Anatolians
The Anatolians were Indo-European-speaking peoples of the Anatolian Peninsula in present-day Turkey,
identified by their use of the Anatolian languages.[1] These peoples were among the oldest Indo-
European ethnolinguistic groups and one of the most archaic, because Anatolians were among the first
Indo-European peoples to separate from the Proto-Indo-European community that gave origin to the
individual Indo-European peoples.[2][1]
History
Origins
Indo-European migrations as described in The Horse, the Wheel, and Language by David W. Anthony
Map 1: Anatolian peoples in 2nd
millennium BC; Blue: Luwians , Yellow: Hittites , Red: Palaics.
Together with the Proto-Tocharians, who migrated eastward, the Anatolian peoples constituted the first
known waves of Indo-European emigrants out of the Eurasian steppe.[3] It is likely that they
reached Anatolia from the north, via the Balkans or the Caucasus, in the 3rd millennium BC.[1][4][5] This
movement has yet to be documented archaeologically.[5][6] Although they had wagons, they probably
emigrated before Indo-Europeans had learned to use chariots for war.[3][7] Comparison
of Hittite agricultural terms with those of other Indo-European subgroups indicate that the Anatolian
peoples seceded from the other Indo-Europeans before the establishment of a common agricultural
nomenclature, which suggests that they entered the Near East as a cohesive people through a common
route.[5]
The Anatolian peoples were intruders in an area in which the local population had already founded
cities, established literate bureaucracies and established kingdoms and palace cults.[2] Once they
entered the region, the cultures of the local populations, in particular the Hattians, significantly
influenced them linguistically, politically and religiously.[5] Christopher I. Beckwith suggests that the
Anatolian peoples initially gained a foothold in Anatolia after being hired by the Hattians to fight other
invading Indo-European groups.[6]