Discovery and
excavation of Troy
Calvert

Frank Calvert had identified the mound at
Hissarlik as the likely location of the ruins
of Troy before 1864. Calvert worked with
Charles Maclaren in 1847 who went on to
publish a book that identified Troy as
being at Hissarlik. The British Museum was
asked to fund an excavation of Hissarlik by
Calvert in 1863 but never agreed.
Schliemann
Schliemann initially was interested in
excavating another site. In 1868 he met
Frank Calvert and heard of preliminary
digs at Hissarlik that he became convinced
that Troy was located at Hissarlik.
 The preliminary excavation began in 1870
and continued until 1873. The dig was to
be completed in cooperation with Calvert.

Schliemann dug an immense trench into
the mound, removing hundreds of tonnes
of dirt and rubble, demolishing earlier
structures which stood in his way.
 Calvert had wanted a series of small
trenches to investigate the site.


Schliemann identified four successive
strata below classical Ilium, and he came
to the conclusion that the Homeric one
was the second from the bottom because
it had been destroyed by fire.
Calvert pointed out that the period of the
Trojan War was actually missing from
Schliemanns find which went from
prehistoric stone implements to pottery of
the Archaic period a gap of 1000 years.
 Schliemann accused Calvert of stabbing
him in the back but then Schliemann
discovered the “Treasure of Priam”.

It was the finding of the treasure that
helped Schliemann’s claims about
discovering Troy to be taken seriously.
 It is this that has given rise to the
question of whether the jewels actually
were discovered or planted on the site.


Later excavations of this level have
unearthed gold in nearly every room and
it is likely that Schliemann uncovered the
gold Treasure of Priam over a period and
kept it quite so he could smuggle it out of
Turkey. He wrote up the report once he
was in Athens and the alterations to his
journal led investigators to think it a
concoction.
Schliemann went on to excavate Mycenae
and Tirryns in Greece. He learnt from his
experience in Troy and undertook planned
an effective digs.
 Schliemann invented the new world of
Archaeology as after Troy he published his
journals and sketches and plans “in the
hope my colleagues might be able to
explain points obscure to me”.

Dorpfeld
In 1893 Dorpfeld took charge of the Troy
dig. He opened up the south side of
Hissarlik and struck walls more
magnificent than anything Schliemann had
found.
 Inside the city he found five large noble
homes whose floor plan could be
recovered and others that were more
badly destroyed.


Everywhere he found Mycenaean pottery
so the city had close ties to the
Mycenaean world. He dated it from 1500
to 1000BC, near enough to the traditional
date of the Trojan War and it had ended in
violence. Walls had fallen and there had
been a great fire. The world hailed the
discovery of the ruins of Homer’s Troy.

Dorpfeld dated his site using the
Mycenaean pottery. At that time the
dating of this pottery was still in its
infancy.
Blegen
Blegen excavated Troy from 1932 to 1938.
He established about fifty lesser strata
layers within the nine major cities at
Hissarlik.
 He examined Troy VI the layer Dorpfeld
identifed as Homer’s Troy and realised that
the destruction was not man made. Walls
had shifted and internal walls had fallen
and lay covered by other debris.

Troy VI had been destroyed by an
earthquake not by Agamemnon’s army.
 Troy VIIa was occupied by the same
people but the elegant building with open
space had gone. They were replaced by
shanties, squashed up against the walls.

Blegen concluded that the city had been
forced to shelter a much larger population
inside the walls.
 In doorways he found parts of a human
skeleton covered by burnt timbers, stones
and debris from houses which had
collapsed on its victims.

The destruction by fire, the traces of
bodies, the arrowhead he located together
with the overcrowding conditions indicated
a community which was under siege.
 Blegen concluded from the evidence that
Troy VIIa was destroyed very soon after
the earthquake destroyed Troy VI and
dated Troy VIIa to the middle rather than
late 13th Century BC.

The problem remains that Schliemann,
Dorpfeld and Blegen all found what they
were looking for – the ruins of Homer’s
Troy.
 That Hissarlik is the site of Troy is not
disputed but what level is Homer’s Troy
can not be answered with any certainity.
 Troy VIIa is our current best guess.

Korfman
Korfman began his excavation in 1988.
 He located the historical coastline of the
bay at Troy. He investigated a coneshaped tumulus which in ancient times
would have been on a promontory which
ran nearly a mile into the sea. This was
the site that classical Greeks considered to
be the tomb of Achilles.

On the old coast he located fifty
cremations and burials with Mycenaean
grave goods dating from Troy VI. These
are likely to be from a merchant enclave.
 Is this the Greek cemetery that Homer
refers to.

Korfmann has identified that the bay
provided a protected anchorage and had
fresh water behind the sand dunes.
(Taking core samples and analysing the
soil content).
 This supports Homers claim that a lagoon
lay between the Greeks and the river
Scamander.

The outer defences f Troy VI have been
discovered about 400 yards away from the
main walls. A defensive ditch with
mudbrick fortifications and a further
timber palisade with a wall walk.
 Religious idols from Mycenae and Anatolia
have been located outside the main walls

Most important Korfmann has found
evidence to suggest that Troy was
occupied from its earliest times through to
the time of Constantine the Great – a
period of close to 3000 years.
 Evidence suggests that Troy was a major
center of commerce between Mycenaean
Greece and the Hittite Empire.
