Dating Gordion: the Timing and Tempo of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Political Transformation

Abstract

Gordion has long served as an archaeological type site for Iron Age central Anatolia and provided pioneering radiocarbon (14C) determinations as reported in the first issue ofRadiocarbon(1959). Absolute dating of key events at Gordion continue to reshape our understanding of regional development and interaction in the Iron Age, with a major conflagration in the late 9th BCE century at this site the most recent focus of attention (DeVries et al. 2003). Here we present the latest series of14C determinations for Gordion from Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age contexts. Fifteen absolute dates provide a critical new framework for establishing the timing and tempo of cultural transformation from the collapse of the Hittite Empire through to the subsequent formation of the Phrygian polity that dominated central Anatolia from the 9th to the 7th c. BCE. This chronometric revision transforms our perspective on the LBA/EIA transition at this site: from disengagement from Hittite hegemony in the 12th c. BCE, to the precocious emergence of the Phrygian capital in the early 9th c. BCE.

A landscape-oriented approach to urbanisation and early state formation on the Konya and Karaman plains, Turkey

“…Bahar and his team were the first to investigate the large number of fortified hilltop sites found in the highlands surrounding the Konya-Karaman plains (Bahar, Koçak 2004;Karauğuz, Kunt 2004). Hilltop sites are located on isolated orographic features that nevertheless have easy access to the valley floor (a 10-15-minute descent at most in our experience).…”

“…The period between the collapse of the Hittite Empire (ca 1180 BCE) and the emergence of the so-called Neo-Hittite kingdoms in the ninth century BCE is one of the least understood and most discussed periods of central Anatolia (Bryce 2012;Osborne forthcoming). At all the best-documented sites in the northern section of the plateau (including Hattuša, Gordion and Kaman Kalehöyük) there seems to have been a total change in material culture, architecture and socio-economic structures more broadly (Matsumura 2008;Seeher 2010;Kealhofer et al 2019). The transition at these sites included the demise of urban life and the disappearance of writing, centralised adminis-tration, monumental architecture and mass-produced (wheelmade) pottery (Summers 2017).…”

A Culinary Perspective on North-Central Anatolia: An Overview of Cooking Facilities across the Late Bronze and Iron Ages

“…The various burned ruins were regarded as proof of such devastation and were thought to be related to the Egyptian narration of the Sea People raids, followed by a long 'Dark Age'. Nevertheless, the subject of how the crisis was perceived in the late 13 th century BC in Hittite written sources, as well as its internal and external causes, have already been addressed and reassessed in various ways, proposing new interpretations (among others Divon 2008;Singer 2013;Strobel 2011b;Seeher 2018;Kealhofer, Grave, Voigt 2019). In the last years, based on new data coming from the Hittite capital and other sites, the thesis of a sudden collapse was replaced by the one of a political and urban crisis, at least in the heart of the Empire.…”

“…Therefore, Iron Age phases are typically site-specific (D'Agostino,Mazzoni, Orsi 2021: 63-64; Summers 2008;Kealhofer, Grave 2011). In north-central Anatolia, however, the Early Iron Age is mainly equated with the period from the 12 th to 10 th centuries BC; the Middle Iron Age with the 10 th /9 th to 8 th centuries BC; and the Late Iron Age with the 8 th /7 th to the second half of the 4 th century BC (D' Agostino,Mazzoni, Orsi 2021: 63-63;Genz 2011;Seeher 2018; but see alsoKealhofer, Grave 2011;and Kealhofer, Grave, Voigt 2019; 2022 for slightly different ranges).5 For an overview of the Iron Age states of central Anatolia and the difficulties of framing the political situation of the area within the band of the Kızılırmak River seeWeeden 2023. 6 For a thorough examination of the many morphological and functional typologies of the fire installations found in Late Bronze Age central Anatolia seeCasucci 2020.…”

Regional exchange and exclusive elite rituals in Iron Age central Anatolia: dating, function and circulation of Alişar-IV ware

“…A similar transformation is witnessed by the excavations at Polatlı Yassı Höyük (later Gordion); here, however, the change towards a modest household economy is directly associated with waves of migrations from Thrace, as the appearance of new ceramic forms for cooking, meal consumption and storage may indicate. Although the evidence outside Polatlı Yassı Höyük is still scanty, the picture emerging from its excavations is considered indicative of the ongoing situation across the entire western plateau (Voigt, Henrickson 2000;Kealhofer 2005;Summers 2009;Kealhofer et al 2019).…”