ABSTRACT
Archaeological evidence for post-Hittite bronze working centers in central Anatolia in the first millennium BC derives almost exclusively from the ancient kingdom of Phrygia. There is vigorous discussion in the archaeological literature concerning the nature of the relationship of the Phrygians and Midas to the Mushki and Mita, and of the ethnic relationship between the two groups. The distinctive and highly characteristic fibulae are the most extensively published and discussed of all the Phrygian bronzes, and they were the first artifacts to be recognized as manifestly Anatolian and Phrygian. Gordion is the main source of classical Phrygian artifacts and it is that the range and skills of the Phrygian bronze workers are revealed in full splendor. Practically every bronze excavated at Gordion derives from a tumulus burial, and determining the relative and absolute dating of these burials is essential for establishing a chronology of the Phrygian bronze industry.
