The Great Tumulus ( Büyük Tümülüs ), located in the immediate vicinity of Gordion, is the strongest symbol of this relationship. Traditionally associated with King Midas, this monumental burial structure is not only a burial site for the Phrygian elite but also a space of power, representation, and memory. The wooden burial chamber reveals the Phrygians’ technical skill and their advanced relationship with materials. The Phrygian art texture selected in this project was taken from a wooden table found in the Great Tumulus. Thus, the Phrygian layer in Ankara is read through a tangible surface that establishes a direct link with the center in Gordion.
In this context, Phrygian art represents the founding layer of Ankara. This layer is constitutive not only because it is historically the earliest, but also because it determined the city’s spatial fiction, its relationship with the environment, and its understanding of representation. Phrygian art reveals a highly advanced level of production and craftsmanship for the early periods of Anatolia. Numerous examples seen in wooden artifacts, stonemasonry, and metal art show that the Phrygians were a technically advanced civilization capable of processing materials with mastery. Findings from Gordion and around Ankara reveal that Phrygian art did not have a limited scope but possessed a wide range of production extending from daily objects to monumental structures.
The mythological world of Phrygian culture is directly related to the narratives regarding the founding of Ankara. Written sources and legends regarding the origin of the name Ankara make the city’s importance in the Phrygian period visible through a mythological framework. According to legend, Midas, the son of the famous King Gordios of Phrygia, was tasked by a divine voice in his dream one night to search for a ship’s anchor. This voice commanded him to establish a city where he found the anchor. Rumor has it that the anchor in question was found on the hills where the Ankara Castle is located today. Thereupon, Midas established a city here, naming it “Anker,” which means ship’s anchor. This narrative associates Ankara directly with a founding act within Phrygian mythology.
In this respect, King Midas is not only a ruler representing the political power of the Phrygians but also one of the most well-known mythological figures in the world. Known especially for the legend of the golden touch, Midas became a universal character symbolizing the idea of wealth and power in the ancient world. Attributing the founding of Ankara to Midas strengthens the city’s symbolic value in the Phrygian world, while this bond established between mythology and history ensures that the Phrygian layer in Ankara’s memory gains continuity through narratives as well.
The religious beliefs and strong artistic productions of the Phrygians made them one of the most important early period civilizations of Anatolia. The Mother Goddess Kybele, located at the center of the Phrygian world of belief, undertook a decisive role as the symbol of abundance, fertility, and protective power in both daily life and public and sacred spaces. Rituals shaped around the cult of Kybele shaped Phrygian society’s way of perceiving the world, its relationship with the sacred, and its collective memory. This belief system can be traced in many areas in Phrygian art, from monumental rock arrangements to small finds. The Phrygians stand at a critical point not only in their own period but also in terms of influencing many civilizations that came after them. Their belief practices and artistic productions created a long-lasting and permanent sphere of influence in Anatolia.
Today, the Phrygian period continues to exist in Ankara’s urban memory as a founding threshold, often unnoticed. When the Phrygian heritage still traceable in the Ankara city center today is considered together with the Ancient City of Gordion and the Great Tumulus, this heritage emerges not merely as a remnant of the past, but as a strong and continuous layer that started the city’s history and laid its spatial and cultural foundation. Therefore, the Phrygian art texture takes its place in the “Doku Ankara” project as the first and deepest starting point that opens the city’s memory map.
This texture is one of the founding examples that contributes to our conception of Ankara as a space of urban memory readable through historical and semantic layers.
