The Archaeology of Midas and the Phrygians: Recent Work At Gordion

2 Gordion: Exploration over a Century

The site of Gordion was “discovered” in November 1893, when the German Classicist Alfred Körte visited a location on the Sangarios (modern Sakarya) River where engineers working on the Berlin-Baghdad Railroad had reportedly come across “die Reste einer uralten vorgriechischen Niederlassung” (Körte 1897:4). Körte identified the site as Gordion primarily on the basis of what ancient literary sources had to say about the old Phrygian capital, such as its location on the Sangarios River. Most compelling for Körte, however, was how well the geographic location of the site agreed with where Gordion occurs in the itinerary for the march of the Roman general Manlius Vulso against the Galatians in 189 BC, as provided by the Roman historian Livy (Körte 1897:4–18). Seven years later, in 1900, A. Körte returned to Gordion with his brother Gustav to carry out a single, three-month season of excavation, among the first controlled diggings in central Anatolia (Körte and Körte 1901, 1904). The brothers divided their time between the main settlement mound and burial tumuli. On the mound, they concentrated on a series of trenches on the southwestern edge, reaching levels that were perhaps as early as the 6th century BC. Of the roughly 85 burial tumuli in the vicinity of Gordion, the brothers opened five, named I-V by them and Körte I-V today. The burials under Tumuli I, II, and V all revealed signs of contact with the Greek world, including imported goods dating the burials from the late 7th century to around the middle of the 6th century BC (Körte and Körte 1904:104–45). In this period Gordion and Phrygia were thought to have been under the control of Lydia, their immediate neighbor to the west, with its capital at Sardis. Tumuli III and IV were decidedly earlier, belonging to old Phrygian times, the period climaxed by the rule of Midas in the late 8th century BC (Körte and Körte 1904:38–104). Tumulus III was especially rich in furnishings, including bronze vessels and fibulae, handsome pottery both black-polished monochrome and painted, and remains of elegant wooden furniture with inlaid decoration. For the time and for decades to come, the finds from Tumulus III were to represent a singular benchmark for old Phrygian material culture. The finds from the Körtes’ work in 1900 were divided between the Imperial Ottoman Museum in Istanbul and the Imperial Museums of Germany in Berlin. The Körtes’ excavations also informed the American investigations that began at Gordion in 1950. During reconnaissance in Turkey in 1948, J. F. Daniel and Rodney S. Young saw Gordion as a strong prospect for beginning excavations. 2 GORDION Explorations over a Century G. KENNETH SAMS Figure 2-1 1950 aerial view of Gordion, from the south. The Sangarios (Sakarya) River is at far left, the main settlement mound and Küçük Höyük at lower left. The “Midas Mound” tumulus is at upper right. THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF MIDAS AND THE PHRYGIANS 12 Daniel died suddenly during the trip. Young, who otherwise would have assisted Daniel in the project, then gained permission from the Turkish government to undertake excavations in spring, 1950. Conducted under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Young’s work at the site continued over 17 seasons through 1973. His excavation reports are listed in Young (1981:xxxv–vi) and DeVries (1990). He died in 1974 in a traffic accident outside Philadelphia. Young’s assistant in the earlier years of excavations was G. Roger Edwards, who directed the campaigns of 1952, 1958, and 1962. Machteld Mellink was also a regular participant into the 1960s. Serving as registrar for almost all of these seasons was Ellen L. Kohler. Young’s (and Daniels’) principal motivation in turning to Gordion was to bring archaeological light to the Phrygians, a little-known people of whose material culture the Körtes’s work had provided intriguing glimpses. Young and his colleagues learned quickly that the site of Gordion encompassed far more than Phrygian civilization. The history of settlement in fact extends from the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) through the Roman Empire (1st to 4th centuries AD) and into the Medieval era. Figure 2-2 Plan of Main Settlement Mound in 1950, by architect Mahmut Akok. Trenches made by R. S. Young are at northwest...