In September 2023, Gordion, Türki̇ye, capital of ancient Phrygia, became the first site to be deemed “Of outstanding value to humanity” and inscribed on the world heritage list by UNESCO while under active excavation by the Penn Museum.
Penn at Gordion
In 1950, the Penn Museum began excavating at the ancient Phrygian site of Gordion in West Central Türki̇ye, approximately 65 miles southwest of Ankara.
Led by Penn professor Rodney S. Young, the project has systematically revealed an imposing city that controlled the Phrygian kingdom, and it has been conducted under the auspices of the Penn Museum for nearly 75 years. Gordion has proven itself to be one of the most important excavation projects in the region, revealing evidence for habitation at the site that spans more than four millennia, from ca. 2400 BCE to 1400 CE.
In the following pages of photographs and illustrations, we trace Gordion’s development as both an influential ancient city and a rich archaeological site.
From the Bronze Age to modern times, Gordion has occupied a strategic location on a long-distance trade route connecting the Middle East with the Mediterranean. As the royal capital of ancient Phrygia, Gordion had been a powerful and influential political and cultural hub, and consistently maintained cultural ties with the great civilizations to its west (Lydian, Macedonian, and Roman) and its east (Hittite, Neo-Hittite, Assyrian, Urartian, and Persian). It has also entered the public imagination as the land once ruled by the eighth century BCE King Midas, known for his “golden touch” (a legend that represents the great wealth of the region), as well as the place where Alexander the Great unsheathed his sword to cut the Gordian Knot (a moment that symbolized the Macedonian conquest of the Persian Empire).
Ancient Innovators
The Citadel Mound contains nine settlement layers that document nearly 4,000 years of life at Gordion. The residents were innovators in architecture, city planning, and the production of textiles, furniture, mosaics, and metalwork.
Excavations have uncovered the oldest standing wooden building known in the world (Tumulus MM tomb chamber, ca. 740 BCE), the earliest decorated pebble mosaics ever found (ca. 825 BCE), and some of the best-preserved wooden furniture from antiquity (9th and 8th centuries BCE). Gordion has therefore become an exceptional type-site in for the archaeology of the region, demonstrating the major role that Phrygia played in cultural and economic exchange between the Mediterranean and the Middle East during the Iron Age.
A World Heritage Site
After a two-year application and approval process, Gordion was inscribed on the World Heritage site list overseen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The application was jointly prepared by the Turkish government’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism in tandem with the Gordion excavation team. When UNESCO’s representatives visited the site to evaluate the application, the team escorted them to many of the tumuli (burial mounds) that surround the ancient city. Finally, they went to the Citadel Mound and presented a tour to a wider group of cultural heritage experts who formed part of the UNESCO team.
A Future for Gordion’s Past
Today, upon arriving at the Citadel, visitors’ eyes are drawn to the East Citadel gate of 850 BCE, with bastions that still rise to a height of 10 meters. This is the best preserved Iron Age Citadel gate in Türki̇ye.
A recently completed architectural conservation program, seven years in duration, will ensure that it continues to stand for many more generations. The perimeter of the Citadel Mound is now equipped with information panels chronicling the 4,000-year occupation levels of the site, which are presented as well in a new guidebook. All of this information is shared with the youth of the region through Ayşe Salzmann’s Cultural Heritage Education Program, designed to guarantee a future for Gordion’s past.
C. Brian Rose is Ferry Curator-in-Charge, Mediterranean Section, and James B. Pritchard Professor of Archaeology.
Gareth Darbyshire is the Gordion Project Archivist and a Research Associate at the Penn Museum.