(click on either map to see it at its original size)
Where is Troy?
By the beginning of the eighteenth century AD, Homer
and the Trojan War had lost much of their popularity. Many looked at
Homer
as a primitive curiosity but not much of a poet, while Troy was a
fantasy,
long since gone if anything like it ever existed. By the beginning of
the
19th century, however, both Troy and Homer enjoyed renewed popularity
and
respect. An industry of scholarship had developed which examined the
construction
of the Homeric poems in aching detail. Explorers also started roaming
the
Troad, the plain where Troy reputedly sat, trying to find Troy itself.
Locating the general vicinity of Troy is easy enough. Look at these two
maps. The map on the left gives a sense of where ancient Greece
was
situated. Across the top of the map is southern Europe
(highlights
from left to right: Spain, southern France, Italy, the Adriatic Sea,
then
the inset highlighting the ancient Greek world) and along the bottom
the
northern coast of Africa (left to right: Algeria, Libya, Egypt).
To the right lies the Middle East (Turkey, Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia,
Iraq, Iran). The map on the right shows details of the square
highlighted
in the other map, highlighting the ancient Greek World. In modern
times, going clockwise, Greece lies at the lower left (with Albania and
Bulgaria to its north) and Turkey runs
down the right side. You can also find Troy designated on the map
(toward
the upper right, in northern Turkey). We know the general
vicinity
from clues dropped in the Iliad itself. For example, at the
beginning
of Book 13, the god Poseidon sits watching the battle from the island
of
Samothrace (13.11-14), where he can see on the mainland Mount Ida and
the
battlefield. Other geographical features match up, so the game became
to
pinpoint Troy within the region.
Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann
These two men were to do what a hundred years earlier
was deemed impossible: they found Troy. I need to tell you a little
about
each man. On the left is Frank Calvert. Frank Calvert and his two
brothers
were Englishmen, businessmen who also held some diplomatic posts. All
three
were very interested in the problem of finding Troy, but Frank actually
lived in the Troad and knew the land better than anyone from his own
observations.
Schliemann is a more complex individual. He grew up in Mecklenburg, and became a very successful, if at times deceitful and unscrupulous, businessman. In his 30's, he seemed to desire a more respectable occupation and tried variously to became a plantation owner and a scientist, but did not succeed. He ended up becoming the father of a whole new scientific field, that of archaeology. Since he truly was a pioneer in his field he had to figure out many techniques and procedures we take for granted today. He was well-read in the scientific literature of his day. He knew more than a dozen languages. He was a prolific writer. For the twenty-some years of his excavations, he worked long days in conditions modern archaeologists would not tolerate-- suffering through blasting winds and flooding storms, all of which certainly contributed to his death at age 68, relatively early for a man of his drive and energy. He left a written legacy of eleven books, something of an autobiography, eighteen travel diaries, 20,000 papers, 60,000 letters, not counting the excavation records filling 175 volumes plus numerous other records, plans, and the like. His genius is undeniable. That said, he also suffered from a tendency to combine fantasy and fact as much as anything he read in Homer. He was prone to exaggeration, rash conclusions, and outright fabrication, especially when it came to his own life experiences and reputation. Every bit as much as every facet of bronze age archaeology owes something to Schliemann, at every turn we must confront the legacy of Schliemann's paradoxical brilliance.
Finding Troy
What happened was this: Frank Calvert disproved several
abiding theories about the location of the city of Troy and instead
focused
his attention on a hill called Hisarlik, visible here on the left as it
was before Calvert and on the right as it appeared about 15-20 years
ago
from closer up. Calvert did some preliminary excavations and felt sure
this was the site of Troy, but he could not get money from the British
Museum to fund a full excavation. Then Schliemann stepped in with the
necessary
money and took over-- in many ways.
Schliemann excavated and Calvert was right. It seemed like Troy and the site turned out to be deeper and richer than anyone had anticipated. But the headlines that appeared told a surprising story. Schliemann claimed to have developed an obsession with finding Troy ever since childhood and finally fulfilled his destiny by excavating Troy. Calvert's contributions were omitted or dismissed and to this day Schliemann's name is the one synonomous with discovering Troy.
"Priam's Treasure"
But Schliemann always told the better story. One of the
more famous was his account of finding buried treasure. The diary here
recounts how one day he was walking through the excavation site and
caught
a glint of metal in a dirt wall. He started digging with his bare hands
and uncovered a huge hoard of bronze and gold treasures, which he and
his
wife stealthily removed from the site so the workers would not steal
them.
He promptly identified the find as the "Treasure of Priam" and claimed that the jewelry in it had been worn by Helen. Here you can see a number of the objects and a picture of his wife Sophie wearing the so-called "Jewels of Helen." Unfortunately, Schliemann was a better storyteller than archaeologist in this case. He forged the diary entry and the story of the find. He seems to have cobbled together the objects over a period of weeks and some have even argued he had some of them fabricated. Moreover, he had the objects illegally shipped to Germany, effectively stealing them from the Turkish government.
This story becomes still more mysterious. In World War II, the object disappeared from Berlin and no one knew where they were until the early 1990's when the Russians announced they found them in their basement and briefly put them on exhibit.
Troy As an Archaeological Site
 (click on any image to see it at its original size) |
Still, Schliemann's shortcomings cannot eradicate his amazing successes. What Schliemann uncovered was a city that had been built and rebuilt for more than a thousand years, which is why it was a hill by the time he dug in, going back centuries before the Trojan War could have been fought. Archaeologists have since divided the site into nine basic levels, labeling them Troy I through Troy IX, starting with I at the bottom, oldest layer. When Schliemann excavated, he simply assumed the Troy he wanted would be at the bottom, which we now consider Troy II. It turns out that the best candidate for Troy in the time of the Trojan War is further up, around Troy VI or the early part of Troy VII. Schliemann unknowingly destroyed portions of these sites as he continued to dig to the bottom. |
(click on any image to see it at its original size)
Still, the site of Troy at its peak as a thriving port city in the second millenium BC is impressive. On the left you can see one of the fortification walls of Troy VI. On the right you see a reconstruction. In the last ten years we've learned through further exploration that the city is far bigger than previously supposed. The walls you see in these pictures enclose the citadel of the city, but the whole town extended well beyond them. Like many cities in antiquity, and comparable to modern metropolitan areas, Troy had an urban center with substantial stone walls for defense and a suburban sprawl around it with lighter fortifications, in this case trenches and wooden walls.
So who were the Trojans?
In the Iliad, they appear as an international coalition (there is a reference to sending translators to communicate orders to the Trojan armies), who inhabit Troy. In Homer, everyone speaks Greek, but archaeologists look to the lands east of Troy, to the region called Anatolia and a people called the Hittites. After the breakthrough discoveries in Troy, archaeology has gone on to discover many sites and recover information about many lost places and peoples in the Ancient Near East. The Hittites in particular you may have seen references to if you know the Old Testament well, but we are looking at an earlier phase of this people by 500 to 1000 years. The Hittites call our attention because their empire dominated the region at the right time to have contact with and influence over a strategic location like Troy. Among the languages they used was one related and similar to Greek. Also, documents and treaties among the Hittites may indicate that they had relations with the Greeks and the city they call Wilusa may be what the Greeks called (W)Ilios, and we now call Troy.
More recently, attention has turned to a people closely connected to the Hittites, the Luwians. One writer likens the similarities between Hittites and Luwians to the modern-day Germans and Dutch. But several finds have pointed to ties between the Luwians and Troy. The object on the left is a bronze seal featuring the only writing so far to have been found at Troy, and it is in Luwian hieroglyphics. The fellow on the right is a warrior statue also known from Hittite sites in the Ancient Near East. Similarities between topography and architecture also point eastward, and one Luwian song of the period even has intriguing parallels to lines in the Iliad. Given the chronology and geography, it is possible, though far from certain, that the poets who contributed to the Iliad could have heard and listened to Luwian songs.
As for the Trojan War itself, our best guess is that Troy was a city controlled by one or more eastern peoples and that there was a dispute with the Greeks to the West over this crucial port stop between the two areas. We learn more by the day, however, as excavations continue, so stay tuned.