The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973
The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973

Author: Elspeth R.M. Dusinberre

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum

Published: 2023-08-22

Total Pages: 760

ISBN-13: 194905716X

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This volume contains the excavation report for 12 cremation burials from the Phrygian site of Gordion in central Anatolia. These tombs, dating from the later seventh century to the third quarter of the 6th century BCE, were excavated by The University Museum between 1950 and 1969, and by the German brothers Alfred and Gustav Korte in 1900. The processes for interment through construction of tumulus and cremation procedure are carefully detailed, followed by an analysis of associated finds. Two tumuli of the Hellenistic period, both covering stone chambers with inhumation burials within, are included in an appendix. Further appendices discuss other specific materials excavated from the cremation burials. A discussion of the contemporary inhumation and cremation tumulus burials at Gordion in the Phrygian period, highlighting their continuities and significant differences, forms part of the conclusion, as does discussion of sociocultural developments at Gordion between ca. 650-525 BCE as illuminated by the mortuary remains. The tumuli afford insights into questions related to gender, religion, adult/child identity, trade, social status, ethnicity, transcultural affiliations, ceramic developments, jewelry manufacture, high-status artifact display (including ivory), feasting behaviors, animal sacrifice, hero cult, and widespread "killing" of artifacts associated with the cremation burials. This entirely new publication of Gordion's tumuli makes available at last the elite cremation burials of the later Middle and early Late Phrygian (Achaemenid) periods excavated by The University Museum. By including the two Korte tumuli, it provides a complete assemblage of the cremation tumuli at Gordion. They afford remarkable new insights into life, death, and an elaborate system of value at Gordion during this most turbulent century.

The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973, Final Reports, Volume II
The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973, Final Reports, Volume II

Author: Ellen L. Kohler

Publisher: UPenn Museum of Archaeology

Published: 1995-01-29

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 9780924171338

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This volume contains the excavation report for 15 inhumation burials from the Phrygian site of Gordion in central Anatolia. These tombs, dating from the late eighth through the third quarter of the sixth century B.C., were excavated by The University Museum in 1950, 1951, 1955-1957, and 1969. The processes for internment through construction of tumulus are carefully detailed, followed by an analysis of associated finds. Chapters deal with a general overview of constructional methods, grave assemblages, and chronology. University Museum Monograph, 88

The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973, Final Reports, Volume IV
The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973, Final Reports, Volume IV

Author: G. Kenneth Sams

Publisher: UPenn Museum of Archaeology

Published: 1994-01-29

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9780924171185

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The Early Phrygian period is the first phase of Iron Age habitation on the City Mound of Yassihuyuk-Gordion. Since it is the most extensively excavated site in central Anatolia, not only for this early period but for successive phases through the Hellenistic period, Gordion has the distinction of being the type-site of ancient Phrygia. In this comprehensive study of the ceramic evidence from the Early Phrygian period at Gordion, G. Kenneth Sams presents a thorough catalogue and discussion of the development of the shapes, wares and decorative motifs, and places the pottery in its broader cultural context. The publication is extensively illustrated with profile and roll-out drawings, and photographs. This volume will be of interest to students and scholars interested in Anatolian archaeology and the stylistic development of pottery. University Museum Monograph, 79

The New Chronology of Iron Age Gordion
The New Chronology of Iron Age Gordion

Author: C. Brian Rose

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2012-05-28

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 1934536555

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The New Chronology of Iron Age Gordion argues that the history and archaeology of the site of Gordion, in central Turkey, have been misunderstood since the beginning of its excavation in the 1950s. The first excavation director, Rodney Young, found evidence for substantial destruction during the first decade of fieldwork; this was interpreted as proof that Gordion had been destroyed ca. 700 B.C. by the Kimmerians, a group of invaders from the Caucusus/Black Sea region, as attested in several ancient literary sources. During the last decade, however, renewed research on the archaeological evidence, within, above, and below the destruction level indicated that the catastrophe that destroyed much of Gordion occurred 100 years earlier, in 800 B.C., and was the result of a fire that quickly got out of control rather than a foreign invasion. This discovery requires a reassessment of Anatolian history during the entire first millennium B.C. and has serious implications for our understanding of the surrounding regions, such as Assyria, Syria, Greece, and Urartu, among others. The New Chronology of Iron Age Gordion is the product of a multidisciplinary research program, with dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating working hand in hand with textual and artifact analysis, each of which is treated in a separate chapter in this volume. All of these categories of evidence point to the same conclusion and demonstrate that we need to look at Gordion, and much of the ancient Near East, in a completely new way. University Museum Monograph, 133

The Gordion Wooden Objects, Volume 1 The Furniture from Tumulus MM (2-vol. set)
The Gordion Wooden Objects, Volume 1 The Furniture from Tumulus MM (2-vol. set)

Author: Elizabeth Simpson

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2010-12-15

Total Pages: 602

ISBN-13: 9047442865

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The Furniture from Tumulus MM, The Gordion Wooden Objects, volume 1, is a study of the furniture from the largest tomb at Gordion, Turkey, excavated in 1957 by the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The tomb dates to the eighth century BC and is thought to be the burial of the great Phrygian king Midas or his father. The objects, initially misunderstood, are now identified as nine tables, two serving stands, two stools, a chair, and an open log coffin. Three pieces are ornately carved and inlaid with religious symbols and complex geometric motifs. The wooden objects from Gordion are now recognized as the most important collection of well preserved wooden artifacts excavated from the Near East. Included in this volume are new photographs, reconstruction drawings, and eight scientific/technical appendices. Contributors include: Harry Alden, Burhan Aytuğ, Mary W. Ballard, Robert A. Blanchette, Roland Cunningham, Laure Dussubieux, Patrick E. McGovern, Benjamin Held, Walter Hopwood, Joseph Koles, Lynn E. Roller, Krysia Spirydowicz. "...this work goes well beyond a typical site-specific object catalogue and makes important contributions to a wide range of scholarly fields, both technical and conceptual, from textile and wood analysis to anthropological and religious studies." Elizabeth P. Baughan, University of Richmond “The book succeeds in its main aims of making available every scrap of information about the finds, and it illuminates form, techniques, and function in a most convincing and stimulating manner.” Catherine M. Draycott, Courtauld Institute of Art

The Gordion Excavations Final Reports, Volume I
The Gordion Excavations Final Reports, Volume I

Author: Rodney S. Young

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Published: 1982-01-29

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 9780934718394

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Rodney S. Young directed excavations for the Museum at the site of Gordion on the central plateau in Anatolia (modern Turkey) in alternate years from 1950 to 1973. Traces of occupation as early as the Early Bronze Age have been identified, but Gordion flourished in the time of the historic King Midas, toward the end of the eighth century B.C. The three huge tumuli-covered wooden burial chambers detailed here contained a wealth of bronze vessels, fine wooden furniture, and pottery. University Museum Monograph, 43

The Archaeology of Phrygian Gordion, Royal City of Midas
The Archaeology of Phrygian Gordion, Royal City of Midas

Author: C. Brian Rose

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2013-03-16

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 1934536598

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Some of the most dramatic new discoveries in Asia Minor have been made at Gordion, the Phrygian capital that controlled much of central Asia Minor for close to two centuries. The most famous ruler of the kingdom was Midas, who regularly negotiated with Greeks in the west and Assyrians in the east during his reign. Excavations have been conducted at Gordion over the course of the last 60 years, all under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In spite of the economic and political importance of Gordion and the Phrygians, the site is consistently omitted from courses in Old World archaeology, primarily because Gordion lies too far to the west for many Near Eastern archaeologists, and too far to the east for classical archaeologists. Moreover, there is no book that offers a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the material culture of Gordion during the Phrygian period, a gap that will be filled by this volume. The chapters cover all aspects of Gordion's Phrygian settlement topography from the arrival of the Phrygians in the tenth century B.C. through the arrival of Alexander the Great in 333 B.C., focusing on the site's changing topography and the consistently fluctuating interaction between the inhabitants and the landscape. A reexamination of the material culture of Phrygian Gordion is particularly timely, given the dramatic recent changes in the site's chronology, wherein the dates of many discoveries have changed by as much as a century. The authors are among the leading experts in Near Eastern archaeology, historic preservation, paleobotany, and ancient furniture, and their articles highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the Gordion project. A significant component of the book is a new color phase plan of the site that succinctly presents the topography in diachronic perspective.

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia
The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia

Author: Sharon R. Steadman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-09-15

Total Pages: 1193

ISBN-13: 0195376145

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This title provides comprehensive overviews on archaeological philological, linguistic, and historical issues at the forefront of Anatolian scholarship in the 21st century.

Couched in Death
Couched in Death

Author: Elizabeth P. Baughan

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres

Published: 2013-12-06

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 0299291839

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In Couched in Death, Elizabeth P. Baughan offers the first comprehensive look at the earliest funeral couches in the ancient Mediterranean world. These sixth- and fifth-century BCE klinai from Asia Minor were inspired by specialty luxury furnishings developed in Archaic Greece for reclining at elite symposia. It was in Anatolia, however—in the dynastic cultures of Lydia and Phrygia and their neighbors—that klinai first gained prominence not as banquet furniture but as burial receptacles. For tombs, wooden couches were replaced by more permanent media cut from bedrock, carved from marble or limestone, or even cast in bronze. The rich archaeological findings of funerary klinai throughout Asia Minor raise intriguing questions about the social and symbolic meanings of this burial furniture. Why did Anatolian elites want to bury their dead on replicas of Greek furniture? Do the klinai found in Anatolian tombs represent Persian influence after the conquest of Anatolia, as previous scholarship has suggested? Bringing a diverse body of understudied and unpublished material together for the first time, Baughan investigates the origins and cultural significance of kline-burial and charts the stylistic development and distribution of funerary klinai throughout Anatolia. She contends that funeral couch burials and banqueter representations in funerary art helped construct hybridized Anatolian-Persian identities in Achaemenid Anatolia, and she reassesses the origins of the custom of the reclining banquet itself, a defining feature of ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Baughan explores the relationships of Anatolian funeral couches with similar traditions in Etruria and Macedonia as well as their "afterlife" in the modern era, and her study also includes a comprehensive survey of evidence for ancient klinai in general, based on analysis of more than three hundred klinai representations on Greek vases as well as archaeological and textual sources.

The Bone and Ivory Objects from Gordion
The Bone and Ivory Objects from Gordion

Author: Phoebe A. Sheftel

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum

Published: 2023-07-18

Total Pages: 585

ISBN-13: 1949057186

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Gordion is a paramount site for understanding the culture of central Anatolia over more than 3,000 years, from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period, but is most renowned for its Iron Age horizon, when it was royal capital of the mighty Phrygian kingdom. The hundreds of bone and ivory artifacts excavated at Gordion constitute a highly diverse body of material, and this publication presents one of the largest and most important assemblages of its kind in the Near East. The artifacts give remarkable insight into the tools used in crafts and manufacturing processes, a variety of decorative items, the artistic developments among local craftspeople, as well as indications of trading connections with other regions to the east and west. Ivory was a highly valued material used for decorative pieces in many areas around the eastern Mediterranean. The objects from Gordion are a significant addition to this corpus and illustrate both widely dispersed features common in other contemporary ivory-working centers, as well as the singular motifs and styles that developed in the Phrygian milieu. A unique assemblage of ivory horse trappings from the Early Phrygian Citadel are an important illustration of this cultural confluence. While bone was primarily used for strictly utilitarian objects, there are numerous pieces that show this lowly material could be used for high quality items such as inlays set into the wooden furniture exceptionally attested at Gordion. Even the sheep knuckle bone (astragal), decorated with incised designs and letters, gives a glimpse into the daily life in the community.