Lost Worlds: Troy

It's one of the things everyone who has every heard of Hellenic mythology knows of: the invasion of the city of Troy by the ancient Hellenes. Homeros wrote about it in the Iliad and since then, we've been trying to establish if there is any truth to the myth. Homeros's work dates back to the eighth or ninth century, BC., several hundred years after the war is supposed to have taken place. As such, we can assume some embellishment to the story was necessary to flesh out the story--or even make it a story at all. Archeologists are sure, however, that the Troy existed.

Around 1870, Heinrich Schliemann headed an archeological dig in Turkey. His site was located south of the southwest end of the Hellespont and northwest of Mount Ida. In 1865, an  English archaeologist named Frank Calvert had excavated trial trenches in a field he had bought from a local farmer. The results were promising, and Schliemann took over Calvert's dig--which had since been named 'Hisarlik'--and took sole credit for the future finds at the site, even though Calvert had done the work of locating the site in the first place.

At Hisarlik, Schliemann found evidence of nine cities built on top of each other, as well as evidence of a high wall which must have fortified the town. Schliemann figured that the city of Troy--or Ilion/Ilios (Ἴλιον/Ἴλιος) as it would have been called at the time of the ancient Hellenes--must have been one of the lower, older, cities and thus he blasted his way down to the second city, where he found signs that seemed to corroborate his story--jewelry included, that Schliemann took to be those of Helen--which turned out to be a thousand years older than the time described in the epic. Due to his methodology, much of the later cities was destroyed.

Archeologists today believe that the sixth and seventh oldest cities found in layers at Hisarlik are the best candidates for the Troy of The Iliad. There is, however, no sign to be found of a huge wooden horse--not that odd considering the time that has passed and the fact that wood rots away over said time. Still, modern scholars think the horse was part of Homeros' artistic license as a writer. Archeological evidence suggests that city number six would have fit the setting of Troy described by the writer... but evidence points to its destruction not by the hands of man, but the hands of nature: Troy six was destroyed by a massive earthquake. Troy seven, however, was not as grand as Troy six, but its streets were littered with arrowheads, indicating that this city was, indeed, sacked by human hands.


One thing we can say with certainty: The myth of Troy will always be a source of both entertainment and wonder.

"Lost Worlds investigates the very latest archaeological finds at three remote and hugely significant sites - Angkor Wat, Troy and Persepolis. Lost Worlds travels to each site and through high-end computer graphics, lavish re-enactment and the latest archaeological evidence brings them to stunning televisual life. From the 900-year-old remains of Angkor Wat in the Cambodian jungle the staggering City of the God Kings is recreated. From Project Troia, in North West Turkey, the location of the biggest archaeological expedition ever mounted the lost city is stunningly visualised and finally from Persepolis the city and the great Persian Empire are brought to life."