Homer and the City of troy

Meet Heinrich Schliemann

Heinrich's early life

• His life was not easy going as you'd think his life would be, as to having his mother die at an early age then his family indebted in financial struggles. At age 9 he was brought up by his uncle but due to further problems he had to drop out of high school but re-attended and later graduated in 1836 (age 14)

After graduating he endured 5 years of unhappiness and then took the opportunity to travel to Venezuela but only to be shipwrecked near the Coast of Holland. Schliemann took the opportunity to find employment where he finally ended up in Amsterdam with a job.

A present to never be forgotten

• At age 7, Heinrich Schliemann got a history book from his father where it had contained a picture of Troy in flames. This picture was embedded into Heinrich's mind. Further into his life he read Homeric poems.

During Heinrich's spare time he was intensively studying different languages and learnt them in a maximum of 6 weeks. With his studies in languages he became successful in being a business man and had been working with many different companies after being employed in Amsterdam.

The world tour begins

• Quitting his job in 1863 he planned for himself to go on a world tour in 1864.
• During his tours around the world he reached Greece in 1868. This is where he visited various Homeric sites and later wrote a book explaining 2 of his theories of where one of the theories talked about where the whereabouts of Troy really was.

Excavation of troy begins

Heinrich Schliemann would use Homer's works (The Illiad and The Odyssey) to help guide him to the exact location of Troy.

In 1871 Schliemann takes up the work of Frank Calvert and begins to excavate the Hissarlik mounds, where supposedly where the Homeric Troy is located. Schliemann using stratigraphy came to a conclusion that Homer's Troy would be located at the lowest region of the mound.

The Excavation of the Hissarlik Mound

• Though carelessly excavating the man-made mound, Schliemann did not regard the objects and items on the higher level mounds. But as he excavated the mound to the lower region he soon discovered what was to be Troy's walls.
• Coming to the conclusion that he had found the great city of Troy depicted in Homer's epic poems.

Destructive but effective

• Though Heinrich Schliemann's methods of finding Troy was rather destructive, he was smart in the way he used Stratigraphy and also comparing artifacts to other artifacts around that certain area to determine the rough age of where it's from.

The hardships of Heinrich Schliemann

• Heinrich faced the same problems as other archaeologists face that was finding the actual site of what they're looking for.
• Heinrich had 3 locations where it was rumoured that Troy was located. With trial and error his first place of digging was not where Troy was and then later determined that the third place of interest was too modern.

Hardships of Heinrich Schliemann

• After starting the excavation at Hissarlik, Schliemann had run into trouble with his own workers as they tried to blackmail him to the Turkish government for digging illegally. This only led to the sacking of the men who tried to blackmail him.

hardships of Heinrich Schliemann

• Although being mocked by the International Historical Community for his excavation of Troy he persisted through comments and found Troy, this proving his theory that Troy was no longer myth but history.

vARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS

The 9 cities of troy

• As Troy had been rebuilt several times, archaeologists had difficulties believing that Heinrich's discovery could have been false due to how many times Troy had been rebuilt and the fact that some of the earliest reconstructions of the city of Troy were just as luxurious as the one described in Homer's epics. But archaeologists have concluded that the sixth and seventh cities are the closest candidates to the one describe by Homer.

Interpretation of homer's epics

• Archaeologists believe that Homer knew that the city of Troy he was describing was destroyed by an earthquake. The 7th city of Troy fit the description of a city destroyed by war but was not as luxurious that was described by Homer. So the conclusion of these 2 cities had archaeologists believe that Homer combined the two and turned it into a 10 year long war.

Excavations by other Archaeologists

Dörpfeld and Blegen

• In 1893 William Dorpfeld once again began to excavate the site of Troy (the last time the site was touched was in 1879 by Heinrich Schliemann) then later continued by Carl Blegen in 1932-1938 only stopping because of the start of WW2.
• Dorpfield and Blegen discovered that Troy had 9 cities built on top of each other. These cities were named by Roman numerals (I-IX)

Manfred Korfmann

• In 1988 the Turkish University of Tubingen with the University of Cincinnati resumed excavations of Troy. Their discoveries found evidence of possible battle in Troy in the 12th century BC where arrowheads were found.

PALEONTOLOGIST

• Paleontologists found human remains on the site of Troy which were dated to Troy VII where the city had been ravaged by a battle. Many have came to the conclusion that the battle of Troy VII left no survivors and those survived were either enslaved or exported.

BIBLIOGRAPHY