Radiocarbon Dates from Iron Age Gordion Are Confounded

K. DeVries et al. recently presented 14C dates from Iron Age Gordion.1 They claimed that those dates require a destruction date for the site during 827–803 BC (95%-confidence range), which is a century or more earlier than the dates previously proposed. Herein, their claim is examined. (DeVries et al. also claimed artefactual support for their earlier date. O. Muscarella, however, has argued that their artefactual interpretation is incorrect and that the previously-proposed dates are valid.2 The present work provides support for the arguments of Muscarella. It is, though, independent of those arguments.) DeVries et al. presented two suites of 14C dates: one from roof reeds and one from seeds.3 The roof reeds might have an earlier date than the seeds,4 perhaps due to reuse or because they predate the seeds, or perhaps because they grew in ‘old’5 water. Herein, I consider only the seeds. The data is reproduced in Table 1.