Ellen Kohler, 91, Penn archaeologist

Ellen Lucile Kohler, 91, a key University of Pennsylvania archaeologist who excavated the site in central Turkey where artifacts of Alexander the Great and King Midas were found, died Monday at Bryn Mawr Terrace. She was a longtime resident of University City.

The Gordion archaeological project, which began in 1950, was one of Penn's most famous excavations, said Gareth Darbyshire of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. "Her death is the end of an era," he said.

Dr. Kohler was one of the last surviving members of the first team at the ancient Phrygian capital of Gordion in central Turkey. It is believed to be where Alexander the Great cut the legendary Gordian knot in the 4th century B.C., and was the seat of King Midas in the 8th century B.C.

One legend about Alexander the Great is that when he was in Gordion he undid the Gordian knot, which had been tied by Midas. The prophecy about the Gordian knot was that the person who untied it would rule all of Asia.

Dr. Kohler devoted her life to this project. Nearly blind for the past several years, she worked at the Penn Museum until August with the aid of a magnifying light. She registered and conserved thousands of artifacts and organized tens of thousands of excavation reports, drawings and photos. She analyzed and published articles on the elite burial mounds found at the site.

Born in 1916 on a farm outside of Seattle, Dr. Kohler grew to be grand in stature - she was six feet tall - and intellect. After earning a bachelor's in 1938 and master's in 1942, both in Latin from the University of Washington, Dr. Kohler became interested in archaeology when she went on a dig at Cattle Point, San Juan Island, Wash.

In 1946, she headed east to begin studying for a doctorate in classical archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. She honed her editorial skills working on the American Journal of Archaeology and traveled to Greece on a Fulbright Fellowship. Dr. Kohler went to Cyprus with a Penn excavation in 1949 - a seminal moment in her life.

In 1950, she became an assistant in the Mediterranean section of the Penn Museum and joined the first of many excavations at Gordion.

In 1958, Dr. Kohler finished her doctorate at Bryn Mawr with a dissertation on the art of the Phrygian Iron Age based on the preserved wooden and ivory artifacts from Gordion dating from the 9th to 6th centuries B.C.

Over more than a half century, Dr. Kohler was a Penn Museum curator, a lecturer and finally, a registrar of the museum. She had the responsibility of maintaining the records of every Gordion artifact.

"All of these were attained with characteristic Kohler thoroughness and clarity of thought through sheer hard effort," Darbyshire said. She developed a complex system for conserving and registering everything that came out of the ground from Gordion with such efficiency that "nothing from Gordion has ever gone off the books."

For the rest of her life, Dr. Kohler continued this laborious, crucial endeavor that saved the Gordion archives for posterity. Her final installment of the Gordion manuscripts will be published posthumously.

Dr. Kohler is survived by a second cousin, Malla Mhoon. Penn is planning a memorial service in December.

Donations may be sent to the Gordion Archeological Project, Penn Museum, 3260 South St., Philadelphia 19104.