Gordium

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Gordium (Greek: Gordion) was the capital of ancient Phrygia, modern Yassihüyük. It is located about 70-80 km southwest of modern Ankara (capital of Turkey), in the immediate vicinity of Polatlı district. The ancient city is also called Gordiyon in Turkey.

Gordium is situated on the place where the ancient Royal road between Lydia and Assyria/Babylonia crosses the river Sangarius (Sakarya River), which flows from central Anatolia to the Black Sea. Remains of the road are still visible. The city became the capital of the Phrygians, a Thracian tribe that had invaded and settled in Asia Minor. They created a large kingdom in the 8th century BCE, that occupied the greater part of Asia Minor west of the river Halys. The kings of Phrygia built large tombs near Gordium. These wooden chambers were covered by artificial hills that are usually called tumuli. There are about 80 of them. In the eighth century, the citadel was fortified and in the next century, the town became very large indeed. A palace was built in the citadel. To the south of it was a lower city, and a large suburb was to be found on the other bank of the Sangarius. The most famous king of Phrygia was Midas. (Contemporary Assyrian sources call him Mit-ta-a.) During his reign, a nomadic tribe called Cimmerians invaded Asia Minor, and in 710/709, Midas was forced to ask for help from the Assyrian king Sargon II. However, this did not prevent the Cimmerian invasion. In 696/695, Midas committed suicide after a lost battle. There are traces of destruction at Gordium, but they may be older than the attack by the Cimmerians.

The so-called 'mound of Midas', the greatest tumulus near Gordium, was excavated in 1957. Its diameter is a little short of 300 meters and it is 43 meters high. In the wooden chamber, which measured 5 × 6 meters, a man's corpse was found, and even the contents of his last dinner could be reconstructed. The tumulus also contained one of the oldest alphabetic inscriptions outside Phoenicia (c.740 BCE). On chronological grounds, the possibility that the dead man was indeed king Midas can be excluded. He may have been the famous king's father or grandfather. After half a century of confusion, western Asia Minor was reunited by the Lydians, whose first great king was Gyges (c.680-c.644). One of his successors, Alyattes (c.600-560), built a massive fortress on a hill near the citadel. When Lydia was conquered by the Persian king Cyrus the Great and its last king Croesus killed (547), a Persian garrison took possession of this fortress. Gordium was now included in the satrapy of Greater Phrygia. The garrison stayed there until the last months of 334, when the Macedonian commander Parmenion captured the city. During the winter, his king Alexander the Great joined him. (For the famous story about Alexander cutting the so-called Gordian Knot in the palace, check the link below)

After the troubles following the death of Alexander, Gordium was first ruled by the Seleucid kings of Asia, then by the Celts (the remains of their human sacrifices have been found), then by the Attalid rulers of Pergamum, and eventually by the Romans. It remained one of the most important commercial centers in the region, but the size of the city itself diminished. The old center -citadel and lower town- was abandoned after the Roman conquest in 189 BCE; only the western suburbs remained occupied in the Roman era.

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[edit] Further reading

  1. Ann C. Gunter. Gordion Excavations Final Reports Vol. III: The Bronze Age (Philadelphia, University Museum, 1991).
  2. Gustav Körte and Alfred Körte. "Gordion: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabung im Jahre 1900". Jährliches Ergänzungsheft 5 (Berlin 1904).
  3. Ellen L. Kohler, The Gordion Excavations (1950-1973) Final Reports, Vol. II: The Lesser Phrygian Tumuli, Part 1, The Inhumations (Philadelphia 1995).
  4. Machteld Mellink. A Hittite Cemetery at Gordion (Philadelphia, University Museum Monograph, 1956).
  5. Lynn Roller. Gordion Special Studies, Vol. I: Nonverbal Graffiti, Dipinti, and Stamps (Philadelphia, University Museum, 1987).
  6. Irene Romano. Gordion Special Studies Vol. II: The Terracotta Figurines and Related Vessels (Philadelphia, University Museum, 1995).
  7. G. Kenneth Sams. The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973: Final Reports, Vol. IV: The Early Phrygian Pottery (Philadelphia, University Museum, 1994).
  8. Rodney Young et al. Gordion Excavations Reports, Vol. I: Three Great Early Tumuli [P, MM, W] (Philadelphia, University Museum, 1981).
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