Phrygia forms the western part of a loose confederation of peoples (identified as “Mushki” in Assyrian records) that dominates the entire Anatolian peninsula between the twelfth and ninth centuries BCE.

This early civilization borrows heavily from the Hittites, whom they had replaced around 1200, and establishes a system of roads that the Persians will later utilized.

The Phrygians excel in metalwork and woodcarving and are said to have originated the art of embroidery.

Phrygian carpets are famous.

Among the various Phrygian religious practices, the cult of the Great Mother (Cybele) predominates and is passed on to the Greeks.

Little else is known of Phrygian society.

The great shrines such as Pessinus own vast lands, the high priests being virtually autonomous rulers.

Society is probably feudal.

An intelligent and evidently cultivated elite (they are able to read and write) exists at Gordium and the important religious center at “Midas City” (modern Yazilikaya, Turkey), together with an important nucleus of craftsmen and merchants, some doubtless being foreigners—Greeks, Phoenicians, Syrians, and Urartaeans.

A staple industry is sheep rearing, which provides a fine wool much in demand in Miletus and other Greek centers of industry.

The neighborhood of Midas City harbors considerable forestland, and timber is clearly an important economic factor.

Another specialty is horse rearing, the Phrygians probably being, like many of the Indo-Europeans, an equestrian aristocracy ruling over other native peoples.