History

From Neolithic settlement to Bronze Age Hisarlik to Hellenistic Roman Ilium to Schliemann excavation (the most precisely TroyTurkey single 3000 BCE Troy I earliest occupation small Bronze Age village stone walls 3000 2550 BCE 2550 2300 BCE Troy II most elaborate Early Bronze Age citadel Schliemann excavated 1873 CE incorrectly identified as Priam’s Troy 2300 2000 BCE Troy III IV V decline smaller settlements 1750 1300 BCE Troy VI most substantial city large stone walls towers well-cut limestone ashlar masonry 160m × 200m citadel area possible Homer’s Troy Late Bronze Age trading city commanding Dardanelles trade route Black Sea Aegean Troy VI destroyed 1300 BCE earthquake evidence 1300 1180 BCE Troy VIIa succeeds Troy VI same walls smaller rebuilding some evidence burning violent destruction 1180 BCE possibly Trojan War if it happened 1180 1000 BCE Troy VIIb post-destruction settlement Greeks archaeologically Handmade Burnished Ware pottery Balkan European immigrants 700 BCE Greeks founded new settlement Sigeion Rhoiteion Sigeion area 334 BCE Alexander the Great visited Troy made offerings at Achilles’ tomb Achilleion marked sacrificed to Achilles inspired by Homer 300 48 BCE Hellenistic city Alexandria Troas Ilium Roman period Augustus rebuilt Ilium grand Roman city Roman identification with Troy Aeneas legend Aeneid Vergil Roman ancestry 1822 CE Frank Calvert British diplomat identified Hisarlik as likely Troy 1870 1873 CE Schliemann first excavation with Calvert permission Schliemann found Troy II called Priam’s Treasure 1873 CE removed illegally 1890 CE Schliemann died Athens 1893 1894 CE Wilhelm Dörpfeld German archaeologist correctly identified Troy VI as Homeric 1988 CE Manfred Korfmann University Tübingen new excavation 1998 CE UNESCO UNESCO heritage: Alexander the Great at Troy (the most consequential tourist visit in history): when Alexander the Great arrived at Troy in 334 BCE at the start of his conquest of Persia, his first action was to go to the tomb of Achilles (visible on the Trojan plain at Sigeion), remove his armour, anoint the tomb with oil, and run naked around it — following the ritual that Homer describes Achilles performing at the tomb of Patroclus; then Alexander and his best friend Hephaestion made offerings at the tombs of Achilles and Patroclus respectively (they identified themselves with the Homeric pair, the warrior and his closest companion); Alexander said publicly that Achilles was fortunate to have had a poet like Homer to celebrate his glory; then Alexander crossed into Persia and conquered it; the Trojan visit set the tone for Alexander’s self-presentation as a new Achilles — a Homeric hero on a civilising mission; the entire subsequent history of Western ideals of military honour can be traced back to a teenager from Macedonia visiting a tourist site in 334 BCE)) — the most precisely TroyTurkey single 3000 BCE Troy I 2550 2300 BCE Troy II Schliemann 1873 CE Priam’s Treasure wrong layer 1750 1300 BCE Troy VI largest most substantial 160m × 200m earthquake 1300 BCE Troy VIIa 1180 BCE destroyed burning possible Trojan War 334 BCE Alexander Great Achilles tomb oil anointing ran naked Homer Achilles Patroclus identified self new Achilles conquer Persia 1822 CE Frank Calvert identified Hisarlik 1870 1873 CE Schliemann excavation 1893 CE Dörpfeld Troy VI Homeric 1988 CE Korfmann Tübingen 1998 CE UNESCO heritage in any UNESCO world heritage site)).