This is a list of peoples who inhabited Anatolia in antiquity. The essential purpose of the list is to identify prehistoric cultures in the region but many of the peoples continued to inhabit Anatolia into and through classical and late antiquity, so the actual scope of the list encompasses the history of Anatolia from prehistory to the Eastern Roman Empire (4th to 7th centuries AD), during which transition to the early medieval occurred.
Anatolia was inhabited by numerous peoples and its history is characterised by different waves of population movement. The earliest recorded inhabitants of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians, non-Indo-European peoples who lived in Anatolia as early as . Indo-European Hittites came to Anatolia and gradually absorbed the Hattians and Hurrians . Besides Hittites, Anatolian peoples included Luwians, Palaic peoples and Lydians. They spoke Anatolian languages. Other incoming people include Armenians, Greeks, Phrygians and Thracians.
Assyrians Ancient Assyrians spoke multiple languages such as Akkadian, Sumerian and Aramaic.
Hattians The Hattians occupied the land of Hatti in central Anatolia and are documented at least as early as the empire of Sargon of Akkad (c. 2300 BC).Trevor Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites: New Edition, Oxford University Press, 2005. p.12 Possibly connected to Northwest Caucasians.
Hurrians Mitanni (seem to have been Hurrian with an Indo-Aryan ruling class) Isuwans (seem to have been a mixed Anatolian, Hurrian, and Mitanni population) Kizzuwatnans Urartu
Indo-European peoples Anatolian peoples (Anatolian Indo-European) Hittites Cappadocians? / Leucosyri? (Cappadocians and Leucosyri were the same people; Cappadocians was the Persian name and Leukosyroi the Greek name, Leucosyri is the Latin name based on Greek) (Cappadocians also inhabited the West Pontus that originally was part of Cappadocia) Amiseni? (inhabited Themiscyra district in West Pontus) Kases? / Cases? Cataonians? Luwians Carians Cilicians Clitae Isaurians Leleges? Lycaonians Lycians Philistines? - notably inhabited southern Israel; their inclusion here is tenuous as they may have had an Anatolian origin Pisidians / Pamphylians (Pamphylians, on the coast, and Pisidians, in the inland, were the same people and spoke the same language, the difference was that Anatolian Pamphylians were more Greek influenced since Iron Age) (there was an Anatolian Pamphylian dialect, part of the Pisidian language, and a Pamphylian Greek dialect, part of Ancient Greek, depending on the degree of Hellenization) Homanades (Homana or Homona was their main settlement) Sidians Solymoi / Solymi Milyans / Milyae Telchines? Western Anatolian
Lydians Kaystrianoi / Caystriani Kilbianoi / Cilbiani
Trojans
Palaic peoples Paphlagonians? Caucones? / Kaukauni? Heneti? Mariandyni? Possible Anatolian (Indo-European) peoples Mysians? (possibly they were more related to the Phrygians, a non Anatolian Indo-European people, and therefore they were possibly not an Anatolian Indo-European people, Mysia was also known as Phrygia Hellespontica, however they probably had a mixing with an Anatolian people closer to the Lydians that would explain contradictory statements by ancient authors) Milatai? / Milatae? Isuwans? (seem to have been a mixed Anatolian, Hurrian, and Mitanni population)
Armenians
Celts Galatians Tectosages Tolistobogii / Tolistobogioi Trocmi / Trokmoi Aigosages, between Troy and Cyzicus Daguteni, in modern Marmara region around Orhaneli Inovanteni, east of the Trocnades Okondiani, between Phrygia and Galatia northeast of modern Akşehir Gölü Rigosages, unlocated Greeks Central-Eastern Greeks Central Greeks Aeolians Eastern Greeks Achaeans (possible inhabitants of a land called Ahhiyawa by the Hittites) Ionians Western Greeks Dorians Persians
Phrygians Kaourkoi / Caurci? Fontes? Mysians Mysians (possibly they were more related to the Phrygians, a non Anatolian Indo-European people, and therefore they were possibly not an Anatolian Indo-European people, Mysia was also known as Phrygia Hellespontica, however they probably had a mixing with an Anatolian people closer to the Lydians that would explain contradictory statements by ancient authors) Milatai? / Milatae?
Thracians Bithynians Thynians
Possible Indo-European peoples Hayasa-Azzi Hayasans (Proto-Armenians?) Azzians (Proto-Armenians?)
Mushki Mushki Western Mushki (synonymous of the Phrygians? and related Mysians?) Eastern Mushki (Proto-Armenians?) Moschi-Mossynoeci Moschi (possible Mushki, Indo-European?, origin, assimilated by old Kartvelian peoples and named Meskhetians, the inhabitants of Meskheti in far southwestern Georgia - Sakartvelo) Mossynoeci (possible Mushki, Indo-European?, origin, assimilated by old Kartvelian peoples and named Meskhetians, the inhabitants of Meskheti in far southwestern Georgia - Sakartvelo)
Urumu Urumu (Proto-Armenians?), allied with Mushki and Kaskians, possibly Arimi of Greek sources and Arme/Urme/Armini of Urartian sources
Tibareni Tibareni (several Classical Antiquity authors such as Herodotus, Xenophon and Strabo believed that they were of Scythian origin)
Diauehi Mentioned by Assyrians as one of the Nairi tribes inhabiting the Palu or Mush regions, later mentioned by Urartians in the vicinity of Kars Province, probably the Taochoi of Greek sources
Kartvelian peoples Colchians Byzeres (The name of the historical region Odzrkhe is derived from the name of this tribe - Vidzerukh / Viterukh / Odzr(a)khe / Odzrkhe) Drilae / Sanni Drilae (according to Arrian, Drilae and Sanni were the same people) (ancestors of present-day Zans) Sanni (ancestors of present-day Zans) Machelones-Macrones Machelones (closely related to the Macrones) Macrones (ancestors of present-day Mingrelians) Marres Phasians Zydretae
Possible Kartvelian peoples Eastern Mushki Moschi-Mossynoeci Moschi (possible Mushki, Kartvelian?, origin, and named Meskhetians, the inhabitants of Meskheti in far southwestern Georgia - Sakartvelo) Mossynoeci (possible Mushki, Kartvelian?, origin, and named Meskhetians, the inhabitants of Meskheti in far southwestern Georgia - Sakartvelo) Tibareni Tibareni (several Classical Antiquity authors such as Herodotus, Xenophon and Strabo believed that they were of Scythian origin)
Kaskians Possibly connected to Hattians and/or Northwest Caucasians.
See also List of ancient peoples of Italy Ancient regions of Anatolia
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Further reading