Wooden Furniture from Verucchio and Gordion

doi:10.1017/9781009151016.011

6 - Wooden Furniture from Verucchio and Gordion

from Part III - Technology and Mobility

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2023

Elizabeth Simpson

Edited by

Elizabeth P. Baughan and

Lisa C. Pieraccini

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Elizabeth P. Baughan: Affiliation:
University of Richmond, Virginia
Lisa C. Pieraccini: Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley

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Summary

In the 1950s, University of Pennsylvania archaeologists recovered over fifty pieces of wooden furniture from three royal tumulus burials and the city mound at Gordion, Turkey. Tumuli MM and P (eighth century BCE) contained thirteen tables and three serving stands with characteristic Phrygian features. The style and joinery of the tables tie them to a long trajectory of wooden tables from the ancient Near East. A variety of fine wooden objects was found in two tombs excavated in 1972 at Verucchio in northern Italy (late eighth through early seventh centuries BCE). The finds from tombs 85 and 89 include wood tables, footstools, thrones, boxes, and other organic materials. Three tables from tomb 85 had legs attached to the table top with a version of the collar-and-tenon joinery used for the Gordion tables. Rarely are ancient wooden artifacts recovered in good condition; the finds from Verucchio and Gordion provide a large and important corpus from the early first millennium BCE. This paper examines the similarities (and differences) between Gordion and Verucchio wooden furniture and investigates the possibility of interaction between Near Eastern and Italic woodworking schools in the eighth through the seventh centuries BCE.

Keywords

Etruscan Phrygian tombs technology joinery table footstool throne elite symbolism

Type: Chapter
Information: Etruria and Anatolia
Material Connections and Artistic Exchange
, pp. 113 - 128

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009151016.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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