Secret tomb linked to King Midas discovered and its oozing a high level of wealth: scientists

It was a real goldmine.Archaeologists have discovered a 2,500-year-old tomb in Turkey that is potentially connected to King Midas — and contains rare artifacts and cremated remains of a high-ranking individual.“Based on these artifacts, we estimate that the person in the tomb chamber may be a member of the royal family associated with Gordion and Midas,”  Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, the Turkish minister of culture and tourism, announced at a news conference earlier this month, Live Science reported.The excavations were carried out over four months by archaeologists with the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, PA and researchers with the Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, The blinged-out burial ground, which dates back to the 8th century B.C., was discovered 60 miles west of the Turkish capital of Ankara in Gordion, the ancient capital of the Phrygian kingdom.

This empire ruled over most of western and central Anatolia in the first millennium B.C, Fox News reported.Among the ancient civilization’s most notable rulers was King Midas, who was depicted in Greek mythology as being able to turn anything he touched into gold — a parable against the dangers of unchecked greed.And while the real historical figure didn’t literally gild items upon contact, he was likely no stranger to riches: There are reportedly 47 decadent burial mounds that have been excavated at Gordion.The latest one, Tumulus T-26, contained a wooden burial chamber brimming with a treasure trove of artifacts, including well-preserved iron tools and bronze implements.These “attest to a high level of wealth,” according to C.Brian Rose, Gordion excavation co-director and an archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania.Ersoy said they were the “most concentrated group” of such artifacts after the hoard found in the previously-excavated Midas Mound, which contained a long coffin atop purple textiles that potentially housed a high-status official, possibly Midas’ father Gordias.In Tumulus T-26, a...