Botanical Aspects of Environment and Economy at Gordion, Turkey

Summary

The archaeological site of Gordion is most famous as the home of the Phrygian king Midas and as the place where Alexander the Great cut the Gordian knot on his way to conquer Asia. Located in central Anatolia (present-day Turkey) near the confluence of the Porsuk and Sakarya rivers, Gordion also lies on historic trade routes between east and west as well as north to the Black Sea. Favorably situated for long-distance trade, Gordion's setting is marginal for agricultural cultivation but well suited to pastoral production. It is therefore not surprising that with the exception of a single Chalcolithic site, the earliest settlements in the region are fairly late—they date to the Early Bronze Age (late 3rd millennium B.C.). The earliest known levels of Gordion, too, date to the Early Bronze Age, and occupation of at least some part of the site was nearly continuous through at least Roman times (second half of the 1st century B.C.).

This work is a contribution to both the archaeobotany of west Asia and the archaeology of the site of Gordion. The book's major concern is understanding long-term changes in the environment and in land use. An important finding, with implications for modern land management, is that the most sustainable use of this landscape involves mixed farming of dry-farmed cereals, summer-irrigated garden crops, and animal husbandry. The large number of samples from the 1988-89 seasons analyzed here make this a rich source for understanding other materials from the Gordion excavations and for comparison with other sites in west Asia.

Naomi F. Miller is an archaeobotanist and member of the Near East Section at the Penn Museum. She is author of Drawing on the Past: An Archaeologist's Sketchbook, editor of Economy and Settlement in the Near East: Analyses of Ancient Sites and Materials, and coeditor (with Kathryn Gleason) of The Archaeology of Garden and Field, all of which are available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Cite this Record

Botanical Aspects of Environment and Economy at Gordion, Turkey. ( tDAR id: 376588) ; doi:10.6067/XCV87H1M0V

URL: http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14696.html


Keywords

Geographic Keywords
Anatolia Gordion

Spatial Coverage

min long: 29.817; min lat: 38.959 ; max long: 34.387; max lat: 41.195 ;

Resources Inside this Project (Viewing 1-20 of 20)

Documents

  1. Botanical Aspects of Environment and Economy at Gordion, Turkey (2010)
  2. Views of Gordion and the Surrounding Region (2010)

Datasets

  1. Appendix C: Vegetation Survey, Localities (2010)
  2. Appendix C: Vegetation Survey, Plant list (2010)
  3. Appendix D: Seed Measures, Barley measurements (2010)
  4. Appendix D: Seed Measures, Einkorn measurements (2010)
  5. Appendix D: Seed Measures, Emmer measurements (2010)
  6. Appendix D: Seed Measures, Flax measurements (2010)
  7. Appendix D: Seed Measures, Lentil measurements 1 (2010)
  8. Appendix D: Seed Measures, Lentil measurements 2 (2010)
  9. Appendix D: Seed Measures, Naked wheat measurements (2010)
  10. Appendix D: Seed Measures, Other Poaceae measurements (2010)
  11. Appendix E: Charcoal Samples, Data from hand-picked charcoal samples, Burned Buildings (2010)
  12. Appendix E: Charcoal Samples, Data from hand-picked charcoal samples, Debris Samples (2010)
  13. Appendix E: Charcoal Samples, Inventory of hand-picked charcoal samples (2010)
  14. Appendix E: Charcoal Samples, Inventory of hand-picked charcoal samples, Burned Buildings (2010)
  15. Appendix E: Charcoal Samples, Inventory of hand-picked charcoal samples, Debris Samples (2010)
  16. Appendix E: Charcoal Samples, Inventory of hand-picked charcoal samples, No Charcoal Samples Analyzed (2010)
  17. Appendix E: Charcoal Samples, Inventory of hand-picked charcoal samples, Poor Provenience (2010)
  18. Appendix F: Data from flotation samples (2010)