Fieldwork at Gordion in 2021 focused on architectural conservation, object conservation, and research for a wide variety of manuscripts dealing with material from the Bronze Age through the Roman period. There was only limited excavation because of the pandemic (our excavation supervisors are British and the COVID-19 variants there prompted the Turkish government to ban travel between Britain and Turkey). This was not a serious setback, however, because we have excavated buildings faster than our conservation team can restore them and by the end of the summer we accomplished everything we set out to do.
Our architectural conservation priorities were the two monumental citadel gates: the Early Phrygian East Gate and the multi-period South Gate, both of which were built in the mid-9th century BCE and subsequently damaged by earthquakes. This year we completed our multi-season conservation program for the 10 m (33 feet) high East Gate, the highest and best-preserved Iron Age citadel gate in Asia Minor. The South Gate, which we have been excavating since 2013, has a monumental approach road along which King Midas himself will have passed. The gate was built ca. 850 BCE, refurbished in the 8th and 6th centuries BCE, then rebuilt again in the 4th century CE, so it was in operation for over 1,200 years. The approach road was over 65 m (213 ft) in length, making it the longest known approach road of any citadel gate in Asia Minor, and the fortification wall on the road’s northern side still rises to a height of nearly 4.4 m (14 ft).
In general, the defensive walls lining the gate’s approach road have survived relatively well during the last 3,000 years, but one stretch was so badly damaged that our excavators were forced to leave a large rectangle of earth in front of it so that the stones would be protected until the conservators had an opportunity to restore it. During the first week of the season, we excavated this section of earth (measuring 6 x 4 m [19 x 13 ft]) and exposed the badly damaged wall behind it where an earthquake had caused most of the facing stones to collapse. The core of the wall was still preserved to a height of nearly 3 m (10 ft). Conservation began immediately after the excavation ended and was completed by the end of the season.
Each of the stones had to be consolidated before we repositioned them on the wall and the restored facing courses were then anchored to the rubble core by steel straps. Altogether, 43 newly stabilized stones were assembled in 12 wall courses, and the northern side of the approach road is once again defined by the same handsome limestone facing it once possessed.
One reason why the wall was so badly damaged is that Gordion’s masons in the 9th century BCE had placed rows of juniper logs between every three courses of stone, apparently to provide greater flexibility in the event of an earthquake. This measure works relatively well, unless there is a war that causes the building to catch fire, which is what happened when the Persians attacked Gordion ca. 540 BCE. This was a siege of unknown duration, but in the end, the Persians won. In the course of the conflict, however, the juniper logs burned from end to end within the wall, weakening the stones around them and causing their faces to shear off over time. We have therefore done our best to repair the damage caused by the Persians 2,500 years ago.
Other conservation projects included renewing the poa grass “green caps” above the conserved walls of the 9th-century BCE Terrace Building and adding new galvanized fencing along the visitor circuit on the Citadel Mound.
We completed the first phase of laser scanning the Tumulus MM (Midas Mound) tomb chamber, the oldest standing wooden building in the world, including all of the chamber’s interior and much of the exterior (to be finished in 2022). The aim is to produce a comprehensive and accurate record of the monument as well as a digital reconstruction of what it looked like ca. 740 BCE during the funeral of a man whom we identify as King Midas’s father. The digital model will also be of great value to cultural heritage management in that we will be able to more effectively monitor deterioration that may occur over time. Furthermore, we can prepare an interactive tomb exhibition by using virtual and augmented reality technology. In this way, Gordion’s many visitors can tour the burial chamber for the first time, something that was impossible before due to restricted access to the fragile wooden chamber.
This season marked the seventh year of the Cultural Heritage Education Program (CHEP) Program, directed by Ayşe Gürsan-Salzmann (Penn Museum) in tandem with Halil Demirdelen (Ankara Ethnographic Museum) since 2014. The program’s main goal is to inform and educate local village communities, high school students, teachers, and members of the local municipal government about the historical and humanistic values of the Gordion region. The program started with an orientation for 21 participants, of whom 14 were high school graduates, two were regional directors of historic tours, and two were high school principals.
C. Brian Rose is the Ferry Curator-in-Charge of the Mediterranean Section and James B. Pritchard Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Classical Studies. A former president of the Archaeological Institute of America, he is currently President of the American Research Institute in Turkey, trustee of the American Academy in Rome, and Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth University. He is the director of excavations at Gordion and the former co-director, for 25 years, of the excavations at Troy.