Coordinates: 39°57′27″N 26°14′20″E
| Archaeological Site of Troy* | |
|---|---|
| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
 | |
| State Party |  Turkey |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | ii, iii, vi |
| Reference | 849 |
| Region** | Europe and North America |
| Inscription history | |
| Inscription | 1998 (22nd Session) |
| * Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. ** Region as classified by UNESCO. | |
Troy (Greek: Τροία, Troia, also Ἴλιον, Ilion; Latin: Trōia, Īlium;[1] Hittite: Wilusa orTruwisa) is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer.Trojan refers to the inhabitants and culture of Troy.
Today it is the name of an archaeological site, the traditional location of Homeric Troy,Turkish Truva, in Hisarlık in Anatolia, close to the seacoast in what is now Çanakkale province in northwest Turkey, southwest of the Dardanelles under Mount Ida.
A new city of Ilium was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman EmperorAugustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and declined gradually during the Byzantine era.
In 1865 an English archeologist, Frank Calvert, excavated for many years the site atHisarlık, near Truva, where in 1870 a wealthy German businessman, Heinrich Schliemann, also began excavating in this area which he claimed to be the ancient city of Troy. Later excavations revealed several cities built in succession to each other. One of the earlier cities (Troy VII) is generally identified with Homeric Troy. While such an identity is disputed, the site has been successfully identified with the city called Wilusain Hittite texts; Ilion (which goes back to earlier Wilion with a digamma) is thought to be the Greek rendition of that name.
The archaeological site of Troy was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998.
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[edit]Homeric Troy
Ancient Greek historians placed the Trojan War variously in our 12th, 13th, or 14th century BCE:Eratosthenes to 1184 BCE, Herodotus to 1250 BCE, Duris of Samos to 1334 BCE. Modern archaeologists associate Homeric Troy with archaeological Troy VII.
In the Iliad, the Achaeans set up their camp near the mouth of the river Scamander (presumably modernKaramenderes), where they had beached their ships. The city of Troy itself stood on a hill, across the plain of Scamander, where the battles of the Trojan War took place. The site of the ancient city is some 5 kilometers from the coast today, but the ancient mouths of alleged Scamander, some 3,000 years ago, were about that distance inland,[2] pouring into a large bay which formed a natural harbour, but has since been filled with alluvial material. Recent geological findings have permitted the reconstruction of how the original Trojan coastline would have looked, and the results largely confirm the accuracy of the Homeric geography of Troy.[3]
Besides the Iliad, there are references to Troy in the other major work attributed to Homer, the Odyssey, as well as in other ancient Greek literature. The Homeric legend of Troy was elaborated by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid. The Greeks and Romans took for a fact thehistoricity of the Trojan War and the identity of Homeric Troy with the site in Anatolia. Alexander the Great, for example, visited the site in 334 BCE and made sacrifices at tombs there associated with the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus.
In November 2001, geologists John C. Kraft from the University of Delaware and John V. Luce from Trinity College, Dublin presented the results[4][5][6] of investigations, begun in 1977, into the geology of the region. They compared the present geology with the landscapes and coastal features described in the Iliad and other classical sources, notably Strabo's Geographia, and concluded that there is a regular consistency between the location of Schliemann's Troy and other locations such as the Greek camp, the geological evidence, descriptions of the topography and accounts of the battle in the Iliad. Further work by John Kraft and others was published in 2003.[7][8]
After the 1995 find of a Luwian biconvex seal at Troy VII, there has been a heated discussion over the language that was spoken in Homeric Troy. Frank Starke of the University of Tübingen recently demonstrated that the name of Priam is connected to the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means 'exceptionally courageous'.[9] "The certainty is growing that Wilusa/Troy belonged to the greater Luwian-speaking community", although it is not entirely clear whether Luwian was primarily the official language or in daily colloquial use.[10]
A small minority of contemporary writers argue that Homeric Troy was not in Anatolia, but located elsewhere: England,[11] Croatia, and Scandinavia have been proposed. These theories have not been accepted by mainstream scholars.
[edit]Archaeological Troy
The layers of ruins in the citadel at Hisarlik are numbered Troy I – Troy IX, with various subdivisions:
- Troy I 3000–2600 BCE (Western Anatolian EB 1)
- Troy II 2600–2250 BCE (Western Anatolian EB 2)
- Troy III 2250–2100 BCE (Western Anatolian EB 3 [early])
- Troy IV 2100–1950 BCE (Western Anatolian EB 3 [middle])
- Troy V: 20th–18th centuries BCE (Western Anatolian EB 3 [late])
- Troy VI: 17th–15th centuries BCE
- Troy VIh: late Bronze Age, 14th century BCE
- Troy VIIa: ca. 1300–1190 BC, most likely setting for Homer's story[12]
- Troy VIIb1: 12th century BCE
- Troy VIIb2: 11th century BCE
- Troy VIIb3: until ca. 950 BCE
- Troy VIII: around 700 BCE
- Troy IX: Hellenistic Ilium, 1st century BCE
The archaeological site of Troy was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998.
[edit]Troy I–V
The first city on the site was founded in the 3rd millennium BCE. During the Bronze Age, the site seems to have been a flourishing mercantile city, since its location allowed for complete control of the Dardanelles, through which every merchant ship from the Aegean Sea heading for the Black Sea had to pass.
[edit]Troy VI
Troy VI was destroyed around 1300 BCE, probably by an earthquake. Only a single arrowhead was found in this layer, and no remains of bodies.
[edit]Troy VII
Troy VIIa, which has been dated to the mid- to late-13th century BCE, is the most often-cited candidate for the Troy of Homer. It appears to have been destroyed by war.[13]
[edit]Troy IX
The last city on this site, Hellenistic Ilium, was founded by Romans during the reign of the emperor Augustus and was an important trading city until the establishment ofConstantinople in the fourth century as the eastern capital of the Roman Empire. InByzantine times the city declined gradually, and eventually disappeared.
Beneath part of the Roman city, the ruins of which cover a much larger area than the citadel excavated by Schliemann, recent excavations have found traces of an additional Bronze-Age settlement area (of lower status than the adjoining citadel) defended by a ditch.
