Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Northeastern Anatolia during the Iron Age has long been neglected archaeologically, yet historical sources attest to its importance, located on the frontiers of the Urartian and Persian empires and witness to numerous incursions by diverse groups such as the Medes, Cimmerians and Scythians. The archaeological potential of the area was first revealed by surface surveys carried out in the 1940s and 1950s. However, with the University of Melbourne's excavations and surface survey of sites in the Bayburt and Erzurum provinces, there is now a significant body of material emerging for study.
Historical and archaeological foci have traditionally been with the centres of empires, the core or optimal areas, while it is in the periphery, or marginal areas that the dynamics of social change are most evident. These foci largely stem from the inherent difficulties involved in gleaning information on peripheral areas.