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The most striking and memorable feature of the Gordion landscape is the presence of over 200 tumuli, or earthen burial mounds that cover the tombs of the city’s elite.1 Ranging in date from the 9th century BC to the Hellenistic period, these tumuli vary in size from nearly imperceptible humps to the 53 m tall Tumulus MM, which is visible from nearly all parts of the Sakarya River valley (Fig. 9.1). Forty-four of the tumuli have been investigated archaeologically : 5 by the Körte brothers in 1900, 31 by the Americans, and 8 by Turkish archaeologists.2 Rodney Young gave the tumuli that were excavated under his watch alphabetical or alpha-numerical designations (Fig. 9.2). The three greatest of these (W, P, and MM) were published in 1981, seven years after Young’s death, with his descriptions augmented by other Gordion scholars under the direction of Ellen Kohler (Young 1981). Her own publication of the other excavated tumuli containing inhumations has added immensely to our understanding of Phrygian tomb construction (Kohler 1995). Her forthcoming work on the tumuli with cremation burials will complete the overall picture of the elite funerary practices of this period, even though these tumuli did not contain built wooden tomb chambers.3 The year 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of the excavation of Tumulus MM, and it seems fitting to take another look at this unique monument. My presentation is based on some of the observations that I have made at Gordion since 1990; these expand the original study by Young, Kohler, and Charles Williams, who made the original architectural drawings of the tomb chamber in 1961.4 It is not possible in this brief discussion to present all the evidence for the descriptions that follow, and the reader should keep in mind that the most appropriate way to appreciate the monument is to visit in person. There, inside Tumulus MM, one will find what Rodney Young discovered fifty years ago: the oldest standing wooden building in the world. If the current radiocarbon and dendrochronological dates for the juniper logs used in the tomb are correct, and if these logs were in fact cut specifically for use in this tomb (and they almost certainly were), the construction of Tumulus MM dates to around 740 BC (Manning et al. 2001).5 While this is too early for the occupant to have been Midas himself, the tumulus might have been the young king’s first major public project, a tomb for his father. In that case, the designation MM would still be correct for this tumulus: the Midas Mound. Figure 9.3 shows Tumulus MM and the modern entrance to the tomb, created by Young’s excavation in 1957. It also shows, to the right of the museum compound, the smaller Tumulus P, slightly older than MM and covering the burial chamber of a small child. In order to accentuate the extraordinary nature of Tumulus MM, a brief discussion of the construction of a more-or-less typical Phrygian tumulus burial of the Early and Middle Phrygian periods follows , using Tumulus P as an example (Fig. 9.4). A rectangular pit would first be dug to a depth of 1 to 2 m. The bottom of the pit might be lined with stone or simply left as an earthen floor. The tomb chamber was usually made of squared pine timbers, with rather simple joinery at the corners. 9 Phrygian Tomb Architecture: Some Observations on the 50th Anniversary of the Excavations of Tumulus MM Richard F. Liebhart 130 THE arCHaEoLoGy of pHryGIan GordIon, royaL CITy of MIdas As the tomb chamber rose, the pit outside was filled with rubble stone, thus helping to hold the wooden beams in place. The normal tomb chamber dimensions range from about 2 m square to about 3.75 m by 4.5 m (Kohler 1995: table 2). After the walls were built up to the desired height, the burial itself would take place. The body would be lowered into the chamber and the grave goods arranged; the roof beams would then be placed over the chamber. These could be in one or two layers, laid flat across the tomb chamber walls and sealing the tomb forever (in theory, at least). More rubble was added to form a mound over the chamber, then usually a sealing layer of clay, and finally the earthen mantle of the tumulus proper. The construction of Tumulus MM shares many similarities with the other...

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