| Popis: |
The Early Phrygians (ca. 950-800 BC) constructed the fortress city of Gordion in central Turkey (modern day Yassihoyuk). Gordion is renowned as the seat of the most famous Phrygian king, Midas of the Golden Touch, and also for being the spot where history records Alexander the Great cut the Gordian Knot (333 BC). In the late 1800s, German archeologists rediscovered Gordion, but it was not until the 1950s that large-scale excavations were begun by the University of Pennsylvania. Those excavations uncovered the Early Phrygian Citadel Gate Complex which comprises the best-preserved Iron Age gate building in the eastern Mediterranean and ancient Near Eastern worlds and is of inestimable cultural-historical significance. In 1999, Turkey experienced two destructive earthquakes along the North Anatolian fault in the northwest. Although centered nearly 230 km from Gordion, the earthquakes increased a bulge in one wall of the Gate Complex that was first identified in 1989. Since then, the bulge has enlarged to the point where a partial collapse was likely. In 2014, a site conservation project began to conserve and stabilize the bulging wall. This has required the use of a mat foundation made of timber railroad ties, specialized scaffolding, and a custom-made gantry system. This paper describes the initial conservation efforts of the project including (a) description and investigation of the site, (b) foundation preparation to protect the heritage site, and (c) design and installation of the gantry and scaffolding system. The ongoing conservation of the wall will be the subject of future papers. |
