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).

Archaeological Troy

The layers of ruins on the site are numbered Troy I – Troy IX, with various subdivisions:

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• Troy I – Troy IV: early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC)
• Troy V: 20th – 18th centuries BC.
• Troy VI: 17th – 15th centuries BC.
• Troy VIh: late Bronze Age, 14th century BC
• Troy VIIa: ca. 1300 – 1190 BC, most likely candidate for Homeric Troy.
• Troy VIIb₁: 12th century BC
• Troy VIIb₂: 11th century BC
• Troy VIIb₃: until ca. 950 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.

Related Topics:
3rd millennium BC - Dardanelles - Aegean Sea - Black Sea

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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.

Related Topics:
1300 BC - Earthquake

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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 a hill-top 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.

Related Topics:
Pottery - 13th century BC - 1988

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Partial human remains were found in houses and in the streets, and near the north-western ramparts a human skeleton with skull injuries and a 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.

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Troy VIIb1 (ca. 1120 BC) and Troy VIIb2 (ca. 1020 BC) appear to have been destroyed by fires.

Related Topics:
1120 BC - 1020 BC

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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 times the city declined gradually, and eventually disappeared.

Related Topics:
Hellenistic - Augustus - Constantinople - Fourth century - Roman Empire - Byzantine

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