Troy
PROGRAMME LENGTH
1 hour
SCREENING DETAILS
Monday July 19 at 9.30am EST/ NZ
In this program the basic elements of Homer’s account of the Trojan War are interwoven with details of the archaeological history of the site of Troy.
The program poses many questions and answers some, about what we know and how we know about the city of Troy.
There is material here for a Case Study of Troy either archaeological or literature based, using both would be best. There is also opportunity to introduce a unit that looks at representations of Troy and things Trojan, from Homer to Hollywood
Denis Mootz
This is the data collection stage of the activity.
The detailed questioning is designed to ensure that students decode the visual and aural materials presented to them in the video.
The video programs can be stopped at the end of each section. This will allow students to share and discuss answers.
Introduction.
Note the elements of the story of the Trojan War.
Note the questions posed.
How would you describe the tone of the narrator?

Act 1.
Note details of the ‘treasure’ from Troy.
When was it last ‘lost’? How?
When was the treasure rediscovered?
Why are nations ‘fighting’ over this treasure?
Where is the story of the Trojan War told?
Why is this story compelling?
Note the basic details of the story.
Note the leaders of the two warring cities.
Note details of Achilles and Hector.
Why did the war last so long?
How was this problem solved? Result?
Why has this story had such an impact in Western literature?
When did this war ‘happen’?
When did Homer compose his poems?
When were the Iliad and Odyssey written down?
Why is Homer now subjected to skepticism?
Act 2.
Note the details of the relationship between Sparta and Troy.
Why are Helen and Paris able to have an affair? Result?
Note the two versions of this story.
Note how Menelaos reacts.
How does King Priam react?
Note the description of Priam’s city, Troy.
Why has this city attracted interest throughout history?
Note details of Heinrich Schliemann.
Why did he search for Troy?
Why had scholars doubted the existence of Troy?
Why is learning about Schliemann problematic?
How did Schliemann become rich? Result?
Why did Schliemann need a new wife?
Note how Schliemann identified the site if Troy.
Note details of Frank Calvert.
Note details of Hissarlik.
Note the excavation method employed by Schliemann at Hissarlik. Result?
Why were the workmen suddenly given a day off? Result?
What did Schliemann claim?
How did Schliemann smuggle the gold to Greece?
Why is there a problem with Schliemann’s account of the discovery?
Why is the fact that Schliemann dressed his wife in Priam’s gold seen as a ‘problem’?

Act 3.
Why did Dorpfeld believe the gold was not Priam’s treasure?
Note what Schliemann had discovered at Troy?
Which is ‘Homer’s’ Troy?
Why was Frank Calvert forgotten?
What worried Schliemann about his discovery? Result?
Note details of Mycenae and Agamemnon.
Why does Agamemnon raise an army against troy?
What are his chief weapons in this war?
Note Schliemann’s discovery at Mycenae. Result?
Act 4.
Why did Schliemann believe he had found Agamemnon?
What had he actually discovered?
Note details of the boar’s tusk helmet? Implications?
Note the strategic position of Mycenae. Result?
Why does the city have a long history of violence?
Note how Agamemnon gained the gods’ help for his fleet.
Note the discussion of the voyage to Troy.
Why did Agamemnon and Achilles quarrel? Result?
Note other historical events associated with this area.
Why is this area so important? Result?
Why was Troy so wealthy?
Note the surrounding country area.
Note details of the Trojan ‘court’.
Why is trade rivalry suggested as a cause of this conflict?
Note Paris’s offer to the Greeks. Result?
Note the evidence for the existence of Paris (Alexandros).
Why did Achilles rejoin the war against Troy? Result?
Note the description of Troy’s walls.
What did Karl Blegen discover at Troy? Implications?
Note the result of the combat between Achilles and Hector.
What evidence is there for such individual combat?
Note how Achilles is killed.
What evidence is there that Achilles existed?
What is the fate of Paris? Result?

Act 5.
Note the use of modern scientific instrumentation at Troy in 1998. Result?
Implications of this surrounding defensive ‘ditch’. Result?
Note how the Greeks solved this ‘problem’. Result?
Note the discussion of the Trojan ‘horse’. Implications?
What else may have broken the walls?
Note the connection between a horse, earthquake and Poseidon?
What is the result of the fall of Troy?
Note the fate of Helen and Menelaos.
What evidence is there for the existence of Helen ‘of Troy’?
Note the role of women in prehistoric politics.
What happened to the Trojan women?
Note the evidence Blegen found to support the destruction of Troy.
What evidence from the 1998 dig supported this evidence?
Note the evidence for a Trojan War.
Note the suggestion that the Trojan War was a ‘process’ not an ‘event’.

Useful, interesting, challenging, books, sources and websites will provide materials to supplement and complement the History presented in the video program.
The data collected here should be used in the notemaking below.
Some useful Internet sites:
Homer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer
Troy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy http://www.turkeyforyou.com/turkey_troy_history
Mycenae: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycenae http://www.greeklandscapes.com/greece/mycenae.html
http://www.in2greece.com/english/places/historical/mainland/mycenae.htm
Trojan War: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_war http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/lessons/les/27.html
http://www.archaeology.org/0405/etc/troy.html
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/troyilium/a/helenoftroybasc.htm
Hittites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hittites
Heinrich Schliemann: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schliemann http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/schliemann_heinrich.html
http://www.unmuseum.org/troy.htm
Hissarlik: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hissarlik http://www.varchive.org/nldag/archiss.htm
Priam treasure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priam%27s_Treasure http://www.detecting.org.uk/html/Priams_Treasure_Troy_Heinrich_Schliemann.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,984435-2,00.html
Wilhelm Dorpfeld: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_D%C3%B6rpfeld http://www.archive.org/details/mycenaeantroybas00tolmuoft
Carl Blegen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Blegen http://cerhas.uc.edu/troy/q415b.html
Archaeology of Troy: http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/archaeology-myth-excavating-troy.html
http://archaeology.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-search-for-homers-troy

This is the collation stage of the activity. Students need to organise the field of information and begin to explore its context.
Directions and /or Inquiry questions are provided for notemaking / summary exercises that will follow the viewing of the video.
The materials / data for the summaries have been collected above.
The activity could be done in teams, groups, or by individuals, or as a class with teacher direction.
1.
Draw up a timeline / chronological chart of the events described and discussed in this program.
2.
Note details of the Trojan War.
3.
Note details of Homer’s Iliad.
4.
Note details of the site of Troy
5.
Note details of the life and career of Heinrich Schliemann.
6.
Note details of the work of Wilhelm Dorpfeld.
7.
Note details of the work of Carl Blegen
8.
Note details of recent excavations at Troy.
9.
Note details of Priam’s Treasure.
Key issues and inquiry questions that have been raised by the video are addressed at this stage for discussion and research.
1.
Why does Schliemann attract so much attention? From whom could he have sought advice about archaeological excavation?
2. Why has there been controversy associated with Priam’s treasure?

Questions of reliability and validity of the perspectives, evidence and sources presented in the video program need to be considered, tested and researched.
1.
What evidence supported Schliemann’s belief that he discovered the site of the Trojan
War?
2.
What has modern archaeology concluded about the site at Troy?
The key issues and inquiry questions are potential topics for debate, essay writing, reports, historical recount and explanation.
1.
Write a REPORT on Priam’s treasure.
2.
DEBATE the proposition that
Schliemann was more treasure hunter than archaeologist.
3. Assess the evidence that supports the identification of the site of the Trojan War.