An ancient tomb discovered in Turkey could have been built for a member of King Midas’s family, the legendary ruler famed for his “golden touch.”
The tomb, dating back to the ancient kingdom of Phrygia (1200 to 675 B.C.), is located more than 100 miles west of the kingdom’s capital at Gordion. Its remote location suggests Phrygian political power wasn’t concentrated in a single city, but rather distributed throughout central Anatolia, according to a new study.
“Historically, Phrygia was often viewed as a centralized kingdom similar to the Assyrian or Urartian empires,” explained Hüseyin Erpehlivan of Turkey’s Bilecik University.
The Karaağaç Tumulus, where the tomb is located in Turkey’s northwestern Bozüyük district, supports the idea that Phrygian political organization wasn’t limited to a strictly centralized system, Erpehlivan said. However, he cautioned that the tomb’s rich grave goods could indicate a gift exchange with a high-ranking official, like a regional governor, rather than a royal burial.
A Distant Royal Residence?
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The tumulus, or burial mound, rises approximately 26 feet (8 meters) above a natural hillock and more than 100 feet (30 meters) above the surrounding plain, spanning a diameter of about 110 feet (60 meters). It was first identified in 2010 through satellite imagery showing evidence of looting, and researchers began formal excavations in 2013.
A new investigation of the tumulus, published in the January issue of the American Journal of Archaeology, analyzed the tomb’s architecture and the artifacts found within.
Erpehlivan noted that the monumental architecture of the tomb’s wooden chamber is comparable to elite burials near Gordion, while the grave goods resemble those found in royal tombs at the capital. These features suggest the individual buried at Karaağaç Tumulus was a figure of power within Phrygian society.
The Legacy of Midas
The grave goods included numerous ceramic jars, one inscribed with a Phrygian name, and several elaborately crafted bronze vessels called situlas, often decorated with scenes of battles, hunts, and processions. These situlas are particularly intriguing, as the only previously documented examples were found in the “Midas Mound” at Gordion, believed to be the tomb of his father, Gordias. The artifacts also date the tomb to between 740 and 690 B.C.
King Midas is best known for the Greek myth of his “Golden Touch,” which turned everything he touched into gold. This cautionary tale, first cited by the philosopher Aristotle in the fourth century B.C., served as an example of greed. Later writers, including American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, added the detail of his daughter being turned to gold in the 19th century.
However, Midas was a real king of Phrygia in central Anatolia during the eighth century B.C. Ancient Greeks believed he was immensely wealthy, a reputation supported by the discovery of ornate metalwork, jewelry, pottery, rare wooden furniture, and fine textiles in several Phrygian royal tombs. More than 120 burial mounds surround Gordion, roughly half of which have been investigated, though Midas’s tomb remains undiscovered.
A Complex History
The human remains discovered within the Karaağaç Tumulus don’t appear to belong to the original occupant. Some bones are from an earlier cemetery at the site, while others are from later burials constructed after the Phrygian mound and tomb were built.
“The newly discovered tumulus is unique in that it contains graves spanning a period of nearly three millennia,” said University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Brian Rose, who has excavated at Gordion for decades but wasn’t involved in this study. “Especially welcome is the information that it dates to the reign of King Midas in the late eighth century, since two other newly excavated burial mounds at the Phrygian capital of Gordion date to the same period.”
Maya Vassileva of the New Bulgarian University in Sofia, who wasn’t involved in the study, believes the Karaağaç Tumulus provides “very important evidence” of an elite Phrygian burial outside of Gordion. However, she isn’t convinced the situla fragments indicate royal ties, suggesting a gift exchange with a high-ranking official is a more plausible explanation.
