Phrygian Bronzework, 2012

2019

zanlak municipality (probably from destroyed burial mound). The item is clearly of local manufacture and most fascinating – it is made from copper alloy. Although heavily damaged, from 1 to 7 equal ornaments from three different types are preserved, positioned in horizontal rows. They are all embossed, worked in repoussé technique using a stamp, outlined, and several details are added with free hand afterwards. On the lowest row there is a single image of fish and just above it there are seven birds, probably ducks. Most interesting are the partly preserved bull heads, ornaments known from many metalworking tools, especially in Northwestern Bulgaria, but attested on much fewer Thracian metal vases. This study aims to propose a clear date for the pitcher and determine its role in Hellenistic Thrace. With the archaeological context lost, a formal-typological analysis is conducted, which points to a date in the late 4th or the first half of 3rd c. BC. With the closest geographical and chronological parallel being with another chance find – a silver pectoral from somewhere in Stara Zagora region, a question stands for the localization of workshop or group of closely related workshops (using similar tools), working on different types of items and materials, but with similar decoration. This atelier is probably located in Seuthopolis or in its vicinity, where, during the political upsurge during the Early Hellenistic period, probably a local bronze workshop for vases was in operation.

ISTANBULER MITTEILUNGEN, 2018

During the 5,h and 4,h centuries B.C. Gordion was the most important Phrygian city, although it had lost its status as a royal capital after having consequently fallen under Lydian and Achaemenid control. Despite a magnificence long gone, specific elements of the earlier material culture still reminded of the links with the citys past. Such was a group of ceramics with red painted designs, drawing on the relationship with decorative vocabulary from the most glorious days of the city. The designs include triangles, lozenges and circles filled with dots, as well as diminishing triangles, running S motif, dots-between-lines, ladder motif, chevrons, stylized wreathes and schematically represented animals. First thought to indicate the presence of a new population in Gordion, they are now recognized as a commensurate part of the local pottery craft. Together with the so-called banded bowls, they formed dining sets for the Phrygian table during the period.

1994

Rademakers, F.W., Rehren, Th. and Voigt, M.M. (2018): Bronze metallurgy in the Late Phrygian settlement of Gordion, Turkey, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 10, 1645-1672

A detailed understanding of bronze production remains absent in most archaeological contexts, despite the fundamental importance of this alloy. Here, we present a comprehensive discussion of the bronze production remains from Late Phrygian/Achaemenid Gordion: crucibles, moulds and casting waste and their find contexts. A detailed microscopic analysis of crucibles is complemented by chemical characterisation of their main materials (ceramic and slag) in order to discuss the technical performance of the crucibles and to evaluate the materials used for the metallurgical process. Given the lack of contemporary parallels, repeated reference is made to the Egyptian crucibles from Pi-Ramesse, for which similarly detailed descriptions are available. The crucible analyses are then connected to the other production remains to obtain a more holistic understanding of the metallurgical process. Finally, these technical observations are interpreted in their particular archaeological context at Gordion and discussed from a wider perspective. The results presented here offer the first detailed overview of bronze production for ancient Phrygia, as well as the wider region. Through the inclusion of extensive online supplementary data, this paper offers a detailed technical overview of ancient (bronze) crucible analysis, of which very few examples are currently available in the wider literature.

Executed with great care and attention to detail, a bronze ornamental gorgon in an American private collection is an exceptional example of Archaic Greek toreutic art . 1 In Greek myth, there were three gorgons, who were the monstrous offspring of the sea deities Keto and Phorkys. The most famous of the three hideous sisters is of course Medousa (Medusa), beheaded in myth by the hero Perseus, who was in turn pursued over the sea by her two surviving sisters Stheno and Euryale. In Greek art the gorgon was a very popular figure that often served an apotropaic function, since gorgons were considered capable of warding off evil.