Niğde Kınık Höyük: New Evidence on Central Anatolia during the First Millennium BCE

The occupation sequence of the first millennium BCE at Niğde Kınık Höyük (Turkey), provides new insights into the early history of the southern Anatolian Plateau. From around 1000 BCE, the site is characterized by a full-fledged urban layout, indicating a previously unattested sociopolitical complexity on the plateau that stems from a reorganization of Hittite and local traditions. During the second half of the first millennium BCE, the site was an important cultic center, per the large repertoire of unearthed statuary and votive objects. Altogether, the evidence allows one to reconsider local and regional trajectories that took place in two key historical phases: the aftermath of the Hittite Empire and the assimilation of central Anatolia into the classical world.