An ancient tomb discovered in Turkey may have been built for a member of the family of the legendary King Midas, who lived in the 8th century BC and was famous for his mythical “touch of gold.”
The probable royal tombs of the ancient Kingdom of Phrygia (1200 BC to 675 BC) are located more than 160 miles west of the kingdom’s ancient capital of Gordion. Its remote location suggests that Phrygian society was not politically concentrated in the capital, a new study has found. Rather, political power appears to have been dispersed among the ancient kingdoms of central Anatolia.
“Historically, Phrygia was often seen as a centralized kingdom similar to the Assyrian and Urartian empires,” Hussein Elpelivan, an archaeologist at Turkey’s Bilecik University, told Live Science in an email.
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However, the tombs at the Karaajac burial mound in northwestern Türkiye’s Bozuyuk district suggest otherwise. The fact that elite tombs were located far from the capital “supports the idea that Phrygian political organization was not limited to a strictly centralized, city-centered system” in Gordium, Elpelivan said.
However, he acknowledged that the tomb’s lavish grave goods were not indicative of a royal burial, but rather may indicate a royal gift exchange with an important figure with royal connections, such as the region’s governor.
remote tumulus
The burial mound (or mound) currently stands approximately 26 feet (8 meters) above a natural hill, more than 100 feet (30 meters) above the surrounding plains, and is approximately 110 feet (60 meters) in diameter. It was discovered in 2010 when satellite images showed damage from looting, and researchers have been conducting academic excavations since 2013.
In a new study of the tomb published in the January issue of the American Journal of Archeology, Elpelivan analyzed the tomb’s structure and grave goods.
Elpelivan said the monumental architecture of the tomb, a wooden chamber inside the tumulus, was comparable to elite burials near Gordion, and the grave goods inside the tomb were similar to those found in royal burials in the capital. He said these aspects of the burials at Karaadjaci tumulus “go beyond what would be expected of a purely local, non-elite individual and instead indicate a figure embedded in the Phrygian power structure.”
Elpelivan and his colleagues determined that the grave goods included a number of ceramic vases, one of which was inscribed with a Phrygian name, as well as several ciculae, which may indicate that the figures in the tomb had connections to local royalty or the Midas family, as well as elaborately crafted bronze vessels that often depicted scenes of battle, hunting, or processions.
The presence of cithura is significant because, prior to this study, the only documented example was found in the Midas mound at Gordion, which was probably the tomb of his father Gordius. Elpelivan wrote that these artifacts also help date the tomb to between 740 and 690 BC.
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ancient kingdom
Midas is widely known today for the myth of his “Golden Touch” or “Midas Touch,” in which he turned everything into gold, including food, drink, and his daughter. This cautionary tale was known to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who cited it as an example of greed in the 4th century BC. This myth was adapted by later writers. Daughter was added by American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 19th century.
However, Midas was also a real-life king of Phrygia in central Anatolia who lived in the 8th century BC. The ancient Greeks considered Midas to be extremely wealthy. And it seems that part of the legend was true. Traces of ornate metalwork, jewellery, pottery, rare wooden furniture and fine textiles have been discovered in several Phrygian tombs. There are over 120 burial mounds near Gordion, about half of which have been investigated. However, the tomb of King Midas has not yet been found.
old bones
Elpelivan and his colleagues have found human remains within the Karaadjaci burial mound, but they do not believe they belong to the tomb’s original occupants. Some of the bones came from ancient burial grounds that already existed at the site, while others came from burial grounds that were created after the construction of the Phrygian tombs and tombs.
“The newly discovered burial mound is unique in that it contains graves spanning approximately 3,000 years,” Brian Rose, an archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania, told Live Science in an email. Rose, who was not involved in the research, has been excavating Gordion’s tomb for decades. “The information that it dates back to the reign of King Midas in the late 8th century is particularly welcome, as two other newly excavated tombs in the Phrygian capital Gordion date from the same period,” he said.
Maya Vasileva, an archaeologist at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email that the Karaadjaci tumulus is “very important evidence” of elite Phrygian burials far from Gordion.
However, Vasileva is not convinced that the Situra fragments found in the tomb indicate royal connections. “I do not consider the existence of a situlae to be evidence of local royal status or links to royalty,” she said. “Another hypothesis proposed regarding gift exchange by elites seems more plausible.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated on January 12 at 10:01 a.m. ET to change the image credit to Bilecik Museum.
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