Elite Feasting and Monumental Dedication at Early Phrygian Gordion, Central Turkey

Within central Turkey, the site of Gordion has long been a major urban center, and was the capital of the Iron Age Phrygian kingdom. Recent excavations of a stratified pit in the elite core of the site revealed a large concentration of carbonized botanical remains and faunal material. Dating to the Early Phrygian period (800-700 BCE), these foods appear to have been consumed and discarded in a single event, followed immediately by the construction of buildings for elite use atop this trash deposit. Signaling a potential feasting deposit of ritual significance, eight diverse botanical samples are the focus of our analysis. As elite feasting has not yet been documented at Gordion, especially in coordination with monumental construction, multiple lines of evidence from this deposit provide an opportunity to explore how elite ritual dedications related to monuments were performed, in addition to providing insight into elite dining practices during public/ritual events.