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.
University Museum Monograph, 136
