Region | Turkey > Central Turkey | American Journal of Archaeology

Karaağaç Tumulus: An Iron Age Elite Burial from Rural Western Phrygia

website — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 22:12:32 +0000

This article presents the first comprehensive study of the Karaağaç Tumulus, a Middle Phrygian (ca. 800–540 BCE) monumental tomb located at the northwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, modern Türkiye. Stratigraphic and material evidence indicate a multiphase use, including an Early Bronze Age cemetery, a Middle Iron Age tumulus with elite burial, and Late Antique graves. The architectural form and contents parallel those of Gordion and Ankara, suggesting a high-status interment, possibly linked to regional governance during Midas’ reign. Its remote location—far from known urban centers—challenges traditional models of centralized Phrygian authority and supports recent interpretations of a multipolar political structure of Iron Age Phrygia. The discovery of diverse goods, a Phrygian name inscribed on a jar, and the presence of bronze situlas further attest to elite cultural practices. Despite modern looting, salvage excavations have yielded valuable archaeological and archaeometric data, which places the tumulus between Gordion Tumuli MM and S-1 (740–690 BCE). It also emerges as a key site for understanding the diversity of Phrygian funerary traditions, political organization, and regional interaction in central Anatolia during the late eighth century BCE.

Content warning: Readers are advised that this article contains a photograph of human remains.

The post Karaağaç Tumulus: An Iron Age Elite Burial from Rural Western Phrygia appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

Fieldwork at Phrygian Gordion, 2016–2023

website — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 22:46:53 +0000

This article presents the results of the last eight seasons of work at Gordion in west central Türkiye, focusing primarily on architectural conservation, excavation, and remote sensing on the Citadel Mound. The recently discovered South Gate appears to have been in use for over 1,200 years, from the ninth century BCE to the fourth century CE, and with an approach road nearly 100 m long. New excavations in the Mosaic Building Complex, first unearthed in the 1950s and dated at that time to the late fifth century BCE (Persian period), have demonstrated that it was actually constructed a century and a half earlier (ca. 575 BCE) and reconstructed after Gordion came under Persian control. The discoveries within the complex include a stone omphalos and two gilded ivory sphinxes that probably adorned a throne. The Mosaic Building may also have housed the cart with the Gordian Knot cut by Alexander in 333 BCE. The eighth-century Tumulus 52 included more than 3,000 amber beads imported from the Baltic, and the decedent may have been a member of Midas’ family. Gordion was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site List in 2023, the 20th site in Türkiye to be so honored.

The post Fieldwork at Phrygian Gordion, 2016–2023 appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

The Citadel of Gordion and the Dating of the Midas Monument at Midas City

website — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 22:46:53 +0000

The rock-cut Midas Monument at Midas City, about 150 km west of Gordion, appears to reproduce the kind of megarons that were in operation in Iron Age Phrygia. In a 2023 article in the AJA, Geoffrey Summers argued that the Midas Monument was carved in the early sixth century BCE, when the surrounding area was under Lydian control. In this note, we address his arguments in detail and maintain that the available evidence supports a late eighth-century BCE date for the carving of the Midas Monument, when Midas served as king of Phrygia.

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Beyceğiz Tumulus: A Middle Phrygian Cenotaph near Gordion

website — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 19:54:35 +0000

The Beyceğiz Tumulus, 11.5 km east of the Phrygian capital of Gordion, was the target of multiple looting attempts, prompting a salvage excavation from 2013 to 2017 by the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara in partnership with the Gordion Archaeological Project. Remote sensing indicated a chamber-shaped anomaly near the tumulus center, which became the focus of excavation. The anomaly turned out to be a stone platform built on bedrock, which proved to be the center of radiating guide walls that separated sediment fills used for the original construction of the tumulus. No trace of any kind of burial or ritual deposit was found. The most reasonable explanation is that the tumulus was a cenotaph. The ceramics found inside it provide a terminus post quem for its construction in the late eighth century BCE. The construction technique of the tumulus demonstrates the importance of design, planning, logistics, organization, and cooperation. Its prominence in the landscape around Gordion suggests that it was both a memorial and a visual marker on a major road leading from Gordion to the Phrygian citadel of Hacıtuğrul.

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Kızıldağ, Karadağ, and Sacred Peak Sites in Central Anatolia During the Late Bronze and Iron Ages

website — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Mountain peaks and rocky outcrops have long been recognized to have been crucial components of the religious beliefs of people in Anatolia during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Archaeologically, however, sanctuaries that are associated with these features are much less understood. This article considers what is known about Anatolian peak sites textually and archaeologically for the second and first millennia BCE. While Late Bronze Age textual accounts of rituals and built features on peaks are abundant, archaeological data is comparatively scarce. The converse is true during the Iron Age, from which there are several archaeologically attested kinds of monuments associated with rocky outcrops and peaks, including stelae and step monuments, but a limited textual record. Assessing the evidence for continuity and innovation in peak-site usage across the two periods sheds new light on the Bronze to Iron Age transition, contributing additional nuance to what is increasingly recognized to have been a highly variable and localized phenomenon. In particular, the Iron Age peak sanctuaries of Kızıldağ and Karadağ and the associated settlement of Türkmen-Karahöyük serve as a useful case study for the ways in which Late Bronze Age precedents were consciously adapted into new forms in the Iron Age.

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