Formation in the Highlands of Eastern Turkey: An Overview From the Bronze to Iron Ages

Archaeological data from the highlands of Eastern Turkey unfortunately does not provide tangible evidence for the transformation of the earliest village communities into the institutional societies of the Urartian State period. The first as a result of central authority and institutionalization. There is a sharp difference understand the stages of the state transformation process. through the archaeological data, chronologically. The emergence of the first elites in the Eastern Anatolian plateaus goes back to the Middle Bronze Age with the appearance of the kurgan burials, which is mostly observed in Northeastern during the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age, which is characterized by the construction of fortresses and cemeteries including bronze and iron weapons. This means the state formation in the region and the establishment of the Urartian State rises from the organizational process of the semi-nomadic tribes dealing with animal husbandry during the Early Iron Age, rather than farmer societies engaged in agriculture. In other words, the state formation in the Eastern Anatolian highlands did not in the form of village, state and city.