Gordion
_%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85_%CE%B2%CE%B1%CF%83%CE%B9%CE%BB%CE%AD%CE%B1_%CE%9C%CE%AF%CE%B4%CE%B1_%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82_%CE%A6%CF%81%CF%85%CE%B3%CE%AF%CE%B1_%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF_%CE%93%CF%8C%CF%81%CE%B4%CE%B9%CE%BF%CE%BD.jpg)
Coordinates: 39 ° 39 ′ 18 ″ N , 31 ° 59 ′ 39 ″ E
Gordion (Greek: Γόρδιον) was the capital of the Phrygian Empire and was rediscovered in 1895 by the brothers Gustav and Alfred Körte . In 1900 they carried out the first excavations on the settlement mound and explored some tumulus graves in the area. The site has been systematically excavated since 1950 under the direction of archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania .
geography
Gordion is located about 80 km west-southwest of Ankara near Yassıhüyük in the Polatlı district of the Turkish province of Ankara on the Sangarios River (now Sakarya ), near the point where the Porsuk Çayı flows into it. The old King's Road, which was built in Persian times at the latest , but probably earlier , leads directly past Gordion . The upper town is built on a 40-70 meter high hill. Traces of the lower town were discovered in a survey in the mid-1990s. This extended both east of the settlement hill and west, on the other bank of the Sangario. It has not yet been thoroughly researched.
history
Early days
The hill was already settled in the Early Bronze Age, as deep excavations have shown. This is followed by layers from the Middle and Late Bronze Age . During the Late Bronze Age, Gordion was part of the Hittite Empire . This period of the settlement history of the hill has only been explored sporadically. The finds are clearly Hittite in character. At the beginning of the 12th century BC Gordion was apparently abandoned.
Older phase
Probably relatively soon and still in the 12th century BC. Chr. There was a resettlement by new populations, whose ceramics initially show some parallels to ceramics of the simultaneous layer VII b1 (second half of the 12th century BC) of Troy . But there are also other, possibly old Anatolian elements to be found among the new residents. To a small extent - the findings are contradicting - Hittite traditions could have been continued in the early phase. Several layers of this Early Iron Age settlement have been distinguished. This phase then passes over into the so-called Older Phrygian settlement phase without a cultural break. Only these and subsequent phases have been thoroughly investigated so far.
In the Older Phrygian phase, many splendid megaron- shaped buildings were erected. In front of the main room was a half-separated anteroom. A “palace” could not be identified, because none of these buildings stand out clearly from the others in their dimensions. Presumably, however, all the buildings on the settlement hill belonged to the ruling or administrative district. Some of the houses were very richly decorated inside, some of them demonstrably having an upper floor. Walls ran through the Upper Phrygian town, the function of which has not yet been clarified. The upper town was surrounded by a mighty wall, the north gate of which has been well explored. It is a bastion that has its strongest parallels in the fortifications of Troy VI. This is remarkable because the walls of Gordion were built several centuries later than in the VI. City of Troy. Even if the north gate of Gordion has four construction phases and one is the earliest for the 10th century. v. BC assumes that there are no temporal and spatial links between the fortifications of Troy VI and Gordion. The Phrygian buildings were mostly constructed in a kind of half-timbered structure: wooden beams supported stone walls and mud brick tops. A major project to redesign the Upper Town was in progress when the Ancient Phrygian Gordion was completely destroyed.
Until the beginning of the 21st century, research assumed that the so-called Older Phrygian Gordion shortly after 700 BC. BC ended. From Assyrian and Greek sources it can be seen that the Cimmerians 697 or 676 v. Were responsible for a destruction of Gordion. With the conquest of Gordion, the Phrygian Empire also collapsed. New scientific dating has shown that Gordion's settlement phase dates back to around or shortly before 800 BC. BC found a violent end. The new dates were vigorously criticized several times by Oscar White Muscarella , but are supported by 14 C dates from the Iron Age layers in Ḫattuša .
Middle and late stages
After the destruction, Gordion's Upper Town was soon rebuilt. The destroyed buildings of the older Phrygian phase were artificially covered with a layer of rubble up to 10 meters thick, on which the new "Middle Phrygian" Gordion was then built. Its buildings are very similar to those of the older Phrygian phase, in some cases they even have the same orientation. At the transition from the Middle Phrygian (approx. 800-550 BC) to the Achaemenid phase (approx. 550-330), Gordion came under Persian rule. A Persian garrison is said to have been stationed on the settlement hill .
Since the excavations focused for a long time on the investigation of the older settlement phases, the Gordion of the Persian and Hellenistic times has been little explored. In recent years, however, a number of Celtic artifacts have come to light that prove that Gordion was settled by Galatians in Hellenistic times . In Roman times, Gordion lost its importance and was finally abandoned and forgotten until it was rediscovered at the end of the 19th century.
Grave tumuli in the area
In the area around Gordion there are over 100 tumuli , burial mounds with body burials . Some of them are large in size and very rich in grave goods . In the largest of these tumuli, which by far had the largest number of items, archaeologists found the skeleton of a 60 to 70 year old man. Since dendrochronological investigations for wood residues initially had a felling date of approx. 718 BC. Was determined, it was assumed that it could be the tomb of King Midas . This is known from both Assyrian and Greek sources. He is said to have committed suicide while conquering Gordion. However, the latest research suggests that the date of the grave was somewhat older. A juniper trunk that was used to build the grave was felled in 740 BC. Chr. + 7 / -3 years determine. It is probably more the grave of his predecessor, who according to Greek tradition was called Gordios . A reconstruction of the burial chamber can be seen in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara .
Individual evidence
- ^ Charles Brian Rose - Gareth Darbyshire (ed.), The new chronology of Iron Age Gordion . University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia 2011.
- ^ Most recently, Oscar White Muscarella: Again Gordion's Early Phrygian Destruction Date. In: Oscar White Muscarella: Archeology, Artifacts and Antiquities of the Ancient Near East. Sites, Cultures, and Proveniences. Brill, Leiden - Boston 2013, pp. 600–619 (with reference, inter alia, to his earlier review). online version at Academia.edu
- ^ Hermann Genz : The Iron Age in Central Anatolia. In: Gocha R. Tsetsekhladze: The Black Sea, Greece, Anatolia and Europe in the First Millenium BC. Peeters, Leuven - Paris - Walpole, 2011, p. 335.
- ↑ Lisa Kealhofer (Ed.), The Archeology of Midas and the Phrygians: Recent Work At Gordion , University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia 2005, p. 43.
See also
Web links
- Digital Gordion from the Gordion Excavation Project
- Gordion at livius.org ( Memento from December 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (archive version)
- Images: Midas tumulus, from Gordion and the museum
literature
- Rodney S. Young : Gordion. A Guide to the Excavations and Museum. Ankara Society for the Promotion of Tourism, Antiquities and Museums, Ankara 1969.
- Rodney S. Young: Three Great Early Tumuli (= The Gordion Excavations. Vol. 1 = University of Pennsylvania. University Museum Monograph. Vol. 43, ZDB -ID 846889-8 ). University Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia PA 1981.
- Ellen L. Kohler: The Lesser Phrygian Tumuli. Volume 1: The Inhumations (= The Gordion excavations (1950-1973). Final reports 2 = University of Pennsylvania. University Museum Monograph. Vol. 88). University Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia PA 1995, ISBN 0-934718-39-3 .
- Keith DeVries, Peter Ian Kuniholm, G. Kenneth Sams, Mary M. Voigt: New dates for Iron Age Gordion. In: Antiquity 77, 2003, pp. 294-299, text .
- Lisa Kealhofer (Ed.): The archeology of Midas and the Phrygians. Recent work at Gordion. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia PA 2005, ISBN 1-931707-76-6 .
- C. Brian Rose, Gareth Darbyshire (Ed.): The new chronology of Iron Age Gordion (= Gordion Special Studies. Vol. 6 = University of Pennsylvania. University Museum Monograph. Vol. 133). University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia PA 2011, ISBN 978-1-934536-44-5 , contents text .