Essays

Muski, Phrygiërs en koning Midas

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Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the thesis that the Muski and the Phrygians are the same people and that king Midas is identical to king Mita. The Muski are known only from Iron Age Assyrian chronicles. The oldest documents concerning the Muski show that they lived in northern Mesopotamia around 1165 BC.They flourished under the reign of Sargon II in the late 8th century BC, when their king Mita undertook military campaigns in the region of Neo-Hittite Tabal and Que. The Phrygians, in turn, find their origin in the Balkan. After their migration to Asia, possibly recorded in archaeology, they can be found as easterly as Hattuša and Tuwana. From an inscription of Midas City we know that Midas must be dated in the same period as Mita. It is remarkable that archaeology places the Phrygians in the same region where the Muski are located according to Assyrian documents. It would be strange that the Assyrians knew about the Muski, but were unaware of the Phrygians. Therefore, it can be argued that the Muski and the Phrygians were actually the same people. If this hypothesis is correct, then they possibly intermixed at some point in history, perhaps around the period of Mita/ Midas. Nevertheless, due to the fragmentary state of the sources, a lot of uncertainty and speculation remains.

How to Cite:

Meesters, R., (2012) “Muski, Phrygiërs en koning Midas”, Tetradio 21(1): 5, 85–104. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tetradio.91819