Troy 15
by CTCWeb Editors
Digging for Troy
There was in fact a war at Troy about the time that Homer ascribes in the Iliad. There also were other wars at the site of Troy. Archeologists have found evidence of a ruined city that thrived during the time period Homer ascribes to the events recounted in the Iliad. According to excavations of Troy, the city was destroyed and rebuilt nine times. The stratum that relates to the Trojan War made famous by Homer is also called Troy VIIa (1300-1200 B.C.E.), meaning that it was the seventh form of the city since its foundation.
Events probably did not occur exactly as Homer recounted in the Iliad. For example, it is thought that the war may have been triggered by commercial struggles between the Greeks and the inhabitants of Asia Minor. Characters in Homer’s texts may have some correspondences with actual people, but there is no direct evidence for this.
Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) used the Iliad and the Odyssey to carry out the first excavations on the site of Troy. After Schliemann’s death, his friend Wilhelm Dörpfeld continued work at the site of Troy. Later, Carl W. Blegen from the University of Cincinnati (Ohio) worked at Troy during the 1930s. Currently, Project Troia, a joint archaeological project carried out by the University of Tübingen and the University of Cincinnati, continues to explore the site of Troy. For more information on their goals and further explanation of their dig projects, explore their website at: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/troia/eng/.
