Anatolia - Name and Etymology

Name and Etymology

The oldest known reference to Anatolia, "Land of the Hatti", was found for the first time on Mesopotamic cuneiform tablets from the period of the Akkadian dynasty (2350–2150 BC). On those tablets Assyrian traders implored the help of the Akkadian king Sargon. This appellation continued to exist for about 1500 years till 630 BC, as stated in Assyrian chronicles.

Later, the Anatolian peninsula was given the name Asia (Ἀσία) by the Greeks, presumably after the name of the Assuwa confederation in western Anatolia. As the name Asia came to be extended to other areas east of the Mediterranean, the name for Anatolian became specified as Asia Minor ("Lesser Asia", Μικρὰ Ἀσία) in Late Antiquity.

The name Anatolia comes from the Greek Aνατολή (anatolē) meaning the "East" or more literally "sunrise", comparable to the Latin terms "Levant" or "Orient" (and words for "east" in other languages). The precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Ionian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor.

In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolikon' theme (ανατολικόν θέμα) was a theme covering the western and central parts of Turkey's present-day Central Anatolian Region.

The name "Turkey" (Türkiye) means "land of the Turks" and was never used as a name of Anatolia specifically. The modern Turkish name of Anatolia remains Anadolu, loaned from the Greek.