Notes on Phrygian Architecture: A Sixth-Century BCE Date for the Midas Monument at Midas City

Abstract

This article considers evidence for the form and materials used in monumental Phrygian architecture in Central Anatolia during the Middle Iron Age (eighth–sixth centuries BCE) to argue for a later (sixth-century BCE) date for the Midas Monument. Examination of this monument and other rock-cut architectural facades in the Phrygian Highlands leads to the conclusion that all of the monumental facades in the Phrygian Highlands represent buildings with low, double-pitched, tiled roofs and architectural terracotta revetment tiles that should be dated to the first half of the sixth century. This conclusion has significant implications for the history of Midas City itself and the nature of Lydian rule in Central Anatolia.1