9.41 Troy (Ilion)

Troy is located on the coast of North West Anatolia at a strategic point at the southern entrance to the Dardanelles that links the Black and Aegean Seas. It linked Europe to the Middle East and probably the Trojans extracted tolls on sea and land travellers, becoming very wealthy. There are nine major periods in Troy’s history, the earliest dated to 3,000 BC and all have been excavated in the 32m high mound above the plain that now represents the city. In the first seven periods, Troy was a fortified citadel for the king and his retinue; other people were mostly farmers in surrounding villages who only went into the citadel in times of danger. In the first period, Troy I was only 90m in diameter but had a large wall and towers. Troy II was twice the size, with an Acropolis having a brick palace, but this all burnt down. In this burnt layer various treasures were found including ceramics. This was erroneously called “Priam’s Treasure” but is of completely the wrong date. The earliest cities had hand made black-bodied pots. Troy III-V (2,500-1,800 BC) were larger, housing new and more vigorous settlers who brought with them domesticated horses. The walls were 5m high and 4m wide at the base, with brick ramparts and watchtowers, containing a 200m long and 140m wide citadel. Troy VI (1,800-1,300 BC) showed a step change in many aspects, including pottery, when some 90 new shapes were introduced. This could indicate another influx of new people with new technology, possibly an early phase of Phrygians. When excavated, wheel-made, Mycenaean style pottery was found, some that was imported and some manufactured locally. Trojan potters produced a Grey ware very similar to grey Minyan ware from Mainland Greece, but it is not clear whether it was produced independently or it began in Anatolia and transferred to Greece. Troy was also known for a ceremonial drinking vessel, horn shaped with handles on the sides, buff coloured and burnished.

Troy style ceremonial drinking vessel
- source Museum of Anatolian Civilisations,
Ankara

The dead were cremated and buried in pottery urns, with the remains of several people in each urn. The city was ultimately destroyed by an earthquake and fire. Around 1,270 BC the city was rebuilt as Troy VII(a), with closely crowded houses having large pottery storage jars sunk up to their necks in the ground, probably to withstand a siege. Around this time they made black burnished pottery such as the cups with two high handles, that had also been popular around 2,300 BC. From the evidence of further contemporary Mycenaean pottery it was indeed destroyed again around 1,260-1,240 BC, with evidence of fire and people being killed. This could coincide with the troubles between the Trojans and Greeks “dramatised” in Homer’s Iliad, when the Trojan King Priam was defeated by king Agamemnon of Greece. Although blamed on “Helen”, another cause could have been that Trojan maritime activities cramped the freedom of travel of the Greeks through the Dardanelles. It was also around the time that the Sea People were on the move.

Although rebuilt as Troy VIIb, it was abandoned from about 1,100 to 700 BC, at which time the Greeks started to occupy the city known to them as “Ilion” (Troy VIII). It was sacked in 85 BC by the Romans during their invasion, and was rebuilt with considerable support from Emperor Augustus and his successors (legend has it that Augustus could trace his ancestry back to the Trojan Aeneas). Troy finally faded away in about 500 AD with the growth of Constantinople.