Troy VII, in the mound at
HisarlikHisarlik , is the modern name for the site of ancient Troy, also known as Ilion, and is located in what is now Turkey...
, is an archaeological layer of
TroyTroy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer...
representing late Hittite Empire to
Neo-HittiteThe states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician-speaking political entities of Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC...
times (ca. 1300 to 950 BC). It was a walled city with towers reaching a height of nine meters; the foundations of one of its bastions measure 18 meters by 18 meters.
Manfred KorfmannManfred Osman Korfmann was a German archaeologist.- Biography :...
, who excavated the site in the 1980s, estimated the area of Troy VII at 200,000 square metres or more and put its population at five to ten thousand inhabitants, which makes it "by the standards of its day a large and important city".
The city was built following the destruction of Troy VIh, probably by an earthquake, in about 1300 BC.
Troy VII, in the mound at
HisarlikHisarlik , is the modern name for the site of ancient Troy, also known as Ilion, and is located in what is now Turkey...
, is an archaeological layer of
TroyTroy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer...
representing late Hittite Empire to
Neo-HittiteThe states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician-speaking political entities of Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC...
times (ca. 1300 to 950 BC). It was a walled city with towers reaching a height of nine meters; the foundations of one of its bastions measure 18 meters by 18 meters.
Manfred KorfmannManfred Osman Korfmann was a German archaeologist.- Biography :...
, who excavated the site in the 1980s, estimated the area of Troy VII at 200,000 square metres or more and put its population at five to ten thousand inhabitants, which makes it "by the standards of its day a large and important city".
The city was built following the destruction of Troy VIh, probably by an earthquake, in about 1300 BC. A number of layers are distinguished:
- Troy VIIa: ca. 13th century BC
The 13th century BC was the period from 1300 to 1201 BC.-Events:*1300 BC: Cemetery H culture comes to an end.*1292 BC: End of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, start of the Nineteenth Dynasty....
- Troy VIIb1: 12th century BC
-Overview:The 12th century BC is the period from 1200 to 1101 BC. Although many human societies were literate in this period, most individual persons mentioned in this article ought to be considered legendary rather than historical...
- Troy VIIb2: 11th century BC
The eleventh century
BC comprises all years from 1100
BC to 1001
BC. Although many human societies were literate in this period, some of the individuals mentioned below must be considered legendary rather than fully historical.-Events:* 1089 BC:...
- Troy VIIb3: until ca. 950 BC
VIIa
The city of the archaeological layer known as Troy VIIa, which has been dated on the basis of pottery styles to the mid- to late-13th century BC, lasted for about a century, with a destruction layer at ca. 1190 BC. It is the most often-cited candidate for the Troy of
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
and is believed to correspond to
AssuwaThe Assuwa league was a confederation of states in western Anatolia, defeated by the Hittites under an earlier Tudhaliya I around 1400 BC. The league formed to oppose the Hittite empire. The list of its members contains 22 names, including [...]uqqa, Warsiya, Taruisa, Wilusiya and Karkija .Some of...
n
WilusaWilusa was a city of the late Bronze Age Assuwa confederation of western Anatolia.It is known from six references in 13th century BC Hittite sources, including...
known from Hittite sources dating to the period of roughly 1300–1250 BC.
These dates correspond closely to the mythical chronology of Greece as calculated by classical authors, placing the construction of the walls of Troy by
PoseidonIn Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
,
ApolloIn Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian deities...
and
AeacusAeacus was a mythological king of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf.He was son of Zeus and Aegina, a daughter of the river-god Asopus...
at 1282 BC and the sack of Troy by the Greeks at 1183 BC.
Troy VIIa appears to have been destroyed by a war, perhaps the source of the legendary
Trojan WarIn Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
, and there are traces of a fire. Partial human remains were found in houses and in the streets, and near the north-western ramparts a human skeleton with skull injuries and a broken jawbone. Three bronze arrowheads were found, two in the fort and one in the city. However, only small portions of the city have been excavated, and the finds are too scarce to clearly favour destruction by war over a natural disaster.
Until excavations in 1988, one of the problems with this identification was that Troy VII seemed to be a hill-top fort, and not a city of the size described by Homer. The 1988 discovery of a small section of a possible city circuit wall enclosing a much larger area suggests a city "at least ten times larger than earlier excavators - and thus the broader public - had supposed".
VIIb
The site remained inhabited following the destruction of Troy VIIa. Troy VIIb dates to a time when
GreekThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
influence began to extend to the area (the "
Greek Dark AgesThe Greek Dark Ages and Greek Dark Age are terms which have regularly been used to refer to the period of Greek history from the presumed Dorian invasion and end of the Mycenaean Palatial civilization around 1200 BC, to the first signs of the Greek city-states in the 9th century BC...
"). Troy VIIb
1 (ca. 1120 BC) and Troy VIIb
2 (ca. 1020 BC) appear to have been destroyed by fires. Troy VIIb
3 was deserted in the mid-10th century BC, and the site remained uninhabited for more than 200 years before a new settlement, Troy VIII, was established around 700 BC. The site was again uninhabited throughout
Classical AntiquityClassical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
, until the foundation of Roman
IliumTroy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer...
at the site (Troy IX) in the
20s BC.
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