Gordion is known through both history and archaeology. The best-known ancient references to Phrygian Gordion and its king Midas are found in Herodotus’s Histories. Other ancient references, mostly Greek, occur in the works of Xenophon, Arrian, Plutarch, and Livy. Modern archaeological interest in Gordion came through Classicists’ knowledge of ancient Greek contact with the Phrygian world. The ancient settlement mound was identified as Gordion and excavated in 1901 by Gustav and Alfred Körte (Körte and Körte 1904; Sams 2005:10). A University of Pennsylvania team led by Rodney S. Young, a professor of Classical Archaeology, began excavations in 1950.
Young’s excavations (1950–1974) focused on the Early Phrygian levels at Gordion and Middle Phrygian burial mounds. This work established a rough chronological framework for the region. Analysis and conservation continued under the direction of Keith DeVries after Young’s death in 1974. Fieldwork, however, was suspended until 1987, when a small team from the University of Pennsylvania Museum assessed the possibilities for a new project. In cooperation with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the Penn Museum renewed excavation under the direction of Mary M. Voigt in 1988. (For the history of the excavations, see DeVries et al. n.d.; Sams 2005; Voigt 2005.) Voigt established a stratigraphic sequence for the site based on the excavations of 1988 and 1989. Paleoethnobotanical research is an integral part of the renewed program of excavation and surface survey at Gordion. Since the 1990s, extensive excavation of Phrygian and later deposits has been carried out. Analysis of those archaeobotanical remains has begun (Marston 2003, 2010; Miller 2007).
Charred plant remains from Gordion provide the best evidence for tracing long-term changes in vegetation and plant use that in turn reflect many aspects of ancient economy and society in the Sakarya basin over several millennia. That the remains originate from a single site is an important limitation for a study that seeks to understand regional trends. Nevertheless, many specific questions can be addressed with these data concerning the nature of the original vegetation, the relationship between agriculture and pastoral production, irrigation, and ethnic markers. This report deals with archaeobotanical remains dating from the Late Bronze Age to the Medieval period that were excavated during the 1988 and 1989 seasons at Gordion. The assemblage consists of charcoal hand-picked during excavation and charred seed and wood remains obtained by the flotation of systematically collected soil samples. In subsequent years, I conducted informal botanical surveys in the region and collected voucher specimens and comparative material that are currently housed in my laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia. This work has informed both the identifications and interpretations presented here.
Stratigraphy and Chronology
The excavations of 1988/89 were limited to the Yassihöyük Citadel Mound. Young’s work had exposed the royal precinct—or at least elite quarter—of the Early Phrygian period, about 5 m below the modern surface; the excavated area covers about 2.5 ha (Voigt and Henrickson 2000a:39). To minimize the excavation area needed to obtain a stratigraphic sequence, Voigt set the upper excavation units (Operations 1, 2, and 7) at the edge of Young’s main excavation area. The uppermost level included one of Young’s sherd dumps and then descended from Medieval deposits down to the Early Phrygian royal precinct. Physically but not stratigraphically discontinuous, the lower units (Operations 3–6; 8–11; 14 [below 3–6]) were placed in an Early Phrygian courtyard area and the architectural remains from that level are preserved for touristic purposes (Voigt 2005; Fig. 1.1). The excavation of the lower trenches extended to a small area of Middle Bronze Age date. The project used a lot and locus system for excavation, recording, and analysis. In particular, a lot represents a contiguous unit of excavated earth, ideally from a single depositional stratum; it is the basic unit of excavation. A locus is comprised of one or more contiguous lots that ideally represent a “significant stratigraphic unit.” Lots and loci may also be arbitrarily defined (for example, in exploratory trenches).
Voigt has discussed the stratigraphy and the cultural and historical associations in detail (1994). She developed the YHSS numbering system—a shorthand representation of the stratigraphic analysis—to aid in the recording and sorting of the various data classes generated by the project. Re-analysis of artifacts and stratigraphy, along with new radiocarbon dates of short-lived seeds, led to a major revision of the chronology of the first millennium BC levels (DeVries et al. 2003; Voigt 2005) that is used in this volume.
The Yassihöyük Stratigraphic Sequence and Characteristics of Deposits Sampled for Botanical Remains
The Yassihöyük Stratigraphic Sequence (YHSS) assigns the excavated deposits to broad chronostratigraphic units that roughly correspond to more traditional archaeological periods (Voigt 1996). Numbered one to ten from top to bottom (Table 1.1), each of these large units is divided into a series of stratigraphic contexts defined with a minimum three-digit code (thus, deposits within YHSS 7 are assigned a number between 700 and 799). Decimal places are added as the complexity and understanding of the deposits warrant (thus, 725 is a floor deposit of a burned building in YHSS 7, and 725.04 is an oven within that building). The Early Phrygian Destruction level (YHSS 6A) is at the base of the upper trenches and the top of the lower ones. The discussion here emphasizes the time periods for which there is substantial archaeobotanical data.
MIDDLE BRONZE AGE (YHSS 10). These deposits pre-date 1500 BC. A single deposit of less than 1 cubic m volume was sampled; two samples from an erosion surface were analyzed.
LATE BRONZE AGE (YHSS 8/9), ca. 1500–12th century BC. Initially YHSS 9 was assigned to the Early Hittite Empire period; the excavated area (and flotation samples taken) consisted primarily of lensed trash and some exterior surfaces; there were no structures. YHSS 8 was assigned to the Late Hittite Empire. The only structure was single-room CBH, a stone-lined cellar with no internal features. Samples analyzed from this phase are mainly from pits, a hearth, and floor deposits. According to Voigt (1996), samples from YHSS 8 and 9 can be grouped for comparisons with the Early Iron Age and later deposits, since there is no break in the cultural sequence at this time.
Fig. 1.1 1988/1989 excavation units. Top: Early Phrygian Destruction Level (plan) (source: Gordion archive). Bottom: Three burnt buildings discussed in this volume.
Table 1.1. Yassıhöyük stratigraphic sequence, approximate dates (source: Voigt 2005:27)
| YHSS 1 | Medieval | 13–14th century AD |
| YHSS 2 | Roman [not in these samples] | early 1st–5th century AD |
| YHSS 3 | Hellenistic | 330–mid-2nd century BC |
| YHSS 4 | Late Phrygian | 540–330 BC |
| YHSS 5 | Middle Phrygian | 800–540 BC |
| YHSS 6A | Early Phrygian (“Destruction Level”) | 900–800 BC |
| YHSS 6B | Early Phrygian (courtyards) | 950–900 BC |
| YHSS 7 | Early Iron Age | 12th century–950 BC |
| YHSS 8/9 | Late Bronze Age | 1500–12th century BC |
| YHSS10 | Middle Bronze Age | 2000–1500 BC |
| — |
Early Bronze Age [not in these
|