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203 Abstract Much of the evidence for the presence of Celtic immigrants or Galatians in central Anatolia during Hellenistic times comes from texts. Livy clearly places one group at Gordion, which he described as an “oppidum” or fortress and a market town in the early second century B.C. Excavations carried out on the Citadel Mound at Gordion between 1950 and 2002 have exposed large areas of a Later Hellenistic settlement that was founded in the mid-third century BCE and finally abandoned in the second century. Material remains that can be linked to Iron Age sites in Europe include a La Tène button, iron fibula, iron shears, and shield iron strap, as well as sculptures in a style that can be paralleled at La Tène sites in France. In a low, walled area adjacent to the settlement were found deposits of human and animal bone that can only be interpreted as the physical remains of violent ritual practices. These practices include decapitation and the display of trophy skulls, the careful rearrangement of body parts, incorporation of human remains with those of a large number of domestic animals, and strangulation. Most of the human remains were left on the ancient land surface, eventually buried by silt washing off a nearby enclosure wall. The individuals represented within these structured deposits included males, females, and some very young children. This chapter presents the material evidence for interpersonal violence at Celtic Gordion, and possible interpretations of this evidence in the light of documentary sources that describe Celtic practices in Europe and Anatolia. Introduction In the early third century BCE, a group of Celtic speakers who called themselves Galatai moved into Macedonia (Mitchell 1993:13–15, Map 2). Although documentary sources emphasize military activities carried out by the Galatai (hereafter Galatians), most Chapter Eleven The Violent Ways of Galatian Gordion Mary M. Voigt 204 Sanctified Violence modern historians argue that the primary purpose of this journey was a search for land that could be controlled for permanent settlement (Darbyshire et al. 2000:75–78; see also Strobel 1996). The ancient historians tell us that in 278 BCE a group of 20,000 Galatians accompanied by 2,000 baggage wagons that held women and children crossed the Bosporus (Mitchell 1993:14–16).1 They were headed for the kingdom of Bythinia where they had been solicited as allies by King Nicomedes (Mitchell 1993:15–16). Once in Anatolia, the Celts took advantage of unstable political conditions under the Seleucids and soon resumed raiding, primarily along the west coast. After several military defeats they eventually settled in central Anatolia (Mitchell 1993:16–20; see also Rankin 1987:190–194). One of the places that they settled was the ancient capital of the Phrygians, Gordion. We have a long and rich archaeological record for Gordion during the fourth to second centuries BCE as a result of large-scale excavations on the Citadel Mound carried out by Rodney Young between 1950 and 1973 (DeVries 1990:400–405; Stewart 2010; Voigt 2011; Winter 1988), and careful stratigraphic excavation in four areas on the Citadel Mound and two areas in the adjacent Lower Town carried out between 1988 and 2002 (Voigt 1994, 2002, 2003, 2011; Voigt et al. 1997; Voigt and Young 1999). Historically, the beginning of the Hellenistic period at Gordion is clear: it is marked by the arrival of Alexander the Great in 333 BCE. The date of arrival of Celtic-speaking Galatians, on the other hand, is not attested by texts, but, extrapolating from the archaeological data, it is most likely to have been late in the second quarter of the third century BCE. Determining the archaeological correlates of these events is neither easy nor precise, but occupation levels on the Citadel Mound dated between the late fourth and second century BCE by ceramic parallels have been assigned to two major phases: Early Hellenistic or Phase 3B in the Yassıhöyük Stratigraphic Sequence (YHSS); and Later Hellenistic or YHSS Phase 3A (Table 11.1). The presence of at least some ethnic Celts at Gordion in the third and second centuries BCE (i.e., YHSS 3A) is certain, based on the presence of Celtic names written with the Greek alphabet (DeVries 1990:402 with refs; Roller 1987:106). The number of ethnic Celts present at the site and their role within the settlement has been disputed (Stewart 2010; Winter 1988), but widespread and significant changes in material culture between the Early and Later Hellenistic...

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