The Lydian Empire controlled western Anatolia from the Aegean Sea to modern Turkey’s region of Cappadocia in the seventh and first half of the sixth centuries b.c. During this period, the Lydians minted the world’s first coins, including some that date to the rule of their famously wealthy king Croesus (reigned 585–547 b.c.).
A team led by archaeologist Nicholas Cahill of the University of Wisconsin–Madison has now found earlier palace walls at Sardis, some of which date to the eighth, and perhaps even ninth, century b.c. “Since we have so few written sources from the Lydians themselves, we have always relied on Greek and Near Eastern literary sources,” Cahill says, “and they don’t mention Sardis before the seventh century b.c.” Previous excavations at the site had uncovered only traces of small houses predating this period.
