Troy

:''This article is about the city of Troy / Ilion as described in the works of Homer, and the location of an ancient city associated with it. For other uses see Troy (disambiguation) and Ilion (disambiguation).'' Troy (Greek language Troia (or ; also Ílion, Latin Troia, Ilium Turkish language Truva) is a legendary city, scene of the Trojan War, part of which is described in Homer's ''Iliad'', an epic poem in Ancient Greek, composed in the 8th century BC or 9th century BC century BC, but containing older material (''Iliad'' means "about Ilion"). Troy is also the name of an archaeological site, the traditional location of Homeric Troy, in Anatolia, close to the seacoast in what is now northwest Turkey, southwest of the Dardanelles under Mount Ida, Phrygia. A new city of Ilium was founded on the site that many believed to be the location of the legendary Ilion in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople, and declined gradually during Byzantine Empire times. The Roman city of Celeia (now Celje in Slovenia) has been referred to by some writers as ''Troia secunda'' ("the second Troy"). In the 1870s the Germany archeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated the area. Later excavations revealed several cities built in succession to one another. One of the earlier cities (Troy VIIa) is often identified with Homeric Troy. While such an identity is disputed, the site has been successfully identified with the city called ''Wilusa'' in Hittite language texts; ''Ilion'' (which goes back to earlier ''Wilion'' with a digamma) is thought to be the Greek rendition of that name. ==The Legend== The story of the Trojans first began in myth and legend. According to Greek mythology, the Trojans (or Troyans or the Dardani) were the ancient citizens of the city of Troy in the Troad area, in the country of Phrygia, in the land of Asia Minor (or Little Asia, now Turkey). Troy is known for its riches gained from port trade with east and west, fancy clothes, iron production, and massive defensive walls. The Trojan royal family was started by Elektra and Zeus, the parents of Dardanus. Elektra raised Dardanus in her palace on the island of Samothrace. King Tros called the people Trojans and the land Troad after himself. Ilus founded the city of Ilium that he called after himself. Zeus gave Ilus the Palladium (mythology). Poseidon and Apollo built the walls/fortifications around Troy for Laomedon, son of Ilus the younger. When Laomedon refuses to pay, Poseidon flooded the land and demanded the sacrifice of Hesione to a sea monster. Pestilence comes and the sea monster snatches away the people of the plain. One generation before the Trojan War, Hercules captures Troy and kills Laomedon and his sons except for young Priam. Priam later becomes king. During the reign of Priam, the Mycenaean Greeks invade and capture Troy in the Trojan War (1193-1183 B.C.). Both the Trojans and Mycenaean cultures are destroyed in the war. The Trojans Aeneas, Brutus, and Elymus escape the destruction and become founders of Alba Longa (Rome), Britain, and the Elymi, a people of Sicily. The Maxyans are a west Libyan tribe who said that they are descended from the men of Troy, according to Herodotus. The Trojan ships transformed into naiads, who rejoiced to see the wreckage of Odysseus' ship. Trojan rule in Asia Minor is replaced by the "sons of Herakles" dynasty in Sardis that ruled for 505 years until the time of Candaules. The Ionians, Cimmerians, Phrygians, Milesians of Sinope, and Lydians move into Asia Minor. The Persians invade in 546 B.C. Some famous Trojans are : Dardanus (founder of Troy), Laomedon, Ganymede, Priam, Paris, Hector, Teucer, Aesacus, Oenone, Telamon, Tithonus, Antigone, Memnon, Corythus, Aeneas, Brutus, and Elymus. Kapys, Boukolion, Aisakos, and Paris were Trojan princes who had naiad wives. Some of the Trojan allies were the Hittites and the Amazons. The Aisepides Nymphs were the Naiades of the Trojan River Aisepos. Pegsis was Naias of the River Grenikos near Troy. A Trojan law mentioned by E.O. Gordon, allows queens as well as kings. This law was adopted by King Dunvallo Molmutius (from Brutus) in his code and is still in effect today in Britain. Mount Ida ("Mount of the Goddess") in Asia Minor, is where Ganymede was abducted by Zeus, where Anchises was seduced by Aphrodite, where Aphrodite gave birth to Aeneus, where Paris lived as a shepherd, where the nymphs lived, where "the Judgment of Paris" took place, where the Greek gods watched the Trojan War from, where Hera distracted Zeus with her seductions long enough to permit the taking of Troy, and where Aeneas and his followers rested and waited until the Greeks set for Greece. The altar of Panomphaean (�source of all oracles�) was dedicated to Jupiter the Thunderer (Tonaus) near Troy. Buthrotos (or Buthrotum) was a city in Epirus where Helenus, the Trojan seer, built a replica of Troy. Aeneas landed there and Helenus foretold his future. ==Homeric Troy== [[Image:Trojan Horse fragment.jpg|thumb|250px|Soldiers climbing out of the Trojan Horse (fragment, ca. 550 BC)]] In the Iliad, the Achaeans set up their camp near the mouth of the river Scamander (modern Karamenderes), 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 today is some 15 kilometers from the coast, but the ancient mouths of Scamander, some 3000 years ago, were some 5 kilometers further inland, pouring into a bay that has since been filled with alluvial material. 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 writings. The Homeric legend of Troy was elaborated by the Roman poet Virgil in his work the ''Aeneid''. The Greeks and Romans took for a fact the historicity of the Trojan War, and in the identity of Homeric Troy with the site in Anatolia. Alexander the Great, for example, visited the site in 334 BC and made sacrifices at the alleged tombs of the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus. Ancient Greek historians placed the Trojan War variously in the 12th century BC, 13th century BC or 14th century BC: Eratosthenes to 1180s BC, Herodotus to 1250s BC, Douris to 1330s BC. In November 2001, geologists John C. Kraft from the University of Delaware and John V. Luce from Trinity College, Dublin presented the results (see [http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2001AM/finalprogram/abstract_25431.htm], [http://www.nature.com/nsu/nsu_pf/030127/030127-4.html], & [http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20030203/iliad.html]) of investigations into the geology of the region that had started in 1977. The geologists compared the present geology with the landscapes and coastal features described in the Iliad and other classical sources, notably Strabo ''Geographia''. Their conclusion was that there is regularly a consistency between the location of Troy as identified by Schliemann (and other locations such as the Greek camp), the geological evidence, and descriptions of the topology (disambiguation) and accounts of the battle in the Iliad. ==Archaeological Troy== The layers of ruins on the site are numbered Troy I – Troy IX, with various subdivisions: *Troy I – Troy IV: early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) *Troy V: 20th century BC – 18th century BC centuries BC. *Troy VI: 17th century BC – 15th century BC centuries BC. *Troy VIh: late Bronze Age, 14th century BC *Troy VIIa: ca. 1300 BC – 1190 BC, most likely candidate for homeric Troy. *Troy VIIb₁: 12th century BC *Troy VIIb₂: 11th century BC *Troy VIIb₃: until ca. 950s BC *Troy VIII: around 700 BC *Troy IX: hellenistic Ilium, 1st century BC ===Troy I–V=== The first city was founded in the 3rd millennium BC. 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. ===Troy VI=== Troy VI was destroyed around 1300 BC, probably by an earthquake. Only a single arrowhead was found in this layer, and no bodily remains. ===Troy VII=== The archaeological layer known as Troy VIIa, which has been dated on the basis of pottery styles to the mid to late 13th century BC, is the most often cited candidate for the Troy of Homer. It appears to have been destroyed by a war, and there are traces of a fire. Until the 1988 excavations, the problem was that Troy VII seemed to be hilltop fort, and not a city of the size described by Homer, but later identification of parts of the city ramparts suggests a city of considerable size. Partial human remains were found in houses and in the streets, and near the north-western ramparts a human skeleton with skull injuries and broken jawbone. Three bronze arrowheads were found, two in the fort and one in the city. However, only small portions of the city have been excavated, and the finds are too scarce to clearly favour destruction by war over a natural disaster. Troy VIIb₁ (ca. 1120 BC) and Troy VIIb₂ (ca. 1020 BC) appear to have been destroyed by fires. ===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 of Constantinople in the fourth century as the eastern capital of the Roman Empire. In Byzantine Empire times the city declined gradually, and eventually disappeared. ==Excavation campaigns== ===Schliemann=== With the rise of modern critical history, Troy and the Trojan War were consigned to the realms of legend. In the 1870s (in two campaigns, 1871-1873 and 1878/1879), however, the German archaeology Heinrich Schliemann excavated a hill, called Hissarlik by the Turks, near the town of Chanak (�anakkale) in north-western Anatolia. Here he discovered the ruins of a series of ancient cities, dating from the Bronze Age to the Roman period. Schliemann declared one of these cities—at first Troy I, later Troy II—to be the city of Troy, and this identification was widely accepted at that time. ===D�rpfeld, Blegen=== After Schliemann, the site was further excavated under the direction of W. D�rpfeld (1893/1894) and later Carl Blegen (1932-1938). These excavations have shown that were at least nine cities built one on top of each other at this site. ===Korfmann=== Since 1988 excavations have been resumed by a team of the Eberhard Karls university and the University of Cincinnati under the direction of Professor Manfred Korfmann. The question of Troy's status in the Bronze Age world has been the subject of a sometimes acerbic debate between Korfmann and the T�bingen historian Frank Kolb. Following a magnetic imaging survey of the fields below the fort, a deep ditch was located and excavated among the ruins of a later Greek and Roman city. Remains found in the ditch were dated to the late Bronze Age, the alleged time of homeric Troy. It is claimed by Korfmann that the ditch may have once have marked the outer defences of a much larger city than had previously been suspected. Possible evidence of a battle was also found in the form of arrowheads found in layers dated to the early 12th century BC. ==Hittite evidence== In the 1920s the Switzerland scholar Emil Forrer claimed that placenames found in Hittite language texts — ''Wilusa'' and ''Taruisa'' — should be identified with Ilium and Troia respectively. He further noted that the name of ''Alaksandus'', king of Wilusa mentioned in one of the Hittite texts is quite similar to the name of Prince ''Alexandros'' or Paris (mythology) of Troy. The Hittite king Mursili II in ca. 1320 BC wrote a letter to the king of the ''Ahhiyawa'', treating him as an equal and implying that Miletus (''Millawanda'') was controlled by the ''Ahhiyawa'', and also referring to an earlier "''Wilusa'' episode" involving hostility on the part of the ''Ahhiyawa''. This people has been identified with the Homeric Greeks (Achaeans). These identifications were rejected by many scholars as being improbable or at least unprovable. Trevor Bryce in 1998 championed them in his book ''The Kingdom of the Hittites'', citing a recovered piece of the so-called Manapa-Tarhunda letter, which refers to the kingdom of Wilusa as beyond the land of the ''Seha'' (known in classical times as the Caicus River) river, and near the land of ''Lazpa'' (the Isle of Lesbos). Recent evidence adds weight to the theory that Wilusa is identical to archaeological Troy. Hittite texts mention a water tunnel at Wilusa, and a water tunnel excavated by Korfmann, previously thought to be Roman, has been dated to around 26th century BC. The identifications of Wilusa with archaeological Troy and of the Achaeans with the ''Ahhiyawa'' remains controversial, but gained enough popularity during the 1990s to be considered a majority opinion. ==Homeric Ilion and historical Wilusa== [[Image:Troas.png|thumb|252px|Map of the Troas]] The events described in Homer's Iliad, even if based on historical events that preceded its composition by some 450 years, will never be completely identifiable with historical or archaeological facts, even if there was a Bronze Age city on the site now called Troy, and even if that city was destroyed by fire or war at about the same time as the time postulated for the Trojan War. No text or artifact has been found on site itself which clearly identifies the Bronze Age site. This is probably due to the planification of the former hillfort during the construction of Hellenistic Ilium (Troy IX), destroying the parts that most likely contained the city archives. A single seal of a Luwian scribe has been found in one of the houses, proving the presence of written correspondence in the city, but not a single text. Our emerging understanding of the geography of the Hittite Empire makes it very likely that the site corresponds to the city of ''Wilusa''. But even if that is accepted, it is of course no positive proof of identity with Homeric ''(W)ilion''. A name ''Wilion'' or ''Troia'' does not appear in any of the Greek written records from the Mycenean sites. The Mycenaean Greeks of the 13th century BC had colonized the Greek mainland and Crete, and were only beginning to make forays into Anatolia, establishing a bridgehead in Miletus (''Millawanda''). Historical ''Wilusa'' was one of the ''Arzawa'' lands, in loose alliance with the Hittite empire, and written reference to the city is therefore to be expected in Hittite correspondence rather than in Mycenaean palace archives. ===Status of the Iliad=== The dispute over the historicity of the Iliad was very heated at times. The more we know about Bronze Age history, the clearer it becomes that it is not a yes-or-no question but one of educated assessment of ''how much'' historical knowledge is present in Homer. The story of the Iliad is not an account of the war, but a tale of the psychology, the wrath, vengence and death of individual heroes that assumes common knowledge of the Trojan War to create a backdrop. No scholars assume that the individual events in the tale (many of which centrally involve divine intervention) are historical fact; on the other hand, no scholars claim that the scenery is entirely devoid of memories of Mycenaean times: it is rather a subjective question of whether the factual content is rather more or rather less than one would have expected. ===The Iliad as essentially legendary=== Some archaeologists and historians maintain that none of the events in Homer are historical. Others accept that there may be a foundation of historical events in the Homeric stories, but say that in the absence of independent evidence it is not possible to separate fact from myth in the stories. In recent years scholars have suggested that the Homeric stories represented a synthesis of many old Greek stories of various Bronze Age sieges and expeditions, fused together in the Greek memory during the "Greek dark ages" which followed the fall of the Mycenean civilization. In this view, no historical city of Troy existed anywhere: the name derives from a people called the Troies, who probably lived in central Greece. The identification of the hill at Hissarlik as Troy is, in this view, a late development, following the Greek colonisation of Asia Minor in the 8th century BC. ===The Iliad as essentially historical=== Another view is that Homer was heir to an unbroken tradition of epic poetry reaching back some 500 years into Mycenaean times. In this view, the poem's core could reflect a historical campaign that took place at the eve of the decline of the Mycenaean civilization. Much legendary material would have been added during this time, but in this view it is meaningful to ask for archaeological and textual evidence corresponding to events referred to in the Iliad. Such a historical background gives a credible explanation for the geographical knowledge of Troy (which could, however, also have been obtained in Homer's time by visiting the traditional site of the city) and otherwise unmotivated elements in the poem (in particular the detailed Catalogue of Ships). Linguistically, a few verses of the Iliad suggest great antiquity, because they only fit the meter if projected back into Mycenaean language, suggesting a poetic tradition spanning the Greek Dark Ages. Even though Homer was Ionian, the Iliad reflects the geography known to the Mycenaean Greeks, showing detailed knowledge of the mainland but not extending to the Ionian Islands islands or Anatolia, which suggests that the Iliad reproduces an account of events handed down by tradition, to which the author did not add his own geographical knowledge. ===The credibility of ancient stories=== The ostensible historicity of Homer's Troy faces the same hurdles as with Plato's Atlantis. In both cases, an ancient writer's story is now seen by some to be true, by others to be mythology or fiction. It may be possible to establish connections between either story and real places and events, but these always risk to be subject to selection bias. ==Tourism== Today there is a Turkish town called Truva in the vicinity of the archaeological site, but this town has grown up recently to service the tourist trade. The archaeological site is officially called Troy by the Turkish government and appears as such on many maps. A large number of tourists visit the site each year, mostly coming from Istanbul by bus or by ferry via �anakkale. The visitor sees a highly commercialised site, with a large wooden horse built as a playground for children, then shops and a museum. The archaeological site itself is, as a recent writer said, "a ruin of a ruin," because the site has been frequently excavated, and because Schliemann's archaeological methods were very destructive: in his conviction that the city of Priam would be found in the earliest layers, he demolished many interesting structures from later eras, including all of the house walls from Troy II. For many years also the site was unguarded and was thoroughly looted. ==Troy in later legend== Such was the fame of the Trojan story in Roman and medieval times that it was built upon to provide a starting point for various legends of national origin. The most famous is undoubtedly that promulgated by Vergil in the Aeneid, tracing the ancestry of the founders of Rome, and more specifically the Julio-Claudian dynasty, to the Trojan prince Aeneas. Similarly Geoffrey of Monmouth traces the legendary kings of Britain to a supposed descendant of Aeneas called Brutus of Troy. ==Troy in later fiction and the media== Troy has figured in many latter books and films, notably: *The 2004 film ''Troy (movie)'' starring Brad Pitt. ==Related articles== *Bronze Age *Heinrich Schliemann *Lost cities *Mycenae *Trojan *Trojan War *Homer *Iliad *Trojan horse ==External links== *Archaeology **[http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/troia/eng/index.html Project Troia - The new excavations at Troy] ***[http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/troia/vr/vr0207_en.html digital reconstructions of the city] **[http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/lessons/les/27.html Troy VII and the Historicity of the Trojan War] **[http://www.tourismturkey.org/regions/marmara/Troy.htm Where Is "Troy" Now?] **[http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DF221xS344I/ Ilios. The city and country of the Trojans]: the results of researches and discoveries on the site of Troy and through the Troad in the years 1871-72-73-78-79; (searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries, requires dejavu-plugin) *Geography **[http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Troy.html the Troad] (with an image of a model of Troy II) **[http://www.archaeometry.gr/symposium2003/pages_en/abstracts/papers/geophysical/geo19.htm Geomorphologic changes in the valley of the Scamander] *Alternative location theories **[http://phdamste.tripod.com/trojan.html The Trojan Kings of England] ---- Trojans Greek mythology Hittite Empire Archaeological sites in Turkey

Troy

Does anyone want to have a go at writing up some of the current theories summarised in a recent edition of the BBC's ''Horizon'' programme? A transcript is available online here [http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2004/troytrans.shtml] Another page in their site even links to this very article! User:Timrollpickering 23:13, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==alleged/suspected/hypothesized/proposed Troy== In the light of the findings since 1996, this article is far too cautious about identifying archaeological with homeric Troy. Of course the "identity" is not complete, not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, and the controversy should be noted. Since 1996, however, a strong majority of scholars identify ''(W)ilion'' and ''Wilusha'', and for very good reasons. I will try to add sections concerning these recent developments. User:Dbachmann 18:42, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC) ==Opening doesn't make much sense== The opening of the article, "Troy (...) is not a legendary city, scene of the Trojan war" doesn't make much sense. Is that supposed to say "is a legendary city"? ~~ :fixed it (it was vandalism. you can fix these things yourself, too) User:Dbachmann User_talk:Dbachmann 12:57, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC) == The Real Location of Troy == There is a very intersting theory that has its roots in geography and archeology, and puts Troy much closer to Greece... Check it out at: http://www.troya.com.mx/. The book was published in Croatian, and it is by no means a work of an amateur, R. Salinas Price is a scholar educated in the United States, more on his study on Homer at: http://www.homer.com.mx/index.html :Yugoslav Troy? Well, feel free to add it as an intriguing 'dissenting voice.' No "the real location"-style statements in the article, though, please. User:Dbachmann User_talk:Dbachmann 09:08, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC) Feel free to not mention that garbage at all in the article, also. User:Decius 07:43, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Wrong Category == Ancient Troy was not in any way an ancient "Greek" city, so I've rearranged the category. User:Decius 05:59, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC) :well, everybody speaks Greek in Homer. Plus, there is some evidence that there may have been a Greek upper-class that had imposed itself on the Luwian population, in Wilusa. But it's difficult to classify anything as "Greek" in that time anyway, there were only "Achaean" and "Danaans" etc. User:Dbachmann User_talk:Dbachmann 10:07, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

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