Ancient and Current Toponomy of Asia Minor

Abstract

Strabo, the geographer, was born (64/63-23? AD) in Amesia in Asia Minor. Today Amasia is called as Amasya in Anatolia. His book, the Geography, is an important ancient source for the toponomy of Anatolia. He described some parts of Asia Minor in his books XII to XIV. Historical conditions have changed since he wrote his book. As Anatolia is a very important peninsula like a cultural bridge between Europe and Asia, many ethnic groups of people have settled here or affected the culture of the region. At least Strabo’s Asia Minor has become Anatolia or Anadolu in Turkish. In addition to these, thousands of settlements were renamed in 1950 and 1960s. The programme for renaming the settlements also changed original Turkish names. Despite of all the changes in the history and the toponomy of Asia Minor-Anatolia, names of some settlements have survived and are still in use with little or no change in sound. In this paper, the toponomy of Strabo’s work and the toponomy of current Anatolia are compared and the unchanged or little changed place names are studied.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n4p455