The Rodney S. Young series includes documentation originally held by the Gordion Archives relating to the project from 1947 to 1975, starting with the administration and oversight of John F. Daniel from 1947 until Daniel's death in December 1948, and thereafter under Project Director Young until his death in 1974. Young also served as Field Director, with the exception of the 1958 and 1962 campaigns, directed by G. Roger Edwards, and the 1974 campaign, directed by Keith R. DeVries. A limited research campaign was undertaken in 1968 by G. Kenneth Sams, but there is no documentation. Most of the records pertaining the 1974 campaign are held in the Keith R. DeVries series which follows. When no campaign or a limited campaign was undertaken, there is generally no documentation extant. This includes the years 1952, 1954, 1960, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1972. Furthermore, documentation between 1969 and 1973 is limited. Files by campaign year are arranged chronologically under correspondence, including both general and administrative, and then by administrative documentation, usually reports and finances. Additional administrative and subject files follow the files listed by campaign year. These files deal with topics such as permits, equipment, and special research topics. Arrangent of both correspondence and administrative records is chronological as in the original Gordion Archives collection. Some subject series (coin hoards, 'Midas' skull, etc.) that extend over several directorships, are placed after the G. Kenneth Sams series that ends in 2008.

The Keith R. DeVries series consists of documentation originally contained in the Devries papers and includes project records from 1973-1987. During this period DeVries served in 1974 as Field Director of the Gordion Project under Rodney S. Young, and subsequently after Young's death as Project Director from 1975 through 1987. During this phase there was essentially no new excavation at the Gordion site, but research and conservation was undertaken. Although there was officially no campaign in 1984, there was research activity conducted in Turkey. Large-scale fundraising campaigns and publication projects also began after 1974; these project records are held in separate series within this collection. The Keith R. DeVries series represents the most complete documentation within the Gordion Project records. Files are arranged by campaign year. General correspondence is arranged by correspondent, and includes general and scholarly communication with DeVries. Administrative correspondence and applications include communication with Turkish officials and Penn Museum administration, and is arranged chronologically, as are most subject files. Many documents in this section are in Turkish and are not translated. Applications include brief biographical information for all official team members, as well as statements of research intent. Reports and financial records follow correspondence. Subject files of limited time span such as conservation concerns are inserted separately under campaign year. Subject files of ongoing concern that span several directorships, such as furniture conservation, are arranged as separate series after the G. Kenneth Sams series.

The G. Kenneth Sams series includes Gordion Project records under the directorship of Sams from 1988 until 2008. During this period, Sams served as Project Director until 2006 when he was joined by Co-director C. Brian Rose, although there are no Rose documents in this series or collection. During this period the Director of Excavations at the Gordion site, which recommenced in 1988, was Mary M. Voigt, although her title and responsibilities vary, and excavation oversight after 1997 is uncertain from these records. The documents in this series have been gathered almost exclusively from the papers of former director Keith R. DeVries. Significant gaps and omissions in the record occur throughout, especially after 1990. General correspondence, filed by correspondent, is poor. Reports are probably sufficient to reconstruct a general history of the project. Some subjects, sych as Gordion furniture reconstruction (1981-2000) and the new chronology (1999-2006), are filed in separate series following this one.

Series contains correspondence, inventories and desrciptions of several coin hoards forund at Gordion beginning in 1950. Coins are mostly Hellenistic and later. Much of the early research was conducted by Dorothy Hannah Cox. An inventory by Kenneth W. Harl in 1998-1999 describes coins found between 1950-1973 and held in the Ankara Museum.

Series contains correspondence, research notes, inventories and drawings of skeletal remains and burials from 1954 to 1989. Much of the research was conducted by Drs. Muzaffer Senurek and Berna Alpagut, Division of Palaeoanthropology at the University of Ankara. The series also includes correspondence, reports, photographs and newspaper clippings concerning the study and reconstruction of the 'Midas' skull undertaken by Dr. A.J.N.W. Prag, Keeper of Archaeology at the Manchester Museum (U.K.) in 1988.

This short series concerns study undertaken mostly by Dr. Ellen L. Kohler into the condition of horse trappings in use in Phrygia at the time of the construction of Tumulus P, a child's burial, which contained a small toy quadriga. Much of the correspondence is with a Mrs. V.S. Littauer, Hillside Farm, Long Island (N.Y.) Research from this study was included in the first of the Gordion publications, The Great Early Tumuli (1981). Original drawings, probably by Dr. Kohler, included.

Correspondence and reports of analysis of plant remains taken from Gordion 1974 through 1994. Research conducted by Gordan Hillman (1974-1987), Department of Plant Science, University of Cardiff (U.K.), Mark Nesbitt (1989), British Institute of Archaeology, Ankara, reports by Naomi Miller and John M. Marston, both of the University of Pennsylvania. This series does not include analysis of botanical samples after 1999 as part of the Gordion chronology revision.

Series includes correspondence and reports of the Gordion furniture conservation project from 1982 to 2000. The objects concerned are limited to wooden furniture found chiefly in the 'Midas' tomb, especially the 'pagoda' table, but also include objects from other tumuli. Early research was conducted by wood conservationist Robert Payton, British Institute of Archaeology, Ankara (1982-1984), and since 1983 by Elizabeth Simpson of the University of Pennsylvania, later assisted by Krysia Spirdowicz, Queen's University, Ontario.

The new chronology series includes correspondence and research from 1999 to 2006 among several Gordion scholars toward a revision of the chronology in use since the early excavations of Rodney S. Young. This revision moved the destruction period from ca. 700 BC to ca. 800 BC, and resulted in a complete revision of the historical and stratigraphic sequence. Principal contributors to this revision include Mary M. Voigt, G. Kenneth Sams, Keith R. DeVries, Lynn Roller, and Peter I. Kuniholm. Radiocarbon analysis and related research was conducted at Cornell University and the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Initial publication of these findings was at the Anatolian Iran Ages conference, Van, Turkey in 2001, and complete findings appeared in the Gordion Special Studies publication "The New Chronology of Iron Age Gordion" (2011).

This series includes documents related to fundraising from 1965 to 2001. A large portion of the files are devoted to NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) proposals and subsequent tracking of funds and project development. Most of these NEH grants relate to research and publication of the early volumes in the Gorgion Excavations Final Reports, and therefore provide good documentation of the development of this project. It should be noted that NEH grant proposal IV failed, resulting in appeals for funding from other sources. The Rodney S. Young Memorial Fund was created in 1975 to organize funds intended for publication; it's name was later changed to the Gordion Publications Fund. A significant fundraising effort from 1992-1993 was the Gordion Preservation Project, which included an attempt to create a foundation in Turkey for the support of the Gordion Project, and a major fundraising event at Gordion, "Dinner Under the Stars," held on July 10, 1993. Much of the correspondence in these files was created by David L. Nelson, Director of Development. Various other fundraising appeals, both to foundations and individual donors are included, as well as a file relating to foundation requests of individuals conducting research relating to Gordion. These individual grant applications are often limited to brief descriptions and recommendations. The bulk of this series was created from the papers of Ellen L. Kohler, who, as Executive Director of Gordion Publications from 1977-1987, and editor of the final reports, was in a critical position to collect and preserve these documnents.

Correspondence and administrative documents relating to the formal establishment of the Gordion Archives at the University of Pennsylvania from 1988 to 2002, under the supervision of Ellen L. Kohler. Correspondence includes research requests to the archives, and also details of archival management. Correspondence relating to photography projects requested from the archives is included in cases where research interest warranted. Most of the holdings of the Gordion Archives are being incorporated into this collection of Gordion Project records.

The publications series contains documents concerning all publications relating to the Gordion Project from 1975 to 2006. These documents have been gathered almost exclusively from the papers of Ellen L. Kohler and Keith R. DeVries. Since Dr. Kohler served as Executive Editor of Gordion Publications from 1977 to 1987, as well as initial editor or the Gordion Excavations Final Reports, documentation in this period tends to be well represented.

The papers read at the Rodney S. Young Memorial Symposium, held in 1975 after the death of Young in 1974, were published in 1980 as a Festschrift: "From Athens to Gordion." Symposium and Festschrift documents derive from the DeVries papers. Correspondence and authors files derive from the Kohler papers and maintain as closely as possible the original arrangement of Dr. Kohler. Correspondence, filed chronologically, represents general communications regarding Gordion publications with Kohler, as well as some administrative matters concerning the project. It should be noted that files were not maintained separately for each publication in the project, as publication progressed over numerous years and correspondence normally touches on several topics. A better understanding of the process of publication of the final reports might be obtained from reviewing the NEH grant proposal material related to these publications in the fundraising series of this collection, and in some cases the publications themselves.

Authors files contain mostly correspondence between Kohler and various contributors to the publications project, as well as material concerning individual publications relating to Gordion. Many of these files are sparce, and researchers should search the entire Gordion Project records for complete documentation relating to a particular scholar (e.g. Claude Brixhe correspondence is scattered throughout the series, by campaign year in the DeVries series, and as a separate file in the Sams series.)

Administrative files relate to details of publication as well as publications office staff. Gordion slide sets refer to a collection of slides maintained for publication. Although some documents relate also to the Gordion Archives in its early stages, all of the slide set material is gathered in this series.

The photograph series includes photographic documentation of the Gordion excavation from 1950 to 1975, as well as miscellaneous photographs of various subjects from 1977 to 1993. The series is divided into a chronological series coded GB (Gordion Big) from 1950 to 1965, and a series following coded GO (Gordion Outside) [verify meaning of photographic codes] arranged at least partly by subject/field location from 1950-1975. It appears that several photographs from the GB section have been relabeled and moved to the GO section. Most of the photographs in both of these sections are exterior shots of the excavation in progress, significant finds in situ, including burials with skeletal remains and burial objects, and the 'Midas' tomb interior (GB 1957). Many images are in duplicate in both large and small format. Number indications on file labels indicate a range of items included; there is not always a photograph present for each number in a range, and some file ranges appear to have 'missing' runs, but may in fact be complete. [statement regarding photographic finging aid/index/catalog necessary to locate photographs] These two sections are followed by a folder of miscellaneous photographs taken 1977-1992, and another of wooden artifcts taken 1989 and 1993. Additional graphic material remains to be processed and added to this series.

The Gordion Field Notebooks and Finds series consist of 182 bound volumes originally numbered consecutively and chronologically beginning in 1950. They have since been separated into notebook and finds series for the benefit of researchers, but it is not difficult to reconstruct the original sequence.

The field notebooks are compilations of notes taken during excavation by one or more excavators. They cover the directorships of Rodney S. Young and Keith R Devries, 1950-1988, although little actual excavation work was performed after 1973. Volumes 169, 173, 175 (missing), and 182 record the entire period from 1974 to 1988.

The descriptions at the field notebook level are taken directly from the original Gordion Notebook List in the Kohler files, with only slight modifications. The authors of each book are noted in parentheses. A few names are abbreviated (RSY- Rodney S. Young, GRE- G. Robert Edwards, MJM- Machteld J. Mellink, EK- Ellen Kohler, ML- Mabel Lang). Abbreviations of excavation topics are common throughout (e.g. SET- southeast trench, CM- city mound, KH- Kucuk Huyuk mound). Single letter abbreviations usually refer to individual tumuli. These can easily be determined by examining the notebooks. Many notebooks included inserts in the form of plans, sketches and notes, usually in the pocket part of each volume. Notes in the text sometimes refer the researcher to these pocket parts. All of these inserts have been moved to a collection of Field Notebook Inserts, located either in volume 18 at the end of this series, or in oversize storage. The researcher must refer to the list of inserts listed at the end of the field notebook series to determine if there is any material for the volume being consulted. Insert files contain one or more inserts. Most of these inserts are a mix of text and graphic material (drawings, plans). Where there is any graphic material at all, this is indicated as the instance type for the file. If there is text only, that will be the type. Significant text and graphic materials together are listed as mixed materials.

The Gordion Finds volumes present a description of significant archaeological finds, usually with drawings or photographic contact prints inserted. Some finds are listed in the field notebooks themselves, but the finds notebooks offer a more complete description. Beginning in volume 170 (1973) and thereafter, the finds notebooks list selections made at a later date for cataloguing from unprocessed material. These selections continue until the end of the finds, volume 181 (2004). Some brief inserts in this series have been retained in the volumes, not moved to a separate file as with the field notebooks. Some of the contact prints have been removed, or were never inserted. Prints glued onto the page are sometimes fragile or not securely attached.