DISCOVERIES FROM THE FIELD

Scale Armor from

THE PENN MUSEUM’S longest-running excavation corselet fashioned of iron and bronze scales, also dating began in 1950 at Gordion in central . The project to the 6th century BCE. The two pieces found thus is now under the leadership of Dr. C. Brian Rose, Curator- far are almost certainly part of the same suit of armor, in-Charge, Mediterranean Section. Each season, as work but further conservation is necessary before we can continues at the site, new discoveries are made. During conclusively determine this. The bronze scales form a the summer of 2019, the ongoing investigation of the running meander very close to the motif in the Mosaic Mosaic Building, begun many decades ago, revealed a Building’s mosaic floors, and identical to the decoration surprising find: fragments of scale armor. used for the armor of the Homeric hero Patroclus in the The Mosaic Building is named for decorated pebble cup by the Sosias Painter (ca. 500 BCE). A similar suit of mosaic floors that were uncovered in the 1950s by Rod- iron and bronze scale armor, also fabricated in the 6th ney Young. These blue and white floors were made from century, has been found at the site of Idalion on Cyprus, pebbles in a meander design. Young dated the Building and the 2016 excavations at the Lydian capital of to the Late Phrygian period (5th–4th centuries BCE) and yielded a mass of iron scales from an armor corselet of a interpreted it as the o!ce of Gordion’s Persian governor. related type. Based on recent excavations and a restudy of ceramics In light of the parallels for the armor and the new and small finds from the site, the date of the construction chronology of the building, we should probably assume of the Mosaic Building has been revised to ca. 540 BCE. that the armor belonged to a Lydian defender of the city Consequently, it is now believed that this complex may who would have worn it during the Persian attack, after have been the residence of 6th-century BCE rulers at Gordion, which it was discarded. A well-preserved iron arrowhead which was later destroyed in the Persian attack of ca. 540 BCE. found nearby was no doubt used during the same conflict. One of the most exciting discoveries of the 2019 More pieces of the armor may be found next year when season came from this building: sizable parts of an armor the 2019 trench is extended toward the north.

!"#$: Red-figure cup by the Sosias Painter (ca. 500 BCE) in the Antikensammlung, Berlin. Achilles (right) bandages the wounds of Patroclus (left), who wears armor with the same kind of meander decoration as the scale armor from the Mosaic Building. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. %&'($: Donna Strahan conserves the scale armor from the Mosaic Building. Photo by Gebhard Bieg.

48 EXPEDITION Vol. 62 | No. 1 N 0 100 km B L A C K S E A

İstanbul S N T A I N S U N E A o f M O M A T I C v e r R M A R A N k Ri P O m a G l ı r Pazarlı z ı ı G S a k a r y a R i v e r K Ḫauša/Boğazköy G G A Daskyleion N G MOUNT INS Gordion Kerkenes Dağ IDA G I A SBOS A LE G G Y

E R Midas City P H G Lake G Kyme CHIOS Sardis Tuz E G A D I A L Y r Lake v e L N Ephesos e s R i Eğirdir A k M e n d e r Lake MOS G B ü y ü B S SA Beyşehir A T r S N e I v E G i r T R v e A i Miletos A R n A U T n R a U N a S U h M O y h Bayındır G S e y G ök e s C n ü ru Ri de Gu ve en lf of A r İsk nta Gulf of lya

M E D A I T E R R A N E A N S E

)*+,": This map of ancient Anatolia shows the location of Gordion, southwest of Ankara. Map by Gareth Darbyshire, Gabriel H. Pizzorno, and Ardeth Anderson. *"!+-: Detail of the scale armor from the Mosaic Building, with bronze meander decoration. Photo by Gebhard Bieg.

This report from the field is adapted from the Friends of Gordion Newsletter, October 2019. To read more about Gordion, including all of the latest information from the 2019 season, go to the Gordion website at www.penn.museum/sites/gordion/.

Winter 2020 49