In 1950, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology began excavations at the ancient Phrygian capital of
Gordion in central Turkey. The Museum's Gordion Project continues today,
with researchers from many disciplines and with many specializations
contributing to a growing--and sometimes changing--body of information
and understanding about this complex and multifaceted site, inhabited by
peoples and diverse civilizations for millennia. In this volume of
Gordion Special Studies, Lynn E. Roller focuses on a series of stone
blocks with incised figural and abstract drawings recovered from early
Phrygian structures at Gordion. The great majority of the incised stones
come from a single structure within the Early Phrygian citadel at
Gordion known as Megaron 2, a stone building with several remarkable
features and a likely candidate for the citadel's temple.
The volume begins with a description of the excavation of the stones and
a discussion of Megaron 2. Next is an analysis of the subject matter of
the drawings by type, describing scenes of human figures, animals,
architectural drawings, geometric patterns, and formless marks. A
discussion follows of the sources from which the drawings could have
been taken and of parallels with similar scenes and designs on objects
in other media from Gordion and other contemporary sites in Anatolia.
The fourth section proposes an explanatory hypothesis on the origin of
the drawings, and considers who could have made them and why. Parallels
with comparable drawings from Anatolia and the Near East are discussed
here. The final section summarizes the contribution of the drawings to
our understanding of the development of the Early Phrygian material at
Gordion.
University Museum Monograph, 130
