69

"Midas' Bed" and a Royal

Phrygian Funeral
Elizabeth Simpson
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, New York

In 195~ Tu:mulus MM at G.ordion) Turke~ was excavated by The University Museum of

the UnIversIty of PennsylvanIa) under the direction of Rodney S. Young. On opening the
royal chambe1j r.oungfound the bu:ried king lying on the deteriorated remains of what he
took to be a massIve wooden bed) Wtth headboard) footboard) planks) rails) and four corner
posts: ~examination
of.the.(~bed!J~as yielded.a ~ew interpretation of this piece offurniture)
provid!ng dues to tke dts.posltton of ItSparts Wtth,n the chamber and suggesting a reconstructwn of the burial ntes conducted for the king.

Introduction
The site of Gordion in central Turkey (FIG. 1) was
excavated by The University Museum of the University
of Pennsylvania between 1950 and 1973, under the direction of Rodney S. Young. Gordion was the capital of
the ancient kingdom of Phrygia, ruled at the height of its
power in the late 8th century B.C. by Midas,l the city's
most celebrated king. To the NE of the ancient city mound
lies the largest tumulus at Gordion, today standing 53 m
high, with a diameter of nearly 300 m (FIG. 2). The burial
beneath this mound dates to the late 8th century B.C.
Although the tomb's occupant could not be identified
with certainty, the excavators called the mound Tumulus
MM-for Midas Mound-thinking
that the monumental
tumulus might have covered the burial of Gordion's most
powerful ruler, King Midas, himself.

Excavation of the Tomb

Tumulus MM was excavated in 1957. By drilling a series
of holes into the earth of the tumulus (1955-1956),
Young was able to locate the tomb chamber far beneath
the mound's surface. The excavators cut a trench into the
side of the mound at the sw, digging straight in toward
the tomb chamber. After about 70 m, a tunnel was begun.
The tunnel continued another 67.7 m, when digging was
abruptly halted by a wall of worked stone blocks. Beyond
these stone blocks was rubble fill, then a wall of huge logs,
more rubble, and finally the finished wooden wall of the
tomb chamber (Young 1981: 83-95). A hole was cut in
the tomb wall, and the excavators looked in, finding themselves at the feet of the buried king (FIG. 3).

!.

For a discussion of the historical and legendary aspects of King

Midas, see Roller (1983, 1984).

The remains of the body, dressed in a bronze-studded

leather outfit, lay on a mass of textiles-a heavy purplish
fabric that seemed to be felt, and, beneath this, a finer,
yellow-brown woven cloth in many layers (Young 1981:
101, 190; Simpson 1985: 3). The textiles covered the
very deteriorated remains of a piece of wooden furniture
that Young thought was a four-poster bed (Young 1981:
187-190). The piece Young thought was the bed's
headboard2 had fallen outwards (FIG. 4), covering a threelegged wooden table which had itself collapsed onto the
tomb floor. A cloth bag of bronze fibulas once placed on
the table had fallen and broken open, spilling its contents.
Beyond the headboard, in the NE comer of the tomb,
were the remains of three pieces of furniture-stools and
possibly a chair or couch (FIG. 5; Young 1981: pI. 43B).
To the south were seven more three-legged tables,
which had collapsed under the weight of the many bronze
bowls that had been placed upon them (Young 1981: pIs.
48B, 49A-B). Against the tomb's south wall were three
large bronze cauldrons on iron stands (Young 1981: pI.
46A-B). Lying near the west wall were 10 large bronze
jugs and 9 bronze and leather belt-like objects (Young
1981: pIs. 47B-C, 48A). These objects had once hung
from nails on the wall, as had many of the bronze vessels
found in the tomb (Young 1981: 100).
Leaning against the east wall were two inlaid wooden
objects that the excavator called screens (Young 1981:
color pI. IT, pI. 44A-B). To the south of the screens was
an ornate, inlaid wooden table, which had been piled with
2. I will use Young's terms headboard, footboard, planks, comer
blocks, posts, and rails without quotation marks throughout my text. In
the figure captions, these terms have been enclosed in quotation marks
where appropriate in order to avoid misunderstandings.

70 ((MidasJ Bed)) and a Royal Phrygian Funeral/Simpson

Figure 1. Map of Anatolia, with sites mentioned in the text.

bronze vessels, some contauung the remains of food

(Young 1981: pl. 45A-B; Simpson 1983; Simpson and
Payton 1986: 40-46). This table, with its four handles
and tray-shaped top, was a portable banquet table, used
for carrying and serving food (Simpson 1985: 77-78) .
The screens had originally stood upright, supported by

straight back legs. Each screen had a carved top piece,

incorporating three round, open circles (Simpson 1985:
pIs. 50, 61, figs. 21, 27). The excavators thought these
screens might be elaborate ceremonial throne-backs, in
front of which a monarch might sit (Young 1974: 13;
Mellink 1981: 264-265), but they have now been shown
to have had a more practical use: the screens were in fact
serving stands, whose top circles held small bronze cauldrons (Simpson and Payton 1986: 46). Ladles were used
with these cauldrons, probably to portion food or drink
into the many bronze bowls found in the tomb. Ten small
cauldrons (Young 1981: pls, 58, 59A-C) and two ladles
(Young 1981: pl. 64A-B) were found near the screens,
as well as two bronze situlas (Young 1981: color pIs. 111IV, pIs. 62C--F, 63), which may have been used to fill the
small cauldrons from the three larger cauldrons found
along the south wall (Young 1958: 227, 230).
The king's bed was one of the most intriguing pieces
of furniture in the tomb. It had totally collapsed, but in
spite of its damaged condition, Young believed he understood its form. He reports in his field book:

Figure 2. Tumulus MM, Gordion, from the sw, showing the trench cut into the mound in 1957.

Journal ofField Archaeology/Vol. 17) 1990

71

Figure 3. View into the Tumulus MM chamber from the cut in the tomb wall, showing the
remains of the king lying on his "bed."

Figure 4. The "headboard" of the king's "bed," fallen outwards to the east.

Our door enters the tomb chamber at the foot of the bed,
between the corner blocks on which it stood. By putting down
a plank below the door and between the end blocks we can
gain access to the chamber; but first we have to remove the
end of the bed, between the blocks. This consists of a long
wooden block-the footboard, as it turns out-which is fairly
firm on its right end, fallen and rotted at its left . . . The
footboard would appear to have fallen inward, i.e. toward the

east: probably it originally stood upright close against the west

wall ... (Young 1957: 78-79).3
3. Wherever possible, I have noted Young's published works. I have
also found it necessary, however, to use information from Young's excavation field book (Young 1957), because the manuscript for his final
report (Young 1981) was in a preliminary state at the time of his death
in 1974. The final publication was prepared posthumously by an editorial

72 ((Midas'Bed)) and a Royal Phrygian Funeral/Simpson

Figure 5. Plan of the Tumulus MM chamber drawn by D. H. Cox. The excavators cut through the
tomb wall near the ''foot" of the king's "bed, at the north of the western wall of the chamber. The
objects are shown lying on the tomb's wooden floor; there were no doors or windows in the chamber's
wooden walls.

10

1M

Journal of FieldArchaeologylVol. 17) 1990 73

Figure 6. sw comer block against the west wall of the tomb chamber. The modem plank was
put down by the excavators below their cut in the wall for entrance into the tomb. Bronze jugs
and a belt fragment can be seen in the foreground and at the left.

The cut made by the excavators in the tomb wall was at

the northern end of the west wall, some distance from the
feet of the skeleton. Just below the cut in the wall was the
deteriorated footboard. Before Young took up the footboard, Dorothy Cox made sketches, later to be incorporated in her final plan of the Tumulus MM chamber (FIG.
5). On Cox's plan, the footboard is drawn as though it
had fallen outward, to the west."
To the north and south of the footboard were the two
com er blocks on which Young had assumed the footboard
had been supported. The NW comer block had been placed
in the NW comer of the chamber, and the sw block against
the west wall (FIGS. 5,6) . The remains of the king lay in
the center of the bed. Young's account continues:
We take up the footboard; it rests on an iron bar turned down
at one end, which probably served as a sort of clamp to hold
down the long planks of the bed platform and keep them
together; we note a succession of nail holes evenly spaced at
about 16 cm apart in their upper faces. The space under them
is hollow and we lift them, finding and clearing the floor of
the tomb chamber. We put down a block and a plank and so
gain access to the room (Young 1957: 80-81) .

committee, without the benefit of any final thoughts or revisions by

Young. Because Young's field book is unpublished, I have quoted all
passages that have direct bearing on my arguments.
4. On Cox's plan (FIG. 5), the rounded, upper edge of the footboard
is shown lying near the tomb's west wall; if the headboard had fallen to
the east, the rounded edge should appear somewhere near the feet of
the king.

Young entered the tomb and proceeded to take up the

bed, describing its constituent parts. The board at the east
(FIG. 4), which had fallen out onto the collapsed wooden
table, was called the headboard, its lower edge "cut aslant"
(Young 1957: 179). The headboard, like the footboard,
had the remains of an iron bar on its surface. Young
supposed that the bar had been socketed into the two
comer blocks that lay to either side of the fallen headboard, supporting it from below (Young 1981: 187). This
corroded iron bar can be seen in Figure 4, just beyond
the remains of several layers of textiles that appear to have
been draped between the circular cutouts at the sides of
the headboard.
Young noticed what he thought were the ends of the
bed planks at the east: "At the east end the planks have
not fallen and we see empty space about 20 cm deep
beneath them between the comer blocks at the head of
the bed" (Young 1957: 179-180). Although the bed
planks had "gone to pieces in a big way" (Young 1957:
188), Young thought he recognized seven planks, the two
outermost boards represented by sparse, deteriorated remains on the tomb floor. Cox theorized that the platform
proper had been made from five central planks and that
two thinner, outer boards had stood on their edges, supporting the sides of the platform between the comer
blocks. This solution was proposed since there was no
other visible means of support for the outer edges of the
bed platform (Young 1957: 187; Young 1981: 187).

74 "Midas' Bed" and a RoyalPhrygianFuneral/Simpson

Figure 7. The king's "bed," looking north, showing the strips of dark wood exposed when the
southern "planks" of the "bed platform" were removed by the excavators. In the right foreground is the SE comer block; the NE comer block is at the right against the tomb wall. Between the two comer blocks are the remains of textiles on the fallen "headboard."

The four corner blocks were solid 'blocks of wood,

nearly square (50 x 48 ern) and 33 cm high (Young 1981:
189). In their top surfaces were shallow circular cuttings
25 cm in diameter. Near the two east corner blocks, Young
noted the remains of posts of black wood." He theorized
that the posts had fit into the circular cuttings in the tops
of the corner blocks. Since the diameter of the posts was
not more than 10 em, however, Young thought that they
had been secured in the much larger cuttings by means of
round collars of soft wood, which had served to support
them. The longest post was preserved to a length of 60
cm (Young 1981: 189). These corner posts are clearly
indicated on Cox's tomb plan, Figure 5, especially at the
east, where two regular posts with squared ends appear
just to the east of the corner blocks." The posts are not as
easy to locate in photographs taken at the time of excavation, however, although the SE post should probably be
identified with the rather rough piece of wood lying near
5. Young (1981: 189) remarks that pieces of black wood, round in
section and 10 em in diameter, were found on or near the top cuttings
in all four comer blocks, but in his excavation account (Young 1957:
178) he notes the remains of posts near only the NE and SE comer
blocks.
6. Young noted that the remains of the post near the NE comer block
"has fallen toward the west and dribbles down the west face of the block
and over the bed to some little distance" (Young 1957: 178). Cox, on
the other hand, has drawn what seems to be the NE comer post lying
to the east of the NE comer block on her tomb plan (FIG. 5).

the headboard in the left foreground of Figure 4. 7

As the excavation of the bed proceeded, the wood of
the southernmost planks was removed, and two long strips
of dark wood were found beneath them, lying on the floor
(FIG. 7). Between and to both sides of these dark strips
were the very fragmentary remains of three light-colored
strips of wood (not clearly visible in the photograph).
Young saw that these five strips went together, forming,
as he put it, "sandwiches of five layers of alternated light
and dark wood," 2 cm thick and 7.5 em wide (Young
1981: 189).8 These strips were fastened together with
nails or pegs, now missing, but indicated by the holes
through which they passed (Young 1981: 189). Near this
five-layered piece, jutting out at an angle, was another
shorter five-layered piece. It had fit into the longer piece
at a notch 28 cm from its squared east end.? but it had
come loose from the longer piece, which appears pulled
to the west. The longer piece was preserved to a length
of 123 em, at which point it had broken and disintegrated.
7. Cox (FIG. 5) has clearly drawn the posts to look much more finished
than the remains of the wood indicate.
8. Each of the five strips was 1.5 cm wide, so the width of the
composite piece was 7.5 cm.
9. The width of the notch is given as 7.5 cm (Young 1981: 189),
but this is an error. It is clear from the excavation photographs (FIG. 7)
and Young's field notes that the notch was "square" (Young 1957: 189)
and would therefore have had to be 1.5 em wide, the same width as the
strip of dark wood (Simpson 1985: 49).

Journal of FieldA rchaeologylVol. 1'0 1990 75

Figure 8. The wood strips on the floor of the Tumulus MM chamber after all the "bed planks"
have been removed.

As the northern bed planks were removed, another long

composite piece was uncovered, preserved to a length of
135 em, with two shorter pieces fitting into notches
spaced along its length (FIG. 8). Here, the short pieces
were still in place, allowing Young to describe the way
the short and long pieces fit together. From Young's description, the joinery could be reconstructed (FIG. 9;
Young 1981: 189, fig. 113).
The placement of the northern pieces gave rise to
Young's supposition that there were originally three short
pieces that joined the long piece. Assuming that the arrangement had been symmetrical, he was able to place the
missing short piece and to estimate the total length of the
long piece, which he calculated as 1.985 m (Young 1981:
189) .10 This was roughly the distance between the east
and west corner blocks: the pieces would have fit neatly
between the two blocks on the floor. This supported
Young's reconstruction of the assembled pieces. Young
believed that these composite pieces were upright rails,
socketed into the bed platform, although he noticed no
evidence of cuttings in the badly deteriorated wood of the
planks.'!

Based on Young's description, Cox's preliminary

sketches and final tomb plan, and the photographs taken
at the time of excavation, the king's bed was reconstructed
in drawings by the author for Young's posthumous publication (FIG. 10; Young 1981: 188, fig. 112). Figure lOa
shows a side view of Young's bed, with the outer planks
standing on edge supporting the platform proper. The
slim corner posts rise from the cubical corner blocks. The
headboard and footboard fit directly between the corner
posts and are indicated by dashed lines drawn on these
posts. The bed rails are socketed into the edges of the
platform. A top view of the bed (FIG. lOB), shows its five
central planks, headboard, footboard, and upright rails
seen from above, with its four corner posts set into collars
of wood in the tops of the cubical comer blocks.
Looking at the bed from the east end (FIG. 10C),
Young's theory of its construction can be visualized. The
iron bar was socketed into the cubical corner blocks, supporting the central bed planks; and these planks in tum

Figure 9. Reconstruction of the joinery of the "bed rails."

"I

10. This calculation is incorrect, as it is based on the incorrectly-given

width of the notches (7.5 em instead of 1.5 em) in the long strips.
Correctly calculated, the total length would have been 1.805 m.
11. Young (1974: 4) mentions tenons at the lower ends of the short,
vertical pieces of the rails; but no such tenons are mentioned in his field
book (Young 1957) or his final publication (Young 1981): therefore,
Young's 1974 assertion must be considered an error. The excavation
photographs show no tenons on these pieces, nor are any apparent on
the remains of the pieces themselves.

--

76

(~idas' Bed)) and a Royal Phrygian Funeral/Simpson

Ieee

50,cm

Figure 10. Reconstruction of the king's "bed, " according to Young's

description. A: side view; B: top view; C: end view from the east.

supported the headboard (Young 1981: 187). Young

thought that the king's bed, though it may have been
uncomfortable, was certainly grand enough for a monarch
to sleep in: the bed was undoubtedly used by the king
while he was alive and then placed in the tomb for his use
after death (Young 1974: 4; Young 1981: 189).

A New Interpretation of the King's Bed

The bed had now been reconstructed in drawings, but
many questions remained unanswered. Exactly how did
the iron bars support the headboard and footboard? Were
they in fact socketed into the comer blocks? If so, why

did no evidence of the cuttings survive? Did the iron bars

also support the planks of the platform? How were the
two outer planks that extended beyond the iron bar supported? Why was there a hollow space under the bottom
edges of the fallen headboard and footboard? Did the
footboard fall in toward the east, as Young had suggested,
or toward the west, as it appeared on Cox's tomb plan
(FIG. s)? What was the nature of the four tall comer posts,
and how did they fit into the cuttings in the tops of the
comer blocks? Cox's plan (FIG. s) showed four finished,
post-like objects, but finished posts do not appear in the
photographs taken at the time of excavation. And, finally,
how did the rails end up under the remains of the platform
if they had originally been socketed into its upper edge?
Young said, "On falling, [the rails] evidently went under
the edge of the bed after the supporting vertical planks
had fallen out, and [were] finally covered on the collapse
of the bed itself" (Young 1957: 192-193). Young's explanation would entail the rails falling from the platform,
moving in some distance under the platform's outer edges,
and aligning themselves nearly parallel with one another
before the bed's collapse. For inanimate objects, unfortunately, this solution will not suffice.
Regrettably, Young did not have the chance to work
out the many problems left. unsolved at the time of his

Journal ofField Archaeologyl Vol. 17) 1990

77

Figure 11. The "headboard"-the east ledge-as seen from the side. This photograph, taken in
1981, shows the ledge brought up to its proper position, supported at the right by a mud brick
used as a prop.

death , and the king's bed was published according to his

original description. The piece clearly warranted further
study, and in 1981, as Young's volume was going to press,
I went to Gordion to look for the bed.
The massive headboard was located and removed from
storage. The iron bar rested on the face of the headboard,
along with the chunks of textiles evident in the excavation
photographs. But the piece did not look the way I had
envisioned it. Once the textiles were removed, a completely unexpected shape emerged: the wood Young
thought had belonged to the ends of the planks of the
platform was actually part of the headboard itself (FIG.
1l).12 Furthermore, the iron bar had been secured to the
headboard's face by iron nails, and the bar certainly had
not supported the headboard from below (FIG. 12) . In
fact, the shape of the piece showed that it could not have
been a vertical headboard at all. It could only have been
a horizontal ledge, extending from the sloping surface of
a much larger object. The nature of this object soon became clear-the king had been buried in an uncovered
coffin, cut from half a huge log, hollowed out, with ledges
extending at the east and west. A straight-on view of the
12. In Figure 11, my field photograph, the headboard is shown supported at the right by a handy mud brick, used as a prop. Figures 1116 were taken at Gordion in 1981 before the pieces were cleaned and
consolidated. The conservation of these pieces is now under way, and
new photographs will appear in a forthcoming publication.

sloping surface shows the concentric rings of the log

13) .1 3

(FIG .

13. The Tumulus MM coffin, then, was very unlike the actual bed
found in Tumulus P in 1956 (Young 1981: 70 and 71, fig. 40). The
form of the "sarcophagus" from Tumulus K-III at Gordion is unclear,
but its carved remains cannot be from a log coffin (Korte and Korte
1904: 43-45, fig. 6). There was, however, at least one other log coffin
excavated at Gordion. Tumulus B contained a covered log coffin, dating
from the second half of the 7th century B.C. The coffin may have been
made from a single log, split in half, with both halves hollowed out to
form the top and bottom (Young 1951: 14-15). The coffin is reconstructed with a flat bottom (Young 1951: 15), although since the bottom
had completely deteriorated, it could have been more rounded. The
coffin had shallow ledges at both ends, and iron nails and strips of iron
found with the coffin may indicate that it was reinforced with iron
banding (Simpson 1985: 185-187). Two other Phrygian sites have
yielded the remains of what seem to be log coffins. The first is in the
area of the Atatiirk Mausoleum in Ankara: Tumulus 1 contained a
wooden burial chamber, with a section of half a log in the chamber's NE
corner. The excavators interpreted this piece as a bench or banquette
(Bank), but the piece would seem instead to be part of the sloping end
of a log coffin. The excavators note that the Bank had a kind of ledge
that fit over the top of the low wall of the wooden chamber: this may
have been the east ledge of the coffin (Ozgii<; and Akok 1947: 60, figs.
5, 10, 12, 13). The second site is in the area of Antalya, where recent
excavations near the village of Bayindir have uncovered rich Phrygian
tombs . The burial in Tumulus D, excavated in 1987 and not yet fully
published, included sumptuous grave gifts of silver and bronze that are
close in style to the objects from Tumulus MM at Gordion (Ozgen and
Ozgen 1988 : 31-49). Along the NE wall of the burial chamber, two
iron bars were recovered lying parallel to one another. Although little
wood remained, it is likely-based on the Tumulus MM evidence-that
these iron bars were reinforcements at the ends of a log coffin. The

78

"Midas' Bed" and a Royal Phrygian Funeral/Simpson

Figure 12. The east ledge as seen from above, with the remains of the iron bar still attached by

nails.

Figure 13. The east ledge viewed from what would have been the interior of the coffin. The concentric rings of the huge log from which the coffin was cut are visible in the photograph.

Journal ofField Archaeology/Vol. 17) 1990

50cm

Figure 17. Schematic drawing of the east ledge of the coffin. The
ledge is shown twice: first, in the position in which Young found it,
collapsed outwards on the tomb floor; and second, raised to its position at the time of burial. The SE comer block is shown in outline.

they had reconstructed standing on their sides supporting

the edges of the bed platform.
The position of the coffin inside the tomb could now
be understood. The coffin as placed in the chamber, seen
from above, is reconstructed in Figure 18; the pieces
Young had believed were rails are indicated where they
had lain on the tomb floor. A slat found on the slope of
the east ledge beneath the textile layer is indicated on the
drawing just west of the iron bar. In Figure 19, the edges
of the comer blocks and pieces of the rails covered from
view by the coffin's body have been reconstructed in
dashed lines. The rails had been measured by Young, and
several fragments were preserved in storage at Gordion.
It was thus possible to reconstruct the rails to their original
length in a schematic drawing (FIG. 20).15
A side view of the coffin as placed in the tomb is shown
in Figure 21. The edge of the south rail is visible on the
tomb floor between the comer blocks. In Figure 22, the
reconstructed cross-section of the coffin body has been
indicated in dashed lines. Also indicated are the shallow
cuttings in the tops of the comer blocks, the slat found
on the slope of the east ledge, and holes through which
iron nails had passed.16
The coffin as placed in the tomb is shown from the east
15. Estimated length of the restored rails is 1.91 m. This is slightly
longer than Young's (corrected) estimated length of 1.805 m (see above,
n. 10): the preserved fragments have yielded more exact measurements.
The estimated height of the restored rails is 30 em.
16. Two rows of such holes are shown in both the east and west
ledges in Figure 22. The five nails securing the iron bar to the face of
the east ledge are indicated below the bar. These nails are preserved:
they had tube-shaped shafts with a diameter of about 1 em. On the
lower surface of the east ledge, farther out toward its end, five more nail
holes exist, although the nails themselves are no longer in the holes. This
second row of holes must indicate the presence of a second iron band
underneath the ledge. The nail holes in the west ledge are reconstructed
based on those in the east ledge. There may have been iron banding
around the body of the coffin itself (Simpson 1985: 176-178); it may
be possible to confirm this theory after the east ledge has been cleaned
and consolidated.

81

end in Figure 23. Figure 24 illustrates the same view, with

the cross-section of the coffin's body, nail holes, and
comer-block cuttings indicated in dashed lines. Also indicated by dashes are the pieces of the rails visible beyond
the comer blocks. The rails' positions on the floor, with
respect to the coffin's body, indicate that they could not
have fallen from, the coffin itself: they must have been
placed deliberately on the tomb floor.17 When the walls
of the coffin fell out, they covered the pieces where they
lay.
But what were these pieces, and why were they placed
on the floor? How had the southern rail moved to the
west (FIG. 20)? What were the four corner blocks? Their
placement was asymmetrical: the west corner blocks had
been placed right up against the west wall of the tomb
(FIGS. 5,6, 18-22),but the comer blocks at the east were
moved in toward the coffin's body. Did the corner blocks
hold posts, as Young had supposed? How did all these
pieces go together?
The excavation photographs provided some of the answers. They showed that the comer blocks were not plain,
block-like objects. The top, inner edge of each block had
been cut off at a slant. This is best seen in the in situ
photograph showing the SE corner block near the fallen
east ledge (FIG. 4). The angle of the cut has been reconstructed in Figures 23 and 24.18 The corner blocks' function now became clear: the blocks were wedges, meant to
be placed against the coffin's rounded body to keep it
from moving or rocking. Young's four vertical corner
posts (FIG. 10) could now be recognized as chunks of the
coffin's edges that had come loose on its collapse (FIG.
4).19The circular cuttings in the comer blocks, while still
difficult to understand, definitely did not hold posts.
The wedge-shaped comer blocks finally led the way to
the coffin's complete reconstruction. If the blocks were to
fulfill their function, the pieces as placed in the tomb did
not make sense. The west comer blocks had been placed
against the wall of the tomb to either side of the west
ledge of the coffin (FIGS. 18-20).But here, there was nothing to support beneath the projecting west ledge (FIGS.
21-22):the west comer blocks as placed in the tomb were
not in the position for which they had been intendedagainst the rounded body of the coffin. This discovery was

17. This is especially clear in the end view (FIG. 24), where the rails
lie far under the curve of the coffin body.
18. The angle of the cutting in the comer blocks was reconstructed
from excavation photographs and the remains of the blocks themselves.
19. The piece of fabric that seems to have been wrapped around the
chunk of wood that Young supposed was the SE comer post (FIG. 4, left
foreground) must have been draped over the edge of the coffin when it
was first placed in the tomb.

82

(CMidaSBed)) and a Royal Phrygian Funeral/Simpson

Figure 18. Reconstruction of the king's coffin as placed in the tomb, seen from above.

::/\\ll>
-::=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=::-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:----------_:.:.::.:::::::::.

.)-------

Figure 19. Reconstruction of the coffin as placed in the tomb; the edges of the comer blocks and pieces
of the rails covered by the coffin's body have been drawn in dashed lines.

important-it showed that the coffin's separate pieces had

been placed in the tomb without regard to their original
position or function. In other words, the coffin had been
assembled elsewhere, taken apart, and its pieces placed

separately on the floor of the chamber.

The assembled coffin could now be reconstructed, based
on the shapes of its constituent pieces. The comer blocks
could be moved in to support the coffin's rounded body,

Journal of Field Archaeology/Vol. 17, 1990

50cm

83

Figure 20. Schematic reconstruction of the coffin as placed in the tomb, top view, with the rails reconstructed to their original form and length.

50cm

Figure 21. Reconstructed side view of the coffin, looking north, as placed in the tomb.

50cm

Figure 22. Reconstructed side view of the coffin as placed in the tomb; the cross-section of the coffin's
body, the comer-block cuttings, nail holes, and the slat on the slope below the east ledge are drawn in
dashed lines.

50cm

Figure 23. Reconstruction of the coffin as placed in the tomb, viewed

from the east end.

Figure 24. Reconstruction of the coffin as placed in the tomb, from

the east; the body's cross-section, the comer-block cuttings, nail holes,
and rails are indicated by dashed lines.

84

(~idas' Bed)) and a Royal Phrygian Funeral/Simpson

Figure 25. Reconstruction of the coffin as assembled outside the

tomb, seen from above.

~,--~,--,---,50

em

Figure 26. Reconstruction of the assembled coffin, seen from the east
end.

and their correct position could then be drawn (FIG. 25).20

A view from the east end shows how the comer block
wedges fit up against the coffin's sides (FIG. 26). The pieces
Young thought were rails were too delicate to have served
as handles or supports, and it seems that Young had interpreted them correctly: these were rails at the sides of
the coffin (in FIG. 25, the thin rails can be seen from above;
in FIG. 26, they are shown from the end). A side view
(FIG. 27) shows what must have been their original appearance.21

20. The correct position of the comer blocks was determined by

making a clay model and physically moving the corner blocks in until
they fully supported the coffin body.
21. Since the wood of the coffin's body (Young's planks) was not
saved, it cannot be proven that the rails fit into the sides of the coffin as
I have drawn them. Young noticed no mortises for his rails in the very
deteriorated wood of his outer bed planks. Nonetheless, considering

The. assembled coffin can be visualized in a perspective

drawing (FIG. 28). The body of the coffin was originally
about 3.25 m long, with a total width of about 1 m. The
huge log of the coffin's body and the four comer-block
wedges were made of yew (Taxus baccata L.). The dark
wood of the rails was also yew, and although too little of
the light wood remained to be analyzed, the effect was
certainly striped. The slat found beneath the many layers
of textiles near the east end of the coffin was made of
boxwood (Buxus sempervirens L.) (see FIGS. 17-20, 22; another such slat is reconstructed near the west end of the
coffin in FIG. 25).22 This slat may have formed part of an
internal wooden structure to support the linens and felt
mattresses on which the king had lain.
That the coffin was assembled elsewhere before it was
placed in the chamber indicates something about the circumstances of the burial. The assembled coffin must have
been used in a funerary ceremony outside the tomb, and

their form, decoration, and delicacy, it seems likely that these pieces were
in fact rails and that they did fit into the coffin's edges. They could have
extended out from the coffin's sides, but I have chosen to draw them in
a vertical position, where their striped patterning would be seen to best
effect and where they would not have conflicted with the corner blocks.
22. A wood species analysis of all the furniture from Gordion is being
conducted by Burhan Aytug of Istanbul University. The wood of the
coffin's body was first identified as cedar (Simpson 1985: 174 and 225,
n. 351); three new samples have been identified as yew. Further analysis
may be undertaken. Large yew trees (Taxus baccata L.) with heights up
to 20 m and massive trunks grow today in several areas of central and
western Turkey (Davis 1965: 76-77).

Journal of Field ArchaeologylVol.

the king must have lain in state in his coffin. Onlookers

were present, and the projecting ledges and especially the
rails served to keep viewers at a distance from the king.
But what kind of ceremony was this? Perhaps the contents
of the ~omb can help us reconstruct the burial rites.
The inlaid table, its tray-shaped top piled with bronze
bowls, was a banquet table, used to carry and serve food.
The inlaid serving stands held small, round-bottomed
cauldrons from which food or drink was ladled. The eight
plain tables also had tray-shaped tops-they must have
been banquet tables, too. The large cauldrons along the
south wall might once have held wine or perhaps a stew;
inside these were pottery vessels containing the remains
of food. The 10 jugs along the west wall must have held
liquids, and 19 smaller jugs were used for pouring, too.
There were 100 bronze handleless bowls among the 169
bronze vessels found in the tomb.23 The contents of the
chamber look like the remains of a grand feast. Was there
23. There was a plain bronze bowl found resting "near the NW comer
post of the bed," which Young records as being too corroded to save.
It is uncatalogued but would have been the 170th bronze vessel from
the tomb (Young 1981: 147, n. 74). This bowl is visible at the upper
left in Figure 8, against the tomb wall.

Figure 27. Side view of the assembled coffin.

Figure 28. Perspective view of the assembled coffin.

10 1990 85

a funerary banquet held in honor of the king?24 Or were

the banquet furnishings placed in the tomb solely for the
king's private use in the hereafter?
The contents of the tomb seem to support the idea of
a funerary banquet, and in fact banquets associated with
burials are known throughout the ancient world. In Anatolia, evidence for sacrificial funerary meals seems to occur
as early as the 3rd millennium B.C. in the tombs at Alaca
Hiiyiik, where the skeletal remains of animal heads and
legs have been found placed on the roofs of tombs.25
Funerary texts of the Hittite empire speak of food offered

24. If the 100 bronze handleless bowls were used by guests at a

funerary banquet and later contributed as grave offerings, was the bowl
found at the foot of the coffin placed there to be used by the king? See
above, n. 23. The bronze bowls may have been used to pour libations,
after which the guests themselves could have drunk. Did libation pouring
have anything to do with the cuttings in the comer blocks? Did these
cuttings perhaps hold vessels to receive liquid offerings? Or did they
hold something else, such as incense, lamps, or flowers? Did they hold
supports for a canopy placed over the coffin for the ceremony but not
put in the tomb?
25. Stuart Piggott discusses the evidence for funeral feasting at Alaca
Hiiyiik (Piggott 1962: 112-113) and other sites, including Hittite.Bogazkay (Piggott 1962: 115).

86

('Midas' Bed)) and a Royal Phrygia1J Funeral/Simpson

to participants in burial rites.26 And in the Iliad, the Achaians feasted at the death of Patroklos, and the Trojans at
the burial of Hektor.27
In the absence of texts, we cannot know who was buried
within Tumulus MM or what rites accompanied this great
king's burial. But the reconstruction of the king's coffin
allows us, unexpectedly, to envision his funerary ceremony. Whether for Midas or one of his predecessors, this
king's funeral was the most imposing that ever occurred
at Gordion. Hundreds-perhaps
thousands-of
people
took part in the funeral ceremony and later in the building
of the tumulus, which itself may have taken years to complete (Muscarella 1982: 9). The king lay in state in his
massive log coffin as guests passed by to pay their respects.
And a lavish banquet may have taken place before the
burial.
After the ceremony was over, the funerary offerings
were lowered into the tomb, as the wooden chamber had
no doors (Young 1981: 94). Furniture was placed along
the walls and in the center of the tomb. Food and drink
for the king and vessels for his use were set on tables or
hung on the walls. The coffin was disassembled in preparation for its placement in the tomb.
The king's body must first have been lifted from the
coffin. The rails and comer blocks were then removed,
and the west corner blocks were lowered into the tomb
and placed against the west wall (FIG. 20). The rails were
then placed on the floor of the chamber, with their ends
against the east faces of the west comer blocks. The east
corner blocks were then set down at the ends of the rails.
The huge coffin body was finally lowered down on ropes28
and pushed back against the tomb's west wall. The coffin's
body must have been set down on the supports of the
26. The ceremonies that took place after the death of a Hittite king
or queen included several funerary meals for those who took part or
who came to mourn the dead. Food and drink were sacrificed to the
gods, ancestors, and the soul of the dead, as well (Otten 1958: 13-17).
For a brief general account, see Gurney 1954: 164-165.
27. The Achaians feasted before the cremation ofPatroklos took place
(Iliad 23.29-56); the Trojans banqueted at Hektor's burial on the tenth
day of his funerary rites (Iliad 24.660-667) and again within the palace
after the barrow had been built over his tomb on the eleventh day (Iliad
24.801-803). In late Geometric Greek art approximately contemporary
with the Tumulus MM burial, the prothesis is a common scene: the
deceased lies on a bier, covered with what seems to be a cloth or canopy,
and mourners sit, kneel, stand, and perhaps file past (for many examples,
see Ahlberg 1971). The ritual seems to have taken place out of doors
(Boardman 1955: 55). In an unusual prothesis scene on a krater in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, offerings of birds, fish, and animals are
brought to the bier, perhaps for a funerary feast (Boardman 1966: 12); and there is archaeological evidence for cooked or burnt food at
Geometric graves in Athens, Thera, and at other Greek sites (Boardman
1966: 2, n. 10).
28. The ropes must have supported the coffin's body and also may

southernmost rail, dragging the rail westward as it was

pushed toward the wall.29 The king was then lowered into
his coffin, the roof was constructed, and the mound laboriously built over his tomb. These, then, must have
been the circumstances of the Tumulus MM burial.

Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Oscar White Muscarella and also Ozgen
Acar, Burhan Aytug, Massoud Azamoush, Sevim Bulu~,
Rosalia Cancian, Keith DeVries, Robert Dyson, Crawford
Greenewalt, Prudence Harper, Ellen Kohler, Peter Kuniholm, Mehmet~ik Kutkam, Mary Littauer, Machteld Mellink, Daniel Olson, Karen Rubinson, Cynthia Shelmerdine, Andrew Todd, N azif Uygur, Karen Vellucci, and
Peter Wells for their help and many valuable suggestions
about "Midas' Bed." In R. S. Young's careful descriptions,
measurements, recording, and photography lay the eventual solution to the mystery. Figures 2-8 are reproduced
courtesy of the GordionExcavations, The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania; Figure 5 is by Dorothy
H. Cox; Figures 1 and 9-28 are by the author. Figures
17-28 were photographed by Independent Printing Co.,
New York, under the supervision of Tony Novella.

have passed through the circular cutouts in the east and west ledges. But
whether these cutouts were practical or not, they were also certainly
decorative, as attested by the many objects with ledges or handles that
have similar cutouts as part of their design (Young 1981: pJs. 11, 26GF, 30A). Whether the textiles that appear to be draped below the iron
bar on the east ledge (FIG. 4) had been fastened inside the cutouts in
any way is not clear, but they do appear to have been attached to the
east ledge (and the west ledge?) in some decorative manner.
29. Perhaps the south rail was kicked to the north while the coffin
was being lowered into place. It could then easily have been carried to
the west when the coffin was pushed toward the west wall. The heavy
coffin would certainly have been difficult to maneuver. Evidence of this
can be seen in the NW, SW, and SE corner blocks jostled out of place and
in the skewed position of both rails on the tomb floor (FIG. 20).

Elizabeth Simpson attended Smith College and then received

aBA. in Mathematics and aMA. in Art History from the
University of Oregon. She received her PhD. in ClassicalArchaeologyfrom the University of Pennsylvania) where shefirst
began to work on the publication of the artifacts excavated at
Gordion) Turkey. As a Research Associate at The University
Museum of the University of Pennsylvania) she has directed
the project to stud:lJ conserve) and publish the wooden furniture
from Gordion since 1981. She is also a Research Associate in
the Department ofAncient Near Eastern Art at the MetropolitanMuseum of Art) 82nd Street and Fifth Avenue) New
York) NY 10028.

Journal of Field Archaeology/Vol. 1~ 1990

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