Troy VII

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Archaeological Site of Troy


State Party = TUR
Type = Cultural
Criteria = ii, iii, vi
ID = 849
Region = Europe and North America
Year = 1998
Session = 22nd
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/849

Troy VII, in the mound at Hisarlik, is an archaeological layer of Troy spanning late Hittite Empire to Neo-Hittite times (ca. 1300 to 950 BC). It was a walled city with towers reaching a height of nine meters; the foundations of one of its bastions measure 18 meters by 18 meters. Manfred Korfmann, who excavated the site in the 1980s, estimated the area of Troy VII at 200,000 square metres or more and put its population at five to ten thousand inhabitants, which makes it "by the standards of its day a large and important city". [Joachim Latacz. "Troy and Homer: towards a solution of an old mystery." Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0199263086. Page 38.]

The city was built following the destruction of Troy VIIa, probably by an earthquake, in about 1300 BC. A number of layers are distinguished:

* Troy VIIa: ca. 13th century BC
* Troy VIIb₁: 12th century BC
* Troy VIIb₂: 11th century BC
* Troy VIIb₃: until ca. 950 BC

VIIa

The city of 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, lasted for about a century, with a destruction layer at ca. 1190 BC. It is the most often-cited candidate for the Troy of Homer and is believed to correspond to Assuwan "Wilusa" known from Hittite sources dating to the period of roughly 1300–1250 BC.These dates correspond closely to the mythical chronology of Greece as calculated by classical authors, placing the construction of the walls of Troy by Poseidon, Apollo and Aeacus at 1282 BC and the sack of Troy by the Greeks at 1183 BC.

Troy VIIa appears to have been destroyed by a war, perhaps the source of the legendary Trojan War, and there are traces of a fire. 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.

Until excavations in 1988, one of the problems with this identification was that Troy VII seemed to be a hill-top fort, and not a city of the size described by Homer. The 1988 discovery of a small section of a possible city circuit wall enclosing a much larger area suggests a city "at least ten times larger than earlier excavators - and thus the broader public - had supposed". [Ibidem.]

VIIb

The site remained inhabited following the destruction of Troy VIIa. Troy VIIb dates to a time when Greek influence began to extend to the area (the "Greek Dark Ages"). Troy VIIb₁ (ca. 1120 BC) and Troy VIIb₂ (ca. 1020 BC) appear to have been destroyed by fires. Troy VIIb₃ was deserted in the mid-10th century BC, and the site remained uninhabited for more than 200 years before a new settlement, Troy VIII, was established around 700 BC. The site was again uninhabited throughout Classical Antiquity, until the foundation of Roman Ilium at the site (Troy IX) in the 20's BC.

References

ee also

*Bronze Age collapse

External links

* [http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/lessons/les/27.html Troy VII and the Historicity of the Trojan War]