The search for the ancient lost city of Troy

The name Troy refers both to a place in legend and a real-life archaeological site. In legend, Troy is a city that was besieged for 10 years and eventually conquered by a Greek army led by King Agamemnon. The reason for this “Trojan War” was, according to Homer’s “Iliad,” the abduction of Helen, a queen from Sparta. This abduction was done by Paris, the son of Troy’s King Priam. Throughout the “Iliad” the gods constantly intervene in support of characters on both sides of the conflict.

Troy also refers to a real ancient city located on the northwest coast of Turkey which, since antiquity, has been identified by many as being the Troy discussed in the legend. Whether the Trojan War actually took place, and whether the site in northwest Turkey is the same Troy, is a matter of debate. The modern-day Turkish name for the site is Hisarlik. 

The idea that the city was Troy goes back at least 2,700 years when the ancient Greeks were colonizing the west coast of Turkey. In the 19th century, the idea again came to popular attention when a German businessman and early archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, conducted a series of excavations at Hisarlik and discovered treasures he claimed to be from King Priam.

Troy the legend

The Trojan War is thought to have taken place near the end of the Bronze Age. That is around or before 1200 B.C. It took place around the time that a civilization that we call Mycenaean flourished in Greece. They built great palaces and developed a system of writing. 

The earliest accounts of this war come from Homer, who lived around the eighth century B.C., several centuries after the events took place. They do not appear to have been written down until even later, likely during the sixth century B.C. when a tyrant named Peisistratus ruled Athens.

Homer’s “Iliad” is set in the 10th year of the siege against Troy and tells of a series of events that appear to have taken place over a few weeks. The story makes clear that the siege had taken its toll on the Greek force sent to recover Helen. The “timbers of our ships have rotted away and the cables are broken and far away are our wives and our young children,” the poem reads (translation by Richmond Lattimore). 

The war had essentially become a stalemate with the Greeks unable to take the city and the Trojans unable to drive them back into the sea. We “sons of the Achaians [Greeks] outnumber the Trojans — those who live in the city; but there are companions from other cities in their numbers, wielders of the spear to help them,” the “Iliad” reads. 

A number of key events happen in the poem, including a duel between Menelaos or Menelaus), the king of Sparta and husband of Helen, against Paris. The winner is supposed to receive Helen as a prize, ending the war. However, the gods intervene to break up the duel before it is finished and the war continues. 

Another important duel occurs nears the end of the poem between Achilleus (or Achilles) and a great Trojan warrior named Hektor (or Hector). The Trojan knows that he’s no match for the Greek warrior and initially runs three laps around Troy, with Achilleus chasing him. Finally, the gods force him to face the Greek warrior and he is in turn killed. 

Contrary to popular belief, the “Iliad” does not end with the destruction of Troy but with a temporary truce after which the fighting presumably continues. Another Homeric work called the “Odyssey” is set after the destruction of the city and features the Greek hero Odysseus trying to get home. That poem briefly references how the Greeks took Troy using the famous “Trojan Horse,” a gift concealing warriors within. 

“What a thing was this, too, which that mighty man wrought and endured in the carven horse, wherein all we chiefs of the Argives were sitting, bearing to the Trojans death and fate!” reads part of the poem (Translation by A.T. Murray through Perseus Digital Library). 

The city’s origin

The site of Hisarlik, in northwest Turkey, has been identified as being Troy since ancient times. Archaeological research shows that it was inhabited for almost 4,000 years starting around 3000 B.C. After one city was destroyed, a new city would be built on top of it, creating a human-made mound called a “tell.”

“There is no one single Troy; there are at least 10, lying in layers on top of each other,” writes University of Amsterdam researcher Gert Jan van Wijngaarden in a chapter of the book “Troy: City, Homer and Turkey”. 

Van Wijngaarden notes that archaeologists have to dig deep to find remains of the first settlement and from what they can tell it was a “small city surrounded by a defensive wall of unworked stone.” Outside the largest gate was a stone with an image of a face, perhaps a deity welcoming visitors to the new city. 

Troy took off in the period after 2550 B.C. The city “was considerably enlarged and furnished with a massive defensive wall made of cut blocks of stone and rectangular clay bricks,” van Wijngaarden writes. He notes that on the settlement’s citadel were houses of the “megaron” type, which contained “an elongated room with a hearth and open forecourt.”

The name Troy refers both to a place in legend and a real-life archaeological site. In legend, Troy is a city that was besieged for 10 years and eventually conquered by a Greek army led by King Agamemnon. The reason for this “Trojan War” was, according to Homer’s “Iliad,” the abduction of Helen, a queen from Sparta. This abduction was done by Paris, the son of Troy’s King Priam. Throughout the “Iliad” the gods constantly intervene in support of characters on both sides of the conflict.

Troy also refers to a real ancient city located on the northwest coast of Turkey which, since antiquity, has been identified by many as being the Troy discussed in the legend. Whether the Trojan War actually took place, and whether the site in northwest Turkey is the same Troy, is a matter of debate. The modern-day Turkish name for the site is Hisarlik. 

The idea that the city was Troy goes back at least 2,700 years, when the ancient Greeks were colonizing the west coast of Turkey. In the 19th century, the idea again came to popular attention when a German businessman and early archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, conducted a series of excavations at Hisarlik and discovered treasures he claimed to be from King Priam.

The search for Troy

The search for Troy became a major preoccupation for travellers, topographers, writers and scholars in the 18th and early 19th centuries when ancient Greece and its myths captivated public imagination in Europe. But it was not a simple matter and became a subject of heated debate. The division lay between ‘realist’ thinkers, who believed the story of Troy must be based on some historical truth and opponents who claimed it was simply dreamed up in Homer’s poetic imagination and would never be found.

The Troad was mapped and explored and the prevalent theory of the ‘realists’ was that a hill called ‘Pinarbaşı’ had been the site of Troy, but they couldn’t find any evidence. In what should have been a breakthrough, a traveller named Edward Clarke visited a different hill, named ‘Hissarlik,’ in 1801 and identified it as the site of Ilion. He based this on the evidence of coins and inscriptions he found there. However only later in the 19th century would it dawn that Hissarlik was the site not just of Ilion, but also of legendary Troy, which was underneath the Classical remains.

Troy found

Frank Calvert lived in the Troad and owned land next to the mound of Hissarlik. An amateur but skilled archaeologist, he was convinced that there would be a good place to dig. So when Schliemann visited in 1868, with Homer in one hand and a spade in the other, determined to make his name in archaeology, Calvert found him easy to persuade. Calvert helped Schliemann, but it would be Schliemann’s name that became world famous, as the pioneer of archaeology who discovered and revealed the site of ancient Troy.

Huge publicity surrounded Schliemann’s finds. He announced to the world that in what is now called Troy II he had found the city of mythical King Priam and the Troy of the Trojan War. It was here that he discovered silver and gold vessels and jewellery, which he named ‘Priam’s treasure’ and which he believed included ‘the jewels of Helen’. His interpretation that the finds were evidence of the Trojan War was questioned at the time and, perhaps sadly for romantics everywhere, it is no longer accepted.

Later archaeological work at both Troy and on the Greek mainland, particularly at the site of Mycenae (one of the most important settlements of Bronze Age Greece), makes it clear that any feasible background for the story of the war must have been at least a thousand years later than the Troy that Schliemann claimed as ‘Priam’s Troy.’ Only then was Mycenaean Greece in contact with Troy, and powerful enough for the story to make sense. But of course, Homer was a poet and not a historian. It remains immensely difficult to link the Iliad specifically to the archaeology of Troy.

Schliemann’s excavations, between 1870 and 1890, marked the beginning of intensive archaeological exploration at Troy, by various international teams, that continues today, with current research led by Turkish archaeologists. Understanding of the site, its development over time and its place in the ancient world continue to grow. From an archaeological perspective, there is a rich history to be uncovered that stands quite apart from the myth of the Trojan War and is important in its own right. Yet the myth and the site remain inextricably linked. Few visitors can look out from the walls of ‘windy Troy’ across the Trojan plain without thinking of the massed Greek armies waiting to attack, or the women of Troy watching helplessly as the battle rages below.  

2,400-Year-Old Kitchen Uncovered in Turkey

Hurriyet Daily News reports that a 2,400-year-old house, with a kitchen and a neighbouring room containing mirrors, ornaments, loom weights, and fragrance containers have been unearthed at the site of the ancient Lycian city of Patara. 

The world of archaeology was delighted by the objects found during the excavations at Patara, the capital of the Lycian Union, where significant traces of human life were uncovered during the archaeological excavations.

Excavations take place in the area of Tepecik, where settlements of the city were established. The kitchen and the women’s room with mirrors, ornaments and fragrance containers have been found in this area.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, deputy head of Patara excavations, Associate Professor Erkan Dündar said that the Tepecik settlement in Patara is an area where the earliest finds and architectural structures of the ancient city were found.

Emphasizing that thanks to the excavations there, they reached information about the residential life during the Lycian Union period, Dündar said that besides residential buildings, there was a military garrison in Tepecik.

Stressing that Alexander the Great came to the Lycian region for a short time, Dündar said, “After he seized it, he set up a garrison as he did in many places.

The soldiers staying in the garrison brought their families here. It was a kind of military lodge. In addition to war tools such as stones, arrowheads and spears, we also found finds of residential life.”

What delighted them the most was the kitchen they found in an ancient house, Dündar said.

“We found the kitchen items in bulk. We found crush pots, storage pots, oil pots, casseroles and a hairpin.

The kitchen gave us important information about life in that period. We also found a women’s room during excavations. In a room called ‘women’s room,’ we found loom weights, small items belonging to women, mirrors, ornaments and fragrance pots. Women are women in every period. They always cared about their own beauty.”

Noting that the houses in the Tepecik region have stone foundations, Dündar said that the superstructures of the houses have flat roofs raised with mudbrick and that they resemble the highland houses in today’s Elmalı district.

Dündar said that the region does not attract much attention from visitors because it lacks aesthetics, but that academic and scientific data emerging from the region were very important for them.

Neolithic Settlement Discovered Near Turkey’s Black Sea Coast

Hurriyet Daily News reports that a team of researchers led by Nurperi Ayengin of Düzce University are excavating a pre-pottery Neolithic settlement at Kahin Tepe, which is located on northern Turkey’s Black Sea coast.

“We think that this is a sacred area where people came at certain times of the year to hunt, share their knowledge, worship, and make statues of animals,” Ayengin said.

Having started in 2018, the excavations have been going on ever since by the Kastamonu Museum Directorate and consulted by the Düzce University head of the Protohistoric and Near Eastern Archaeology Department, Nurperi Ayengin.

Nineteen students and academics from various universities are working in the excavation field.

Speaking to the Anadolu Agency, Ayengin said that they started the excavations in the region two years ago for a dam rescue project near Başköy village.

Pointing out that Kahin Tepe is located in a strategic location, Ayengin said, “We discovered the settlement dating to the Aceramic Neolithic period, which lasted between 12,000 and 7,000 BC.”

“One of the most famous of this period is Göbeklitepe located in the southeast. When we look at the social structure of the period, we know that the main element was a rigid and complex religious belief,” Ayengin noted.

She stated that new discoveries that would change the history of Anatolia were expected at Kahin Tepe.

“These excavations will yield very serious results in terms of both Anatolia and world history. In the qualified sculptures unearthed in the excavations, we can say that we have determined, which animals the gods of the Aceramic Neolithic period consisted of,” Ayengin added.

“We think that this is a sacred area where people came at certain times of the year to hunt, share their knowledge, worship, and make statues of animals,” she said.

Noting that both the region and the artefacts unearthed in the excavations are very similar to the characteristics of Göbeklitepe, Ayengin said that the city was one of the settlements with the most similar details to Göbeklitepe, especially when looking at the hybrid works and the depictions of the clergy.

“Kahin Tepe is the oldest temple site of the Aceramic Neolithic period in the Black Sea. This is a religious place where people both worship and transfer their knowledge. It is the oldest place of worship found in the Black Sea,” she said.

“We have seen that Anatolian history is pregnant with many unexplored settlements. Much bigger discoveries await us,” she noted, adding that this game-changer excavation will continue to change history.

Last year, the excavations in the region have unearthed findings such as a grinding stone and ornaments belonging to the same period.

Rare mosaics of a Christian church were unearthed in Turkey

Archaeologists in southeastern Turkey have launched excavations to unearth the mosaics of a 1,600-year-old church in the village of Göktaş in the southeastern Mardin province.

Traces of the church were discovered on Sept. 18, 2019, with the area later being declared an archaeological site.

Abdülgani Tarkan, head of the excavation team and director of the Mardin Museum, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the church took a basilica form with mosaic flooring.

The base of the church is inscribed with nine lines of Estrangelo, or Ancient Syriac, script, Tarkan said.

“The mosaics also show depictions of animals, geometric shapes and human figures, as well as scenes depicting people hunting,” he said. “The months of April and June are also inscribed on the human figures.”

Tarkan said the church, built-in 396 A.D, contained names of the spiritual figures who contributed to its construction.

In the excavation area, archaeologists also discovered a number of liturgical works that, in Christianity, instruct on the correct order of church service and prayer.

Tarkan said the excavation area would be open to the public after restoration work was completed.

4,300-Year-Old Figurines Unearthed in Central Anatolia

Hurriyet Daily News reports that a team of researchers led by Fikri Kulakoğlu of Ankara University uncovered more than a dozen 4,300-year-old figurines thought to depict gods and goddesses at the Kültepe mound in central Anatolia. Previous excavation at the site uncovered 35 similar figurines in one room of the same building. 

Due to its ashy soil that is some 25 kilometres from the city centre of Kayseri and has continued ever since excavations began 72 years ago in the region called “Kültepe.”

This year, statues of God and Goddess from 4,300 years of age, assumed by Anatolians, were found during the excavations. The figurines will be on display in the temporary exhibition at the Kayseri Museum.

Ankara University Faculty of Language and History-Geography member and the head of Kültepe excavations, Professor Fikri Kulakoğlu, told the state-run Anadolu Agency that one of the two tablets taken out of Kültepe in the late 1800s and sold to an antique shop in Istanbul had gone to the British Museum and the other to the Louvre Museum.

Stating that scientists, who were curious about the city mentioned in the tablets, came to Turkey but could not find any tablets, Kulakoğlu said: “There was a Czech scientist named Bedrich Hrozny.

This scientist is the first person in the world to solve the Hittite language. This person came to Kültepe in Kayseri to find out where the city of Kaniş mentioned on the tablets is.

He destroyed one-third of the palace that we call ‘Warşama Palace.’ He dug a hole like a crater according to the excavation techniques of that time.”

“He was disappointed that he could not find a tablet. He drew the attention of his coachman, who asked, ‘What happened to my master?’ He answered that he could not find a tablet.

The coachman said, ‘You dug the wrong place, the tablets are not there, but in Mehmet Ağa’s field.’ He went back and started excavations in the place we call Karum, but he could not find many tablets,” he added. 

“Meanwhile, there was an epidemic of malaria in the region. Hrozny, who was a former soldier, brought a quinine tablet against malaria with him. People came to him because of the epidemic, they wanted medicine.

He gave them a quinine tablet in return for a cuneiform tablet. Thus, he collected tablets from the villagers. Thanks to the tablets that he collected, which proved that Kültepe was the city of ‘Kaniş’ mentioned in the first tablets.

He took the tablets to his country and returned them to Turkey in 1936. The tablets in the Istanbul Archeology Museum are the ones he studied and returned later,” the professor said. 

Kulakoğlu stated that they have been looking for an answer to the question, “What was Anatolia like in the Ancient Bronze Age, the period before the Assyrian merchants came to Anatolia?” since 2009, and said that they have continued excavations in the area of Kaniş, which is called the “upper city.”

Reminding that they found 35 god and goddess figurines collectively in the excavations carried out in the room of a building in 2017, Kulakoğlu said: “We found 15 more idols [statuettes] this year. Excavations continue in this area.

The building we excavated is probably an official, religious, a very large and unique place in Anatolia. The idols extracted from here are the works that depict the beliefs of the Anatolian people and the beings they worshipped 4,500 years ago.” 

“Some of them are sitting on the throne and some are made schematically. These are works that are not available anywhere but Kültepe. You find a work worshipped by a person 4,500 years ago and bring it to light; this is exciting.”

He added that they were planning to exhibit them at the Kayseri Museum with a temporary exhibition.

A 1,600-year-old basilica re-emerged due to the withdrawal of waters from lake iznik

The 1600-year-old basilica found under Lake Iznik in crystal clear water shows breathtaking aerial images. Archeologists, and art historians believe that after an earthquake in 740, the religious structure collapsed during an earthquake in 740, before sinking further into the lake.

The underwater building lies between 1.5 and 2 meters below the sea and can be clearly seen for the first time, as the coronavirus lockdown has resulted in less water pollution.

The local authority recently flew a drone over the site to take stunning images, revealing the basilica’s walls and structure just below the lake surface.

In 2014, when it was first found by experts, the Archaeological Institute of America named the basilica as one of the top 10 discoveries of the year. It was discovered while photographing the area from the air for an inventory of historic sites and cultural artifacts.

Five years ago the Doğan News Agency reported that the submerged structure was set to become an underwater museum. Experts believe it was built in AD 390, to honor St. Neophytos, who was among the saints and devout Christians martyred during the time of Roman emperors Diocletian and Galerius.

Neophytos was killed by Roman soldiers in A.D. 303, a decade before an official proclamation permanently established religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire, they say.

I thought to myself, ‘How did nobody notice these ruins before?’ said Prof Mustafa Sahin

Uludag University Head of Archaeology Department Prof Mustafa Sahin told the agency in 2015 the church was built in tribute to him, at the place that he was killed.

He said: “We think that the church was built in the 4th century or a later date.

“It is interesting that we have engravings from the Middle Ages depicting this killing. We see Neophytos being killed on the lake coast.” Ancient resources show that Christians definitely stopped by Iznik in the Middle Ages while making their pilgrimage to visit the church.

“Rumour has it that people in Iznik were asking for help from the body of Neophytos when they were in difficulty,” Sahin said.

The researcher told Live Science that he been carrying out field surveys in Iznik since 2006, and “I hadn’t discovered such a magnificent structure like that.

“When I first saw the images of the lake, I was quite surprised to see a church structure that clearly.”

He also told the Archaeological Institute of America: “I did not believe my eyes when I saw it under the helicopter.

“I thought to myself, ‘How did nobody notice these ruins before?’”

PAGAN TEMPLE?

And, there might be a pagan temple beneath the church, reports The Weather Channel. Researchers have uncovered fragments of an ancient lamp and early coins from the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius – indicating a more historic structure buried under the church.

Sahin said he believed the basilica could have been built on top of a temple to Apollo. The information shows there is a connection with the Roman emperor Commodus – to a similar temple at Iznik, then known as Nicea, outside city walls.

“Could this temple have been underneath the basilica remains?” Sahin asked of the church, which is to be transformed into an underwater archaeological museum.

The early Byzantine-era basilica has architectural elements from the early period of Christianity and is situated 20 meters from the banks of Lake Iznik in the north-western Turkish province of Bursa.

Archaeological finds excavated since 2015 include the memorial stamp of the Scottish knights, who were believed to have been among the first foreign visitors to the basilica, reports Daily Sabah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiqbbhxt9NQ

2,400-year-old mask of Dionysus unearthed in western Turkey

During excavations in the western part of Turkey, researchers unearthed a terracotta mask that dates back almost 2,400 years.

Archaeologist Kaan Iren who led the excavation team told Anadolu Agency that the mask depicts the ancient Greek god Dionysus and it is considered to be one of the most interesting discoveries of this year.

Dionysus was the ancient Greek god of wine, wine-making, grape cultivation, ritual madness, theatre, fertility, and religious ecstasy. He has also been referred to as the Greek god of carnivals and masquerades as well as a patron of the arts.

He was the son of Zeus and the mortal princess of Thebes named Semele. Dionysus was believed to have hidden his power as well as his identity.

Mycenean Greeks have been worshipping Dionysus perhaps as far back as 1500 to 11000 BCE. According to legend, if you wear a mask that honours him, you will be released of regret and secret desires.

As for where the mask was discovered, the ancient city of Daskyleion was situated on the shore of Lake Manyas in the Bandirma district of the Balikesir province at a time when Asia Minor had several Greek settlements.

The city received its name in the seventh century BC after a well-known Lydian King named Daskylos arrived there from Sardis because of a dispute within his dynasty.

Daskylos’ son Gyges was born in Daskyleion but was eventually called back to Lydia where he was crowned their king. After he became king, the city was renamed Daskyleion (the place of Daskylos) around the year 650 BC.

Getting back to the mask, Iren noted that it is “possibly a votive mask” meaning that it may have been used to express a vow or wish.

He went on to say, “More information will become available over time with more research.” It should be interesting to find out what more they can uncover. A picture of the mask and the excavation site can be seen here.

Additional searches are being conducted as Iren stated that earlier this year a cellar was discovered in the Lydian kitchen in Daskyleion’s acropolis, “Work continues to obtain seeds and other organic parts from the excavated soil in the Lydian kitchen and its surroundings through a flotation process.”

More research at the site will hopefully help the experts to have a better understanding of the ancient people’s food preferences and habits.

8,600 years old Textile tools found in western Turkey

Hurriyet Daily News reports that 8,600-year-old textile tools have been uncovered in western Anatolia at the ancient settlement site of Ekşi Höyük.

Fulya Dedeoğlu of Ege University said the bone needles and round stones for spinning thread were found in a building dated to the Neolithic period. 

Bone needles and round stones used for spinning thread dating back some 8,600 years were found in an excavation site in Ekşi Höyük, one of the oldest settlements in western Anatolia, located in the present-day Denizli province.

“During excavations carried out in this Neolithic-era settlement, we discovered some of the first tools used for textiles in history,” Ege University’s Fulya Dedeoğlu, head of the excavation team, told Anadolu Agency (AA).

“The architectural remains here are in very good condition. You can see all of the typical materials of the era here.”

She added: “One of the most striking things we found is the needle bones, which we think date back to 8,600 years ago, and carved round stones for spinning thread.”

She stressed that Denizli is known for its history in textiles and that many bone needles used in textiles were found at the excavation site.

“The findings here prove that the textile tradition in Denizli dates back to earlier times. We’ve discovered them in a building that we think was built in 6400 B.C.,” Dedeoğlu added.

Along with Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry, academics from universities across the country are helping in the excavations, which started in 2015.