Excavations of Troy Flashcards
Various archaeologists + what they found & what the sources reveal about Troy
Heinrich Schliemann
Time of Excavation
(An amateur archaeologist from Germany)
- First excavation season at Hissarlik began in April 1870
- 1872: excavated Schliemann’s Great Trench
- Continued digging throughout 1870s and 1880s
Heinrich Schliemann
Methods
- His workers dug a huge trench across most of the Hissarlik mound to a 45-foot depth
- Dug recklessly down through buildings and stratigraphic levels
- Dug through Priam’s palace’s stone walls and threw most of it out on the dirt pile
Heinrich Schliemann
Contributions
- Found the “Burnt City” (2nd from bottom)
- Found Homer’s Scaean Gate, a huge city gate at Troy II
- Identified nine layers of Troy
Frank Calvert
Time of Excavation
(The US vice consul to Turkey)
With Schliemann, 1870s - 1880s
Frank Calvert
Methods
Begun some preliminary excavations but didn’t have enough money to continue working properly → joined forces with Schliemann
Frank Calvert
Contributions
- True discoverer of the location of ancient Troy
- Bought the ancient mound Hissarlik (Turkish: Place of Fortresses)
Wilhelm Dörpfeld
Time of Excavation
(An architect with some previous archaeological experience)
- With Schliemann (1870s - 1880s)
- Carried on from 1890 after Schliemann died
Wilhelm Dörpfeld
Methods
- Excavated the remains that Schliemann left untouched, mostly around the edges of the mound
Wilhelm Dörpfeld
Contributions
- Found the remains of Troy VI and labelled them a→h: Tall stone walls, large gateways, wide streets, large houses, high defensive limestone walls, watchtowers
- Troy VIh: showed signs of an almost-complete destruction of the city
- Published results → Troy VIh was believed to be Homeric Troy for 40 years
- Persuaded Schliemann that he was wrong and should have been excavating Troy VI or VII
Carl Blegen
Time of Excavation
(Archaeologist at the University of Cincinnati)
Reopened the excavations at Hissarlik in the 1930s
Carl Blegen
Methods
haha gotcha he has none apparently
Carl Blegen
Contributions
Concluded that an earthquake destroyed Troy VIh, not warfare
- walls were off kilter, large stones thrown about
- Material culture (pottery etc) → continuity between Troy VIh and VIIa, no evidence in Troy VIIa that a new group of people was living there
Troy VIIa looked like it had been besieged + destroyed by an army
- arrowheads buried in walls, bodies left in streets, 1+ major battle had taken place
- The storage capacity of the city had been increased → burying jars, large buildings subdivided to house multiple families = under siege
Manfred Korfmann
Time of Excavation
(Archaeologist from the University of Tubingen)
1988 →
Manfred Korfmann
Methods
- Surveyed the agricultural fields around Hissarlik
- Used remote sensing devices like a caesium magnetometer
Manfred Korfmann
Contributions
- Found a ditch 1300 feet from the citadel (wasn’t actually the wall, just a nice ditch i guess)
- Found an enormous Lower City
Found evidence for fighting
- Unburied bodies, young girl partially burned, Aegean (Greek) arrowheads, gathered slingstones
Confirmed Blegen’s earlier findings
- Troy VIIa was destroyed in about 1180 BCE
- Troy VIIb was occupied by an entirely new people with new pottery, architecture, inscribed seals → found first writing in Troy
- Determined that Homer seemed to add elements of Troy VI to Troy VII
