From the stone temples of Göbekli Tepe to the first coins of Lydia: nine thousand years of Anatolia in eight stops.
Every date in this timeline is taken from the sourced chronology of the article we link to.
| Date | Event | Article |
|---|---|---|
| About 9600 BC | Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement and monumental building begin at Göbekli Tepe. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 9600–8200 BCE | UNESCO's date range for the monumental structures at Göbekli Tepe. | Karahan Tepe and Taş Tepeler: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site |
| 9400–8200 BCE | Necmi Karul's date range for the excavated western slope of Karahan Tepe. | Karahan Tepe and Taş Tepeler: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site |
| About 8000 BC | End of the Neolithic occupation sequence identified by current research. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 7400–6200 BCE | Neolithic settlement phases of the East Mound, by UNESCO's dating. | Çatalhöyük: Was the World’s First City Built in Konya? |
| 6200–5200 BCE | Chalcolithic settlement phases of the West Mound, by UNESCO's dating. | Çatalhöyük: Was the World’s First City Built in Konya? |
| 6th millennium BCE | Evidence shows settlement at Arslantepe reaching back at least this far. | Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace |
| 6th millennium BC | earliest traces of settlement at the Hattusa site. | Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There |
| 3600-3000 BC | Proposed 'Troy 0' layer (Aslan team, after 2014) | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 3400–3100 BCE | The palace complex stands out for its central rule and administrative control. | Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace |
| Late 4th millennium BCE | A sudden destruction ends the palace's use. | Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace |
| 3000-2550 BC | Troy I | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 2500-2300 BC | Troy II, wealthy city; Schliemann's 'Priam's Treasure' comes from this layer | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 19th–18th centuries BC | Assyrian merchants establish a trading settlement in the Lower City. | Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There |
| 1750-1300 BC | Troy VI, sawtooth walls over 9 m, 30-hectare lower town; earthquake destruction around 1300 BC | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| About 1700 BC | Anitta destroys Hattusa and leaves a curse against resettlement. | Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There |
| About 1650–1600 BC | Hattusa becomes the Hittite capital under Hattusili I. | Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There |
| 13th century BC | the date UNESCO gives for the Great Temple. | Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There |
| 1300-1180 BC | Troy VIIa, destroyed with fire traces; Blegen's candidate for Homer's Troy | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| c. 1280 BC | Treaty between Hittite king Muwatalli II and Alaksandu of Wilusa | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| About 1274 BCE | The armies of Ramesses II and Muwatalli II fight near Kadesh in Syria. | The Treaty of Kadesh: History’s First Written Peace Treaty |
| About 1259/1258 BCE | Under the common dating, Ramesses II and Hattusili III make the treaty. The UN and some official Turkish sources give 1269 BCE. | The Treaty of Kadesh: History’s First Written Peace Treaty |
| 12th–7th centuries BCE | The settlement is the centre of the Late Hittite state of Kammanu. | Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace |
| 1184 BC | Eratosthenes' traditional date for the fall of Troy | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 950-85 BC | Troy VIII, Greek Ilion; Alexander the Great visits in 334 BC | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 8th–6th centuries BC | Lydia stands out as one of western Anatolia's strong Iron Age civilizations. | The Lydians: The Anatolian People Who Invented Coinage |
| 712 BCE | Sargon II captures and plunders the city. | Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace |
| 7th century BC | The first electrum coins linked to the Lydians appear in western Anatolia. | The Lydians: The Anatolian People Who Invented Coinage |
| First half of the 6th century BC | Gold and silver are separated at the Pactolus North refining area in Sardis. | The Lydians: The Anatolian People Who Invented Coinage |
| Mid-6th century BC | Croesus's coin reform brings separate pure gold and pure silver coins. | The Lydians: The Anatolian People Who Invented Coinage |
| 546 BC (traditional date) | Cyrus II captures Sardis and the independent Lydian kingdom ends. | The Lydians: The Anatolian People Who Invented Coinage |
| 5th–4th centuries BC | Most surviving Lydian inscriptions date from this period. | The Lydians: The Anatolian People Who Invented Coinage |
| 85 BC-AD 500 | Troy IX, Roman Ilium; Caesar 48 BC, Augustus 20 BC; Gothic sack AD 267; earthquake c. AD 500 | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 1863-65 | Frank Calvert identifies Hisarlık as ancient Ilion | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 1870-1890 | Schliemann excavations; 'Priam's Treasure' found 27 May 1873 | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 1906 | Hugo Winckler and Theodor Makridy begin systematic excavations. | Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There |
| 1906–1908 | Clay tablets of the treaty come out of the royal archive in the Hattusa excavations. | The Treaty of Kadesh: History’s First Written Peace Treaty |
| 1932 | French excavations under Louis Delaporte begin. | Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace |
| 1932-1938 | Blegen: nine cities, 46 sub-phases | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 1945 | Treasure taken from Berlin to Moscow; Pushkin Museum admits it in 1994 | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 1958 | David French, Alan Hall and James Mellaart bring the site to the attention of archaeology. Local people already knew it. | Çatalhöyük: Was the World’s First City Built in Konya? |
| 1961 | Mellaart leads the first excavation season. | Çatalhöyük: Was the World’s First City Built in Konya? |
| 1961 | The Italian excavations, with Piero Meriggi and Salvatore M. Puglisi, begin. | Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace |
| 1963 | Istanbul University and the University of Chicago record the site during a joint survey. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 1966 | Boğazköy Museum opens. | Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There |
| 24 September 1970 | Türkiye gives the United Nations a copper replica made by Sadi Çalık. | The Treaty of Kadesh: History’s First Written Peace Treaty |
| 1975 | Wooden horse at the site entrance (İzzet Senemoğlu) | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 1986 | UNESCO lists Hattusa as a World Heritage site. | Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There |
| 1988-2005 | Korfmann excavations, lower town discovered; National Park 1996, UNESCO 1998 | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 1993 | Ian Hodder restarts research after a long break. | Çatalhöyük: Was the World’s First City Built in Konya? |
| 1994 | Klaus Schmidt recognises the archaeological importance of the site. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 1995 | Excavations begin. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 1997 | Bahattin Çelik discovers Karahan Tepe. | Karahan Tepe and Taş Tepeler: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site |
| 2003–2005 | a 65-metre mud-brick wall section is rebuilt. | Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There |
| 2004 | Film horse arrives on the Çanakkale Kordon | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 2006 | Stephanie Meece publishes her article against the map reading of the wall painting. | Çatalhöyük: Was the World’s First City Built in Konya? |
| 2011 | The open-air museum opens to visitors. | Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace |
| 2011 | the two Boğazköy sphinxes go on display together in the museum. | Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There |
| 2012 | Çatalhöyük is added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. | Çatalhöyük: Was the World’s First City Built in Konya? |
| 2013/2014 | Rüstem Aslan (ÇOMÜ) becomes excavation director | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 2014 | Arslantepe enters the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. | Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace |
| June 2016 | Work starts on the protective roof. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 2017 | Study of three modified skulls is published; one of the sub-floor burials is excavated. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 2018 | Göbekli Tepe is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 10 October 2018 | Troy Museum opens; Year of Troy, 531,530 visitors | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 15 November 2018 | Roof renovation is completed and limited visiting hours are lifted. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 2019 | The study of 7,268 grinding tools is published. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| September 2019 | Excavations begin. | Karahan Tepe and Taş Tepeler: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site |
| 2021 | The work becomes part of the Taş Tepeler Project. | Karahan Tepe and Taş Tepeler: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site |
| 26 July 2021 | Arslantepe is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. | Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace |
| 2022 | The second sub-floor burial is excavated. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 30 September 2023 | The Ministry announces the pigment-bearing wild boar statue from Building D. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |
| 30 September 2023 | The 2.3-meter seated human statue is announced. | Karahan Tepe and Taş Tepeler: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site |
| 21 November 2023 | The Çatalhöyük Introduction and Welcome Centre opens. | Çatalhöyük: Was the World’s First City Built in Konya? |
| 2025 | The Science paleogenome study on maternal lines and changing kinship is published. | Çatalhöyük: Was the World’s First City Built in Konya? |
| 2025 | 3,500-year-old sling stones found in front of the Troy VI palace | Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale |
| 2025 | Sardis and the Lydian Tumuli of Bin Tepe join the UNESCO World Heritage List. | The Lydians: The Anatolian People Who Invented Coinage |
| 6 October 2025 | The T-shaped pillar with a human face is announced. | Karahan Tepe and Taş Tepeler: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site |
| 26 November 2025 | Karul comments on the 17-meter public building with three-step benches. | Karahan Tepe and Taş Tepeler: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site |
| 25 August 2026 | The 70-centimeter statue of a person seated on a leopard is announced. | Karahan Tepe and Taş Tepeler: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site |
| 21 September 2026 | The Ministry of Culture and Tourism announces that a new tablet fragment found at Büyükkale belongs to the treaty. | The Treaty of Kadesh: History’s First Written Peace Treaty |
| 22 September 2026 | Research documenting the two sub-floor burials is published. | Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History |