I’ve got Troy on my mind lately, and thought I would do a post about the ancient city and the legendary war for which it is most famous. Located in modern-day Hisarlik, Turkey, the city of Troy was an actual inhabited place that got its start about 3600 BCE. Famously excavated by the German businessman Heinrich Schliemann in the late 1800s, Troy had existed for thousands of years before the Trojan War was thought to have gone on. You can see the trench Schliemann cut through the ruins to see the various layers of Trojan occupation in the upper-right image. Schliemann’s Indiana-Jones ham-handed methodology wrecked a lot of key evidence.
Nevertheless, out of the various layers of Troy’s existence (dubbed “Troy I-Troy IX” by archaeologists), two are thought to have been possible candidates for the city made famous by Homer’s _Illiad_ (btw, “Illios” is the Greek rendering of the Hittite word “Wilusa,” another name for Troy). These layers, Troy VI-VIIa, date to the late Bronze Age, from 1700-1200 BCE, and included an upper and lower settlement that you can see in an artist’s recreation in the upper-left image. Masonry from the period can still be seen today, as Troy is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Hard evidence for the actual Trojan War having existed doesn’t exist, but there are suggestions that the city was an independent moderately wealthy center — perhaps with a thriving horse trade — that was involved in conflicts between the Hittites and the Ancient Greeks. The city endured destruction by earthquake in c.1300 BCE. About a century later, it was sacked during a general collapse of the Mediterranean cultures of the time in the age of the Sea Peoples. Perhaps sometime in between, there was a war that eventually became the inspiration for Homer’s poem.
Homer composed and recited his epic poem about the Trojan War in the 8th century, but it wasn’t written down until about 550 BCE. The Ancient Greeks and Romans certainly thought the Trojan War had been a historical event, even though they didn’t have much evidence for it. But that didn’t stop them from writing and creating art about it, and adding to the legends about it in their plays and literature.
Source(s): @Livius.org “Articles on Ancient History,” “Troy VI-VII”. @ British Museum, “The search for the lost city of Troy,” by Lesley Fitting and Alexandra Billing, 18 June 2019. @UNESCO World Heritage Convention, “Archaeological Site of Troy.” @livescience.com, “Ancient Troy: the city and the legend of the Trojan War,” Owen Jarus Feb 28, 2024.
