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11 King Midas’ Textiles and His Golden Touch
- University of Pennsylvania Press
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Phrygia has been famous for its garments and textiles since antiquity. A floppy, quasi-conical hat, the “Phrygian cap” has been a symbol of liberty and independence from the Roman Republic. Even today this cap is seen in the coat of arms of the United States Senate and of nations like Cuba, Colombia, and Argentina, and it is cherished by Frenchmen honoring Bastille Day, since it developed into an emblem of the French Revolution. Pliny actually credited the Phrygians with the invention of decorative weaving or embroidery in his Natural History (8.74.196), and the Latin word for embroiderer was “phrygio.” There is, in fact, some circumstantial evidence at Gordion to support Pliny’s claim: polychromatic pebble mosaics unearthed on the Citadel Mound have been viewed as textile imitations, and the variety of loomweights and spindle whorls indicate extensive weaving activity (Burke 2005). Indeed, extant fragments of tapestry weavings have been found on the Citadel Mound and additional fabrics have been found in the tumuli. Both Louisa Bellinger (1962) and Richard Ellis (1981) studied textile fragments associated with the tombs and the citadel, and focused their examination on weave structure and pattern. They had combined and co-mingled their observations about the various fragments in order to gain a comprehensive overview of Phyrgian textile production and style, but they lacked access to analytical equipment including high magnification microscopy. This deficit can now be remedied, and technical identifications of fiber and dyestuffs should be appended to the volume on the furniture and bier in Tumulus MM (Simpson 2010). In September 2003, textile fragments from Tumulus MM (Midas Mound) were brought to the Museum Conservation Institute, Smithsonian Institution , for analysis (Ballard et al. 2010). They can be divided into three groups, which I review below, although this chapter will focus on only one of them. One group consisted of compact, powdery agglomerations with shadowy braid-like surface impressions , internal cords, and even a residual burr clover, fruit of the Medicago spp. fabaceae (J.W. Kress, pers. comm. 2005). While dye analysis at first seemed an impossible task, there is a curious occasion when even fugitive dyes are preserved despite fiber destruction: bacteria in the gut of keratin-eating insects cannot digest dyestuffs, so pink wool will become pink frass or purple dyed mohair, purple frass. If the fabrics had been exposed to such bacteria , then dye analysis was possible. We wondered, in particular, whether we would find evidence of the colorant Tyrian purple, the famous Royal Purple of the Phoenicians. Such a purple is technically 6,6’dibromoindigo , and can be identified by establishing the presence of bromine in the purple residue. Using known reference standards and a special protocol against the sample, inductively coupled mass spectroscopy failed to find the presence of bromine . There is certainly no Tyrian purple present (Dussubieux and Ballard 2005). Additional possibilities remain and the research is not yet complete, even on the identity and conditions for the bacteria. Other samples are red in color, or masses of pinkish tan. Associated with these amalgamations is a second group of textiles, twined fragments that have largely lost their perpendicular element. Their consistent dark appearance suggests a utilitarian purpose, and twined textiles were often used for bags or as soft containers, such as cushion covers. The lost element 11 King Midas’ Textiles and His Golden Touch Mary W. Ballard 166 THE arCHaEoLoGy of pHryGIan GordIon, royaL CITy of MIdas might have been composed of yarns from a different fiber, one more susceptible to decay, but perhaps one to which pattern had been assigned. The third group, the subject of this chapter, is composed of tabby (balanced plain weave) fabrics found on the king’s bier and elsewhere. They may have been used as bedding or as the king’s shroud, or as part of a tabby bag to hold the king’s collection of fibulae. The fabrics from the bier abound with weaving errors (Fig. 11.1; see color insert). Bellinger (1962) thought the fiber might be wool, while Ellis (1981) suggested it might be cellulosic. At the Museum Conservation Institute, the identification of the fiber remained surprisingly inconclusive even with the excellent imaging of high magnification polarized light microscopy. Using scanning electron microscopy the basis of the difficulty became obvious: the yarns are not now made up of fibers; in fact, there is no extant fiber (Ballard et al. 2010). Only a hollow core remains, surrounded by a continuous golden yellow film (Fig. 11.2). Elemental analysis...