TROY

Today Troy is a hill called Hisarlik in the north-west of Turkey, near the Dardanelles straits. In fact it is a 'tell'; that is to say, a mound formed by the constant building of mud-brick buildings on top of one another as buildings are destroyed by disaster or the weather.

The site is of course famous for the Trojan War described by Homer in the Illiad, the Trojan Horse and Schliemann's excavation of it. The site is dominated by the trench that Schliemann cut in order to get to what he thought was Priam's Troy.

The site is very confusing to walk around and not as spectacular as other sites in this part of Turkey but is still interesting and the remains on view go much further back than those on other sites.

The city, which was the setting for the Trojan War, is called both Troy (Troia) and Ilion by Homer. Between c 1700BC and 1200BC the most powerful people in Anatolia were the Hittites, who had their capital at Hattusas in what is now central Turkey. They had their own languages (Hittite, Luwian and Palaic) and wrote using cuneiform and hieroglyphic scripts. References have been found in their texts to a great city called Wilusa, which scholars have identified as Wilios, later becoming Ilion. There is also mention of a city called Taruwisa or Taruisa, which is believed to be a reference to Troia.

Homer provided enough topographical landmarks in his text for the general location of Troy to be in no doubt - the city stood near the Dardanelles and he mentions the islands of Imbros. Samothrace and Tenedos, Mount Ida to the south-east, the plain in which the city stood and the river Scamander. Hundreds of years after the city's destruction, and long after the time of Homer, the great and the powerful visited the site to pay homage to the heroes of old. Herodotus tells us that in 480BC (hundreds of years after the city's destruction) the Persian King Xerxes `...had a strong desire to see Troy. Accordingly he went up to the citadel ...sacrificed a thousand oxen to the Trojan Athena and the Magi made libations of wine to the great men of old.' Alexander the Great began his journey to conquer Asia Minor and the East in 334BC with a visit to Troy, where he apparently dedicated his armour to the Trojan Athena, and took from her shrine ancient arms and a shield which had been preserved from the Trojan War. We're told that Julius Caesar visited the ruins in 48BC, and Constantine the Great tried to found his capital here in the 4th century AD before choosing Byzantium (Istanbul) instead - Troy's harbour had silted up and was no longer suitable.

The Romans, of course, traced their ancestry back to Troy, believing that their city was founded by the Trojan prince Aeneas who managed to escape the final destruction. Early medieval dynasties also used this story as their founding legend.

The location of Troy was lost until the 19th century when the Englishman, Frank Calvert carried out small-scale excavations in the hill of Hisarlik (1863-65). In 1864 he announced his belief that Hisarlik was the site of Troy.

In 1868, Heinrich Schliemann, a wealthy German businessman, began to excavate the site. He was determined to find the city which had been destroyed in the Trojan War, so he dug a great trench across the site, looking for a walled city that had been destroyed by fire. He scattered anything in his way, including part of a Greek temple. Unfortunately he dug right past the actual level he was looking for. Famously, he found, or claimed to have found 'Priam's Treasure', consisting of bronze axes, a plate cauldron and vase of bronze, gold vessels and gold jewellery. He found it in June 1873, claiming that his wife Sophia had helped him smuggle it off site in her shawl (she wasn't actually there at the time). He smuggled it out of Turkey, to Germany and presented it to the German Government and was displayed in a Berlin museum. It disappeared in WW2 and re-surfaced in Moscow in 1994.

The main levels of Troy are today believed to be as follows.

Troy I (c. 2920-2450 BC) An early Bronze Age village with rough-stone circuit walls. Stone foundations of long-houses were found in the bottom of the great trench Schliemann dug through the mound. Evidence of an economy based on farming, stock-breeding and fishing were found, together with dark handmade pottery.

Troy II (c. 2600-2450 BC) The settlement had grown in importance and wealth and was the seat of a powerful prince or king. This city has been identified only as the citadel on the high point of the hill, and was probably contemporary with the later phases of Troy I. It consisted of a planned settlement of c. 9000 square metres, surrounded by a fortification wall with stone base and mud-brick superstructure. Much re-building took place (8 phases) and it was twice destroyed by great fires - mistaken by Schliemann for evidence of the Trojan Wars. The steep paved ramp leading up to the southwest gate is still visible today, and it was beside this ramp that Schliemann claimed to have found "Priam's treasure". Within these walls were several large rectangular buildings, called megarons and identified as palaces. In and on the burnt debris of these were more than twenty treasures, now distributed in museums around the world, which show that this city had trade-links in all directions with the known world.

Troy III - V (c. 2450-1700 BC) The settlement continued to grow in size, to cover perhaps 18000 square metres, but may have been rather more impoverished, with smaller houses and narrow streets. Domed ovens appear in the archaeological record, and animal bones suggest that the inhabitants were hunting as well as farming. The final building phase was destroyed by fire.

Troy VI (c. 1700-1250 BC) The settlement enjoyed an upturn in fortune, and a new royal citadel was built, covering an area of 20,000 square metres with a population of 6000 - 10,000. The fortifications were now gently sloping walls of ashlar masonry, more than 6m high with a mudbrick superstructure on the top, and with massive towers. Behind the wall buildings were constructed on concentric terraces rising up towards the centre. The principal palaces were probably on the summit of the hill, but their remains were removed when the Temple of Athena was built in the 3rd century BC (Troy VIII). This level is a strong contender to be Homer's Troy.

Troy VII (c 1250-1040 BC) The houses and walls were repaired, and the city lived again, but buildings may have been smaller and more cramped. Soon after this - perhaps about 1240BC, the city was again destroyed by fire, and this phase (the end of Troy VII-A) has been interpreted by some as the Trojan War. However, there were more destructive fires before the end of this phase, and the truth is far from clear - however, Troy was more or less abandoned at the end of Troy VII.

Troy VIII (700 - 85 BC) About 250-300 years later, during the time of Homer, the site was resettled by Greeks from Asia Minor. The city was called Ilion, and ruined buildings were incorporated into new structures. By the 3rd century BC, large temples were being built, and it seems as though it had become a place of veneration - these Greeks believed that it was the site of Homer's. This was presumably the city visited by Alexander the Great. A sanctuary to Cybele was built outside to the south-west, and a temple to Athena inside the citadel. The settlement extended amongst the ruins of the lower town of Troy VI. In 85BC the Romans destroyed the site, under the legate Flavius Fimbria, during the Mithridatic Wars.

Troy IX (85 BC - c. AD 500) Sulla apparently provided financial relief for re-building the city, and it benefited from Virgil's account of the Trojan Wars as a background for Aeneas's mission to found the city of Rome. Augustus visited in 20 BC, and subsequently the temple of Athena, bouleterion and a big theatre was restored or re-built. In the 4th century A.D. the town was the seat of a bishopric but by the 5th century it had been abandoned.

Who left that there? What's it for? Is a gift? What's that giggling coming from inside……..?

The north-east Bastion (of the wall of Troy VI) which may have been the walls that Agamemnon besieged, through which the wooden horse was taken.

Another view of the wall.

Schliemann's trench which was 40 metres wide, 17 metres deep and stretched right across the hill. His excavation methods would be greeted with horror by todays diggers. However, if excavated today, the lower levels would never been found and the result would be a Graeco-Roman city.

The ramp to the Troy II citadel. It was beside this ramp that Schliemann was supposed to have found 'Priam's Treasure'. Whatever it was it wasn't Priam's.

Mud-brick walls. They sit on top of stone foundations so that they are not softened by ground water.

Odeon -Troy IX

Greek/Roman columns.

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Alinda
Aphrodisias
Assos
Didyma
Ephesus
Euromos
Miletus
Nysa
Pergamon
Priene
Sardis
Stratonikeia
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