Editing Sardis (section)

=== Early settlement ===
{{See also|Seha River Land}}
[[File:Gediz-Graben_10_05_1974_bei_Sardes_Erosion_Tmolos-Schutt_(cropped).jpg|thumb|275px|left|View of the citadel from below]]

Sardis was settled before 1500 BC. However, the size and nature of early settlement is not known since only small extramural portions of these layers have been excavated. Evidence of occupation consists largely of [[Late Bronze Age]] and [[Early Iron Age]] pottery which shows affinities with [[Mycenaean Greece]] and the [[Hittite Empire|Hittites]]. No early monumental architecture had been found as of 2011.<ref name="Greenewalt-2011-Steadman-McMahon"/>{{rp|style=ama|pp=1114–1116}}<ref name = "LydiaBefore" >{{cite encyclopedia |title= Lydia before the Lydians |encyclopedia= The Lydians and Their World |year=2010 |last= Roosevelt |first= Christopher |url=https://sardisexpedition.org/en/essays/latw-roosevelt-lydia-before-lydians}}</ref>

The site may have been occupied as early as the [[Neolithic]], as evidenced by scattered finds of early ceramic fragments. However, these were found out of context, so no clear conclusions can be drawn. Early Bronze Age cemeteries were found 7 miles away along [[Lake Marmara]], near elite graves of the later Lydian and Persian periods.<ref name="Greenewalt-2011-Steadman-McMahon" />{{rp|style=ama|p=1116}}<ref name = "LydiaBefore" />

In the Late Bronze Age, the site would have been in the territory of the [[Seha River Land]], whose capital is thought to have been located at nearby [[Kaymakçı (archaeological site)|Kaymakçı]]. Hittite texts record that Seha was originally part of [[Arzawa]], a macrokingdom which the Hittite king [[Mursili II]] defeated and partitioned. After that time, Seha became a vassal state of the Hittites and served as an important intermediary with the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean Greeks]]. The relationship between the people of Seha and the later Lydians is unclear, since there is evidence of both cultural continuity and disruption in the region.<ref name = "LydiaBefore" /> Neither the term "Sardis" nor its alleged earlier name of "Hyde" (in Ancient Greek, which may have reflected a Hittite name "Uda") appears in any extant Hittite text.<ref name="Greenewalt-2011-Steadman-McMahon" />{{rp|style=ama|pp=1115–1116}}