Nitrogen cycling by wood decomposing soft-rot fungi in the "King Midas tomb," Gordion, Turkey

Archaeological wood in ancient tombs is found usually with extensive degrad ation, limiting what can be learned about the diet, environment, health, an d cultural practices of the tomb builders and occupants. Within Tumulus Mid as Mound at Gordion, Turkey, thought to be the tomb of the Phrygian King Mi das of the 8th century B.C., we applied a stable nitrogen isotope test to i nfer the paleodiet of the king and determine the nitrogen sources for the f ungal community that decomposed the wooden tomb, cultural objects, and huma n remains. Here we show through analysis of the coffin, furniture, and wood en tomb structure that the principal degrader, a soft-rot fungus, mobilized the king's highly N-15-enriched nutrients, values indicative of a diet ric h in meat, to decay wood throughout the tomb. It is also evident from the d elta N-15 values of the degraded wood that the nitrogen needed for the deca y of many of the artifacts in the tomb came from multiple sources, mobilize d at potentially different episodes of decay. The redistribution of nutrien ts by the fungus was restricted by constraints imposed by the cellular stru cture of the different wood materials that apparently were used intentional ly in the construction to minimize decay.