Unfolding a Geometric Textile from 9th-Century Gordion

by Samuel Holzman

Hesperia, Volume 88, Issue 3
Page(s): 527-556
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.88.3.0527
Year: 2019
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ABSTRACT:

A fire at Gordion ca. 800 B.C. preserved an ornate woven textile folded up in Megaron 3. A new visual reconstruction of this artifact from the Early Phrygian destruction level shows a complex composition combining slit-tapestry weaving and soumak wrapping. A unique find from Early Iron Age Anatolia, the textile shares geometric motifs and design elements with many other types of Phrygian artifacts, such as painted pottery, inlaid furniture, and a pebble mosaic, and shows weaving to have been part of the koine of geometric design of the era.