Applying the Past to the Present: The uses of modern and ancient vegetation at Gordion

        The archaeobotanical record of Gordion, Turkey documents the history of the vegetation, animal and human activities, in the region over several thousand years. Recent land use has led to the degradation of the Midas tumulus. Based on the archaeobotanical record, we are replanting the surface of the Midas tumulus with native plants to control erosion. In addition to conservation of archaeological remains, this project is also encouraging the preservation of biodiversity and environmental education.

Textual and archaeological evidence for the rural economy of central Anatolia in the 1st c. AD

        The economy and the infrastructure of Galatia (central Turkey) underwent an unprecedented, systematic reorganization during the final quarter of the 1st c. AD. Surviving literary, epigraphic and numismatic sources document an increase in direct imperial administrative control, the establishment of legionary bases, the emergence of civic coinage, and a massive expansion of the province's terratorium and highway system. How and to what extent these developments affected local conditions among Galatia's rural population has remained poorly understood. Excavations at Gordion have provided the first opportunity to measure the impact of wide-scale regional growth within the context of a small rural Roman-period community.

Palaeoenvironmental Consequences: Preliminary Results for an 8000-year ceramic sequence

Land Use and Political Economy: the Gordion Regional Survey

        Ongoing archaeological and environmental survey in the Gordion region of Anatolia is beginning to reveal the complex interweaving of changes in climate, pastoral and farming strategies, and settlement pattern. Preliminary survey data indicate that during the Early Bronze Age and Roman period settlement was dispersed across the landscape, while in the Late Bronze Age and Phrygian periods settlement appears more nucleated and primate. Based on both geomorphological and ethnographic data settlement changes likely involved increases in pastoralism. Both political control and environmental change (hydrology and vegetation) critically shaped shifting strategies of land use.

Faunal analysis at Gordion, Turkey: the use of non-parametric statistics to quantify a hypothesis

        The faunal remains from three occupational areas of the Citadel Mound at Gordion, Turkey were compared to determine whether or not consumption patterns seemed to be similar. All the bone fragments (21,000) dated to the Late Phrygian period (c 550-330 B.C.). The Chi-square test and its associated formulae were the non-parametric statistical tests used. This statistical application allowed us to establish probabilities for each set of comparisons and thereby attach a quantitative parameter to the hypothesis. Our findings supported the ceramic, architecture, and other material culture also recovered from the three areas.

Successes, Surprises, and Dismal Failures: Ten Years of Excavation at a Long-Term Urban Settlement

        Field research at Gordion since 1988 has focused on the definition of a chronological sequence for the site, a large mound occupied from c 2500 BC-AC 1500, and on changes in the form and function of this regional capital. Although large-scale area excavations from 1950-1973 gave a rich picture of an elite center c 750 BC, there were few data that could be used to construct a picture the bulk of the population, either within Gordion or in the surrounding countryside. This paper discusses the problems encountered in excavating a large, topographically complex, multi-period site-the research strategies that worked and those that did not.

Ethnoarchaeology of Pastoral Systems in Sakarya River Valley

        This presentation concerns a regional survey of contemporary pastoral activities in the Sakarya River valley, near the modern village of Yassihöyük where ancient Gordion is located. Three specific issues will be discussed: (1) location, plan and use of sheep/ goat folds across the landscape; (2) size and composition of herds; and (3) land-use patterns, over a period of 50 years (i.e. changes in the relation of grazing to agricultural land). I will explore the archaeological implications of the ethnographic data: how may archaeologists use such data and what significance do these ethnographic observations have for archaeological surveys.