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).

Homeric Troy

In the Iliad, the Achaeans set up their camp near the mouth of the river Scamander (modern Karamenderes), where they had beached their ships. The city of Troy itself stood on a hill, across the plain of Scamander, where the battles of the Trojan War took place. The site of the ancient city today is some 15 kilometers from the coast, but the ancient mouths of Scamander, some 3,000 years ago, were some 5 kilometers further inland, pouring into a bay that has since been filled with alluvial material.

Related Topics:
Iliad - Achaean - Scamander - Karamenderes - Alluvial

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Besides the Iliad, there are references to Troy in the other major work attributed to Homer, the Odyssey, as well as in other ancient Greek writings. The Homeric legend of Troy was elaborated by the Roman poet Virgil in his work the Aeneid. The Greeks and Romans took for a fact the historicity of the Trojan War, and in the identity of Homeric Troy with the site in Anatolia. Alexander the Great, for example, visited the site in 334 BC and made sacrifices at the alleged tombs of the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus.

Related Topics:
Odyssey - Virgil - Aeneid - Alexander the Great - 334 BC - Achilles - Patroclus

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Ancient Greek historians placed the Trojan War variously in the 12th, 13th or 14th century BC: Eratosthenes to 1184 BC, Herodotus to 1250 BC, Douris to 1334 BC.

Related Topics:
Trojan War - 12th - 13th - 14th century BC - Eratosthenes - 1184 BC - Herodotus - 1250 BC - Douris - 1334 BC

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In November 2001, geologists John C. Kraft from the University of Delaware and John V. Luce from Trinity College, Dublin presented the results (see http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2001AM/finalprogram/abstract_25431.htm, http://www.nature.com/nsu/nsu_pf/030127/030127-4.html, & http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20030203/iliad.html) of investigations into the geology of the region that had started in 1977. The geologists compared the present geology with the landscapes and coastal features described in the Iliad and other classical sources, notably Strabo's Geographia. Their conclusion was that there is regularly a consistency between the location of Troy as identified by Schliemann (and other locations such as the Greek camp), the geological evidence, and descriptions of the topology and accounts of the battle in the Iliad.

Related Topics:
2001 - University of Delaware - Trinity College, Dublin - Geology - 1977 - Strabo's - Topology

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There is, however, a recent theory proposed by historian Iman Wilkins that proposes a new location of Troy in England. The theory is generally not accepted by classicists.

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Professor Felipe Vinci has set forth another theory,http://www.jesus1053.com/l2-wahl/l2-autoren/l3-spedicato/Homer-Balt.htm, locating Troy in southern Finland and identifying all the besiegers and besieged around the Baltic Sea. His theory holds that the Trojan War happened many centuries earlier than generally believed, just before the Greeks were forced by a change in climate to migrate south to the Mediterranean.

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Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky, while accepting the traditional geography of the Trojan War, argued that the Greek Dark Ages never happened, and that the Trojan War was fought several centuries later than is now generally believed.

Related Topics:
Immanuel Velikovsky - Greek Dark Ages

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