Troy

Schliemann's Dig at Troy

Layout of the Known Parts of Troy

The site at troy is what is called  a tell. A tell is when the civilization falls  or a catastrophe happens  that tears the town down a fire an earthquake  anything. Then a new town is built on top of it creating layers.  Troy is situated in what is now modern day Turkey  near the coast.

http://cerhas.uc.edu/troy/      (Click for a depiction of the layers of Troy)

The Nine Layers of Troy

The ruins of Troy have been found to be at least  nine layers  showing  either a new  civilization or  the ending of one due to a disaster  or war, however some believe this can be taken even further and it can be divided into forty six sub levels. It seems that the first five layers of troy are there due to a migration where  most people left and a new group took power. The sixth layer  is thought  to have been destroyed by an earth quake. The seventh  layer  was a result of war. The final few seem to have flourished in the time of Augustus and just declined  until they  eventually  disappeared.

http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/lessons/les/27.html

            Schliemann  the man widely  thought  to have  not only discovered Troy but also possibly Homeric Troy was urged to dig by Frank Calvert. Calvert  was a British diplomat  who helped  pioneer  archeology. He had also purchased some land from a farmer that included part of the mound of Hisarlik and dug trenches  to see if anything arose. He then urged Schliemann to help out with his efforts. When Schliemann finally  decided  to dig he began digging at the mound of Hisarlik with Calvert. When Schliemann  discovered  artifacts it was from what  is referred to as Troy II. When Schliemann  found Troy he thought  that he  had found Homeric Troy however this  is widely  debated.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/506941

            Schliemann was a good example  of a bad archeologist.  While he did find part of the second layer of Troy he  also went ahead and  not only let his wife wear the jewels  out of the dig site but there is many  stories of him actually taking  them back to his home  to keep. This would never be allowed to occur in a modern dig and is an apparent  problem in images  and in historic  accounts.

           

Sophia Schliemann

            Looking at this we can see a trajectory   of how  far archeology  has come. Starting at pillaging  and stealing to the modern open air digs that can be watched that  are mentioned in my blog on Pompeii. If nothing had changed with archeology since the time of Schliemann the history that we know of the fallen civilizations would  be much different. Due to the fact that historians would never get to see the artifacts,  because they would all be hidden away like treasure. Museums would be a great deal more empty and a great deal less historical as well. Due to his public treatment of the artifacts and the fact that he let his wife wear the jewels  in public his permit to dig was revoked until a number of years later.

Schliemann's Dig at Troy

            Not only did Schliemann handle the treasures he did find with dignity  but he also dug though many of the other layers destroying  valuable pieces  of history to get to them. He was of the mindset that what is labeled as Troy II on the image was once the Homeric Troy and therefore was the most important. He was known to go as far as to demolish straight through till he got to where he wanted which also caused his fall out with Calvert over his methods of excavating. Calvert  even later wrote of how due to Schliemann’s  excavating  parts of the Trojan war was lost forever.

Current Dig at Troy

Current Dig at Troy