American Journal of Archaeology
A burial mound in Türkiye may have housed the remains of a member of King Midas’s family. But not all experts are convinced.
An ancient tomb discovered in Türkiye may have been built for a member of the legend’s family King Midaswho lived in the 8th century BC and is famous for his mythical “touch of gold“. The discovery was presented in a published this month in American Journal of Archaeology.
The tomb, possibly realfrom the ancient kingdom of Phrygia (1200 to 675 BC), lies more than 160 km west of the kingdom’s ancient capital, in Gordium, at the archaeological site of Karaağaç, in northwestern Turkey.
The distant location of the tomb suggests that Phrygian society was not politically concentrated in the kingdom’s capital city—on the contrary, it seems to indicate that political power was distributed throughout the ancient kingdom in central Anatolia.
“Historically, Phrygia was often seen as a centralized kingdom, similar to the Assyrian or Urartian empires,” said the archaeologist. Hüseyin Erpehlivanresearcher at Bilecik University, in Türkiye, and author of the study.
But the fact that a elite tomb have been built so far of the capital “supports the idea that Phrygian political organization was not limited to a strictly centralized system focused on the urban environment” in Gordium, said Erpehlivan.
The researcher suggests, however, that the sumptuous grave goods in the tomb may not indicate an actual burialbut first an exchange of real gifts with an important person who had royal connectionsas the governor of the region.
Remote tomb
The tomb (or burial mound) currently stands about 8 meters above a natural elevation and more than 30 meters above the surrounding plainwith a diameter of approximately 60 meters. It was discovered in 2010 when satellite photographs showed damage caused by lootingand researchers have been academically excavating it since 2013.
According to Erpehlivan, the monumental architecture of the tomb with a wooden chamber inside the mound is comparable to elite burials near Gordiumwhile the grave goods in the tomb are similar to those found in royal burials in the capital.
These aspects of the burial in the Karaağaç Tomb “exceed what would be expected for a purely local and non-elite individual, rather pointing to a integrated figure in Phrygian power structures“, these.
Grave goods found at the site included numerous ceramic jars, one of which was inscribed with a Phrygian name, and several situlas—elaborately crafted bronze vessels often decorated with scenes of battles, hunts, and processions—that could indicate that the person in the tomb had a local royal position or ties to the royal family of Midas.
The presence of situlas is important because, before this study, the only documented specimens were discovered on the “Mount of Midas”, in Gordium, which was probably the his father’s tomb, Gordias. According to Erpehlivan, the artifacts also help date the tomb between 740 e 690 a.C.
Ancient kingdom
The famous King Midas is known in ancient mythology for his “Golden Touch” or “Midas Touch”, which turned everything into gold — including your food, your drink and your daughter.
This story was known to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotlewho cited her in the 4th century BC as a example of greed. The myth was embellished by later writers; the daughter was added in the 19th century by the North American author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
But Midas was also a royal king of Phrygiain central Anatolia, who lived in the 8th century BC. The ancient Greeks considered him fabulously rich, and this part of the legend seems to have been true: Ornate metalwork, jewelry, pottery, rare wooden furniture, and traces of fine textiles have been discovered in several Phrygian royal tombs.
There is more than 120 burial mounds near Gordium, of which about half were investigated; the tomb of Midas, however, not yet found.
Ancient bones
Erpehlivan and his colleagues discovered human remains inside the Karaağaç Tomb, but do not believe they belong to the tomb’s original occupant. Some of the bones are from an old cemetery that already existed on the sitel, while others are from burials carried out after the Phrygian burial mound and tomb were built.
“The recently discovered tomb is unique in the sense that it contains graves that span a period of almost three millennia,” archaeologist told Live Science Brian Roseof the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the study but has excavated tombs at Gordium for decades.
“Particularly welcome is the information that it dates from the reign of King Midas, at the end of the 8th century, since two other burial mounds recently excavated in the Phrygian capital of Gordium date from the same period”, he stated.
According to the archaeologist Maya Vassilevafrom the New Bulgarian University in Sofia, the Tomb of Karaağaç “It’s a very important test” from an elite Phrygian burial far from Gordius. But Vassileva not convinced that the tomb’s situla fragments are a sign of royal connections.
“I would not consider the presence of situlas as proof of a local royal position or royal ties,” he said. “The other suggested hypothesis, of a exchange of gifts among members of the elite, it seems more plausible.”
