Yassihoyuk village looking west to Sakarya river valley, towards the ancient citadel of
Gordion.
The Gordion Ethnoarchaeological research was initiated in 1994 as part of the Gordion
Archaeological Project at the nearby village of Yassihoyuk, and later expanded to the
larger region, to include 14 villages within 18-40 km. distance from Yassihoyuk. The
challenge of this study is, through observation of the living village societies, to explain
the past. Assuming that archaeological artifacts are residues of human behavior, the
ethnographic model would suggest a broad socio-economic context to the excavated artifacts
and their organization, mostly missing from the archaeological record.
Specifically, information on traditional subsistence methods, changing agricultural and
pastoral strategies, from oxen-and-plough to highly efficient harvester-combine machinery,
food preparation and disposal patterns, are collected. These day-to-day activities reflect
the social fabric of the village community.
The highway which connects Ankara with Eskisehir province makes a fork into Yassihoyuk, a
middle-sized village of 450 inhabitants, over 80 mudbrick houses with tile roofs and an
abundance of ducks waddling across the roads. Located 95 km south and west of Ankara, the
village sits atop and next to the ancient Phyrgian capital, Gordion, which is situated on the
floodplain of the Sakarya River flowing northward into the Black Sea. The wide expanse of the
flat farmland along the edge of the river, bordered by thick stands of reed, is very fertile
alluvial soil. Above the floodplain is a totally barren landscape of conglomerate rock
formation called Kizlarkayasi, near the original site of the village, prior to its move to its
present site in early 1920's.
This site will be updated as work continues through the summer of 2001.
For more detailed information on this project please e-mail
Ayse Gursan-Salzmann.