Economy and Power: Achaemenid Influence on Regional Economies in Western Anatolia

Abstract

Our knowledge of the Achaemenid Empire beyond Iran has rapidly expanded over the last twenty years particularly in Turkey and the Caucasus. Nevertheless, most material evidence for Achaemenid occupation comes either from major archaeological sites or singular finds of tombs and monuments. While fortresses and palaces reveal much about the top down practices of power, domestic contexts provide the locus of every day practices where power relationships are reproduced. The salvage excavation of Seyitömer in western Anatolia provides new insights into how domestic contexts in rural areas and regional centers, not directly under the control of Persian political elites, engaged with Achaemenid hegemony. In this chapter, we discuss the results of an analysis of Achaemenid period ceramics from Seyitömer as a proxy for understanding how the economy and regional networks developed under Persian control (Figure 1). Recent work underscores limited scope of research in domestic contexts within provincial Achaemenid sites. Gordion and Tille Höyük in Turkey, Tsaghkahvit in Armenia, and Sistan in Iran, are a few exceptions. Seyitömer phase 3 includes two closely sequential architectural phases of domestic buildings that date to the 4th and 5th century BCE. There is no clear 6th century BCE occupation at the site, from the early phases of Persian hegemony. We argue here that ceramic data from the site suggest that the political reorganization of the provinces in the early 5th century BCE may have enabled local elites to capitalize on the changing political and economic landscape.