The Archaeology of Phrygian Gordion, Royal City of Midas: Gordion Special Studies 7

5 The New Chronology for Gordion and Phrygian Pottery

The destruction of the Early Phrygian citadel at Gordion constitutes a major stratigraphic and cultural event for Iron Age Anatolia. When the citadel ’s monumental buildings burned to the ground, they were rich in contents that provide a vivid picture of Phrygian material culture at the time of the disaster (Sams 1994a:2–7; Figs. 1.2, 5.1). Thanks to recent chronological developments, we now can place the conflagration around 800 BC instead of 700, as had been long held, which means that the Destruction Level provides a picture of Phrygian life as it was by the end of the 9th, not the end of the 8th century (DeVries et al. 2003). The pottery and artifacts from the Destruction Level occur in great quantity and with remarkable variety (Sams 1994a:187–92). Of the many goods left in the wake of the disaster, one may single out a set of ivory horse trappings of Syrian origin, perhaps the gift of some ruler to a nameless Phrygian one, and ivory inlay plaques that appear to be of local manufacture (Sams 1993:552). The Destruction Level and its great material wealth also serve as an important index, both for gauging the relative placement of outlying cultural deposits such as burial tumuli, and for judging internal material development , leading up to the disaster and subsequent to it. Table 5.1 above summarizes select cultural events on both the old and new chronologies. The old ordering had presented a number of stratigraphic puzzles, in that the artifacts found in the Destruction Level seemed too early for the date that was traditionally assigned to them. Moreover, items found in Tumuli Koerte-III, P, and MM were either scarce or not to be found at all in the Destruction Level or in the earlier Early Phrygian stratigraphic sequence. Yet those same types were present, sometimes in relative abundance, in the New Citadel/Middle Phrygian contexts of the citadel, such as the South Cellar deposit (DeVries 2005:37–43). Certain types found in the Destruction Level, such as bronze fibulae, were regarded as typologically backward in comparison to goods from tumuli that supposedly pre-dated the destruction. 5 The New Chronology for Gordion and Phrygian Pottery G. Kenneth Sams Old Chronology New Chronology Tumulus W (ca. 750) Tumulus K-III (ca. 730) Tumulus P (ca. 720) Tumulus MM (ca. 700) Destruction Level (ca. 700) Clay layer / New Citadel (7th century) South Cellar deposit (ca. 400) Tumulus W (ca. 850) Destruction Level (ca. 800) Tumulus K-III (ca. 780) Tumulus P (ca. 770) Tumulus MM (ca. 740) Clay layer / New Citadel (8th century) South Cellar deposit (ca. 700) Table 5.1. Tumuli and cultural events at Gordion listed by old and new chronologies. 58 THE arCHaEoLoGy of pHryGIan GordIon, royaL CITy of MIdas Even before the reality of the new C-14 datings , Keith DeVries, Mary Voigt, and the author had begun to consider whether the great destruction might in fact pre-date the tumuli in question. Our discussions prompted Voigt to submit samples from her excavations in the Destruction Level for radiocarbon dating, which ultimately led to the new chronology for that level. Soon after those astonishing results were received, we also got a new radiocarbon date for the felling of the juniper logs in Tumulus MM. The second column of the table shown above indicates how the key events in Gordion ’s history are now generally viewed, thanks to the Wiener Laboratory at Cornell University, but also in large part to the brilliant seriation studies of Keith DeVries (DeVries 2007). He was also largely responsible for letting us see that the important South Cellar deposit is basically an integral unit dating to around 700, rather than its previously considered diachronic amalgam. The new chronology removes many puzzles, especially in the case of pottery, as this chapter attempts to illustrate. A particularly elegant class of Phrygian painted pottery is Brown-on-Buff Ware, of which examples from Tumuli K-III and P are particularly well known (Sams 1994a:165–73). The ware includes several examples bearing linear animals executed in a consistent style of drafting (Sams 1974). On the old, low chronology, the painted figures were thought to have begun in the later 8th century. A single example, with small panels of animals, occurred in the Destruction Level, where the ware in general was rare (Fig. 5.2) (Sams 1994a:277, catalogue entry 832). Three more examples came from Tumuli K-III and P (Körte...