Phrygian Kingdom

  General Description   The Phrygian Kingdom (c900-695 BCE) came into existence after the migration of a people to Anatolia in the early Iron Age, after the fall of the Hittite Empire. ^[1] The name the people called themselves is unknown because there are no Phrygian sources telling us about it. ’Phrygian’ is a Greek name while Assyrian texts refer to a Muški kingdom ^[2] "a fierce, aggressive, tribal people" who could be a separate people or a people who formed a union with the Phrygians in the 8th century. ^[3] The kingdom’s most developed phase occurred under king Midas who ruled from the city of Gordium in the late 8th century. ^[4]
We cannot say much about the organization of Phrygia at its peak development except that it was a monarchy that ruled from Gordium, a town of perhaps 20,000 inhabitants. The capital of Midas’s hypothesized Mushki-Phrygian union is assumed to have been named after Midas’s father. Earlier names in the dynasty are unknown. ^[4] Archaeologist know of three political documents but have not been able to decipher them. The Phrygian language is not known, and its similarity to Greek languages has only allowed for fragments of texts to be understood.
While we nothing about a central (palace based?) administration that may have been present archaeologists believe that other cities in Phrygia had their own governments ^[5] and a great deal of autonomy. ^[5] The biggest cities had governors. ^[5]
The beginning date for the Phrygian period is somewhat arbitrary, based on archaeological records. The end of the Phrygian period, however, is clearly marked by a conquest - it is the year when the Phrygian Kingdom was conquered by the Lydian Kingdom, which de facto put an end to the existence of the Phrygian period.

[1]: (Bryce 2002, 39-40) T Bryce. 2002. ‘’Life and Society in the Hittite World’’. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[2]: (Roller 2011, 563) L Roller. 2011. "Phrygian and the Phrygians" Oxford Handbook of Ancien Anatolia

[3]: (Bryce 2002, 40)

[4]: (Bryce 2002, 41) T Bryce. 2002. ‘’Life and Society in the Hittite World’’. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[5]: (Atasoy 1982, 158) Buluç E A Atasoy. 1982. "Metallurgical and Archaeological Examination of Phrygian Objects". Anatolian Studies. Vol. 32.