Troy - History

History of the excavations

The first Westerner to visit Troy seems to have been a French government official named Pierre Belon (1547). In 1610 an Englishman named George Sandys looked for the ruins of Troy. Between 1781 and 1791 Count Choiseul-Gouffier and a French archeologist named Lechevalier explored the Troad and identified Homer's Troy on the hill of BaliDag at Pinarbasi, 8km/5mi southeast of Hisarlik. Helmuth von Moltke, then a captain in the Prussian army also saw Pinarbasi as the site of Troy. From 1859 onwards Frank Çalvert an Englishman who owned part of the hill of Hisarlik carried out excavations there. In 1868 Heinrich Schliemann (1822-90) a German businessman who had made a fortune in St Petersburg came to Troad to look for Troy. After a brief exploratory excavation on Pinarbasi which yielded only a thin layer of rubble he turned his attention to Hisarlik. Thereafter in a series of excavation campaigns between 1870 and 1890 he was proved correct and felt able to defend his case against the passionately held views of other archeologists. Until 1882, it is true, his excavations showed little concern with exact observation or the conservation of remains. Much evidence was destroyed for ever, particularly by the broad trench which he drove across the site from north to south. Thereafter, with the collaboration of the German archeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1853- -1940), the work was carried out much more scientifically. Fate intervened to prevent Schliemann from reaping the full rewards of his excavations. After discovering on June 14th 1873 the so-called "Treasure of Priam" which was shipped to Germany in dramatic circumstances (recently discovered in Moscow's Pushkin Museum), he proclaimed Troy II to be the city of Priam. It was only his 1890 excavations and Dörpfeld's excavations of 1893-94 after Schliemann's death which suggested that Troy VI should be assigned to the rather uncertain Mycenaean period.

Excavation was continued in 1932-38 by Carl W. Blegen of Cincinatti University. According to legend Troy fell after Greek soldiers emerged from within a hollow horse dedicated to the earthquake god Poseidon; consequently scholars such as Schachermeyr have identified Troy VI as the city of Priam. Other researchers regard Troy VIIa as the more likely level. Since 1988 the German archeologist Professor Manfred Korfmann from Tübingen University has been continuing the work of Schliemann, Dörpfeld and Blegen. Excavations have been continuing on Besiktepe and in Besik Bay west of Troy near Yeniköy, already identified as a port for Troy (1982-1987). More recently the area south of the hill, the lower town, has been under the archeologists' spotlight.