The Trojan War: Is There Truth behind the Legend?

The Trojan War: Is There Truth behind the Legend?
Author(s): Trevor R. Bryce
Source: Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 65, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), pp. 182-195
Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3210883 .
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http://www.jstor.org
ouldthisreallyhavebeenthe
For here, we are to believe, was the
of the ten-yearconflict between
setting
mightycitadel of Homeric
Greeks
and Trojansimmortalizedin the
visitorsto Hisepic?First-time
epic taleof the TrojanWar,toldbya blind
arhkwhoareunprepared
poet called Homer who
forthe experiencemay
lived on or close by
Anatolia'swesternIonian
wellbe disappointed
by
coast.The poeticnarrative
whattheysee. Romanthathe composed,andthat
ticvisionsofanimposing
we know as the Iliad,was
fortresstoweringabove
firstrecitedto audiencesat
the surrounding
plains
the verydawnof Greekliterature.To
mustbe set aside.Todaythe lowthe ancient Greek world it became
what the Bible is to the Judaeolyingmoundof Hisarlik,located
Christianworld.And fromthe timeof
in northwest
neartheDardanelles
its composition,some twenty-eight
Turkeyandreputedlythe site of
centuriesago,it hasservedas a major
from
Troy,isbarelydistinguishable
source of inspirationfor successive
The citadelcovers
its surrounds.
generations of artists, poets and
an areanot muchlargerthan a
playwrights.Amongst the ancient
field(itisabout200meters
football
Greeks themselves, episodes from
Homer'saccountof the warprovided
in diameter)andpresentsto the
themesfor Greektragedy,forpoetry,
ofbroa confusion
modemtraveler
for narrativetales, for paintingand
kenpavements,
building
sculpture. The tradition
andsuperfoundations,
was kept alive by the
imposed,crisscrossing
Romansin their own art
ofwalls.Today
andliterature.It was,most
fragments
mostdominant
Hisarlk's
notably,the startingpoint
for
the Aeneid,
Virgil's
great
literary
masterpiece
featureis an enormouswoodenhorse,
TrevorR. Br~ce
written
at
the
of
behest
the
Augustus.
emperor
thesite's
of recentconstruction,
arguably
Even todaythe traditionconstantlysurfaces.
mostphotogenicfeature,andintendedto assureus Manyof us learntas childrenthe storiesof HelenandParis,of
all that thiswasindeedthe fabledTroy,cityof King the greatheroesOdysseus,Achilles,andHektor,andaboveall
the SpartanqueenHelenand of theTrojanhorse.Thislastin particular
hascapturedpopular
Priam,whichharbored
in
contexts
from
film
forces
assemto
the
Greek
succumbed
imagination,
ranging
epicsandtelevision
besieging
finally
documentaries
to
the
of the Greeksoldier
(like
corny
jokes
story
of the mightyAgamemnon.
bledunderthe leadership
whofell ill whileentombed
in the creature'sbellyand
askedhis comradesif there
wasa doctorin the horse),'
to code-namesforprisonerof-war escape plans and
computerviruses.
THE
T
R OJAN
WAR
IS
THERE
TRUTH
BEHIND
THE
LEGEND?
Posedby
Questions
theTradition
Thefabledcityof KingPriamtoday
Aerialviewof the moundat Hisarlik.
fromthe surrounding
is barelydistinguishable
plain.
65:3 (2002)
182 NEAREASTERNARCHAEOLOGY
Today'sversionof the TrojanHorse,
located next to the site at Hisarlik.
Muchof our fascination
with the tradition arises
froma set of questionsthat
havebeenaskedeversince
Homerfirstrecitedhis tale
of Troy.Didthe TrojanWar
really happen? Was a
woman the cause of it?
A nineteenthcentury
engravinginspiredby Virgil's
accountof the fallof Troy.
TheTrojanprinceAeneas
flees the burningcitywithhis
fatherAnchiseson hisback.
Werethereotherreasons
for the conflict? Was
therea long siege before
Troyfell?Wastherereally
a Trojanhorse?Ancient
Greekwriterspondered
upon such questions
almost as much as
scholars have done in
more recent times.
Amongst the ancient
Greeks themselves only the most hardened skeptics doubted
that a TrojanWar as describedby Homer actually took place.
But some of the believerswere far fromconvinced that Homer
had provided a true and accurate record of the war or the
events leading up to it. Notable amongst these was the fifth
century Greek historianHerodotos. Followinga version of the
story told him by Egyptian priests, Herodotos (Histories 2.
112-18) claimed that the ship in which Parisand Helen had
fled fromGreece was blown by violent winds onto the coast of
Egypt. Here the Egyptianking Proteus detained Helen, until
such time as her husband Menelaus could fetch her home.
Thus the Trojan War was due to nothing more than a
misunderstanding.Farfrom heroically defending the woman
who had fled with their prince, the Trojanswhen challengedby
the Greeksto hand Helen back declared,quite truthfully,that
they could not do so-simply becauseshe was not nor ever had
been in Troy!This, Herodotosbelieved, was the true versionof
the tale, as Homer himself well knew. But it lacked dramatic
potential. By using it, Homer would have deprivedhis story of
its grandunderlyingromanticmotive. And so he rejectedit.
Yetfew ancient commentatorsdoubted that Helen reallydid
exist, and that her abduction by the Trojanprince Pariswas
the fundamentalcause of the war between the Greeksand the
Trojans.Modern commentators are generally more skeptical.
Some are prepared to allow the possibility of a historical
Helen; but surelyit took more than just a prettyface to launch
a thousandships and sparkoff a ten-yearconflict! Farfromthe
abductionof a beautifulGreek queen providingthe casusbelli,
the war must have been fought over something much more
practical and sensible, like disputed fishing rights in the
Hellespont. But in fact our evidence shows that a BronzeAge
king could-and indeed sometimesdid-go to war in response
to the abduction from his kingdom of any of his subjects, let
alone membersof his own family.
At all events, scholarlyopinion is still much divided on the
questionof how much historicaltruth is embeddedin Homeric
tradition. On the one hand, there are those who have a deep
faithin the fundamentalhistoricalreliabilityof the tradition,
to the point where the Iliad is used almost like a history
textbookor archaeological
manualforreconstructing
boththe
historyof the periodand the materialsetting in which the
eventsnarratedbyHomertookplace.The viewenunciatedby
CarlBlegen(1963:20), who excavatedat Hisarlikfrom1932
to 1938, still attracts much support:"It can no longer be
doubted,whenone surveysthe state of ourknowledgetoday,
that therereallywasan actualhistoricalTrojanWar,in which
a coalitionof Achaians,or Mycenaeans,"
undera kingwhose
wasrecognized,foughtagainstthe peopleof Troy
overlordship
and their allies." On the other hand, Hiller (1991: 145)
remindsus that"Ourfaithin a historicalTrojanwaris founded
aboveall on Homer,but Homeris not a historian.Firstof all
he is a poet; what he relates is not history but myth."A
commonlyheld middleview is that Homerictraditionalmost
certainlydevelopedout of a kernelof historicaltruth,though
muchof the detail of the traditionmust be creditedto the
lively and fertileimaginationof a greatpoet whoseprimary
concernwasto tell a goodstory.
Of coursethereis muchin the storythatmustcomedirectly
fromthe poet'sownimagination,
or thatincorporates
standard
featuresof a narrativetraditionextendingbackwell before
Homer.The elementof divineinteractionwith humanity,in
this case with the gods lining up in supportof either the
Greeksor the Trojans,makesits firstappearancesin the epic
genre,andnarrativetraditionin generalin the NearEastern
world, long before the genesis of Homeric epic. The
supernatural
providedan essentialdimensionto storiestoldon
a grandscale.Byleavingit out, a story-tellerwouldhave left
his audience sorely disappointed.So too a numberof the
ritualsthat Homerpreservesin both the Iliadand its sequel
the Odyssey,like that in whichOdysseussummonedup the
spiritsof the dead,wereclearlyimportedfromothercultural
contexts.Evensomeof the humanfiguresin the storiescould
conceivably have been based on historical prototypesthoughthe fleshingout of theircharactersandsituationswas
of the poet'sown devising.To the narrator'simaginationwe
can attributethe craftinessof Odysseus,the petulanceand
wrathof Achilles,the fiercebelligerenceof Sarpedon,andthe
poignancyof the noble Hektor's last farewell to his wife
Andromacheandbabyson Astyanax.
But afterfilteringout all the elementsattributableto the
artist'screativity,to a standardrepertoireof narrativeformulae,
or to culturalborrowingsfromother places and other times, are
we then left with a core traditionbasedon historicalfact?What
is the actual essence of this tradition?In its barestform,it is an
account of a protractedconflict between Greeksand Trojans,in
the period we call the Late Bronze Age, which ended in the
destruction and abandonment of a city called Troy in
northwesternAnatolia. Do we have hard evidence for such a
conflict?In attemptingto answerthis question,we must be sure
that any evidence we do produceis entirelyindependentof the
Homeric epic itself-for we cannot use Homer to prove that
Homer'saccount of the TrojanWaris basedon fact.
NEAREASTERNARCHAEOLOGY
65:3 (2002)
183
The TrojanHorse in particularhas captured
the popular imaginationfrom antiquity until
today. On this fresco from Pompeii (first
century CE),the horse is shown before the
walls of Troy.Museo Archeologico
Nazionale, Naples. Photo ? ErichLessing,
courtesyof ArtResource.
a PhysicalSetting
Establishing
fortheWar
Ourfirsttaskis to establishwhetherwe
havea clearlyidentifiable
physicalsetting
for the conflict. That possibility was
dismissed by many skeptics in the
nineteenthcentury,andearlier,whosaw
the Iliadas purelyliteraryfantasy.Even
thosewhoremainedopen-mindedon the
question could not agree on a precise
location for the war. To be sure, the
ClassicalGreeksandRomanswerein no
doubtthat the abandonedsettlementat
Hisarlikwas the site of HomericTroy.
CalledIlionby the Greeksof latertimes,
andNew Iliumbythe Romans,it received
homage from a number of famous
persons-like the Persianking Xerxes,
a thousandoxenon the site
whosacrificed
in preparationfor his invasion of the
Greekmainland,and the Macedonian
king Alexander the Great who after
landing his forces at Troymarkedthe
beginningof his invasionof the Persian
Empireby dedicating his armorto the
goddess TrojanAthena and placing a
wreathuponAchilles'tombin the Trojan
plain.Indeedthe regionin whichTroylay
wascalledthe TroadbyGreekandRoman
writersin the beliefthatit hadonce been
subjectto Troy'scontrol.ButBronzeAge
Troypredatedbysomecenturiesthe later
firstmillenniumsettlement at Hisarlik
(TroyVIII, founded in the mid eighth
century),andtherecouldbe no certainty
of it withthe siteof the
thatthe ClassicalGreeks'identification
TrojanWarwascorrect.IndeedHeinrichSchliemannhimself,
the personwhose nameis most closely associatedwith the
favoredotherlocations
identification,
apparently
Hisarhk-Troy
beforefixing upon Hisarlikat the promptingof the British
FrankCalvertwhohadboughtpartof thesite.
expatriate
Even today a numberof scholars remainskeptical. But
thoughwe cannotruleout otherpossiblecandidatesforTroy,
no alternative has been seriouslyproposed,consistently
maintained,or at leastgenerallyaccepted,since Schliemann
beganexcavationsat Hisarlikin 1871.Yetif the identification
is correct,that still leavesthe questionof whichof the Troys
ARCHAEOLOGY
184 NEAREASTERN
65:3 (2002)
on the site is Homer'sTroy,the Troyof the TrojanWar.There
areninemajoroccupationlevelson the mound,eachof which
is dividedintoa numberof sub-levels.Thisexplainsthe jumble
of wallsand levelsconfrontingthosewho visit the site today.
Whattheymaynot realizeis thatthe moundthatresultedfrom
the numerousoccupationlayersdid once riseloftilyover the
level,
surrounding
plains.Inhiseagernessto findthe "Homeric"
whichhe believedwasone of the site'searliest,Schliemannhad
hisworkmencut an enormoustrenchthroughthe mound,and
destroyedsubstantialportionsof the site'slaterlevels.Much
has alreadybeen writtenaboutSchliemann'sarchaeological
methods,discoveries,and conclusions.Sufficeit here to say
humblerdwellingson the citadel at this
time does not fit well with the imposing
image of Troyin Homeric description.
There is now general agreement with
of VIhas the city
identification
Ddrpfeld's
of Priam-if Hisarlikdoes in fact mark
the site of Troyand there was in fact a
TrojanWar.Althoughmuchof whatwas
left of the sixthsettlementwasdestroyed
in the courseof Schliemann's
excavations,
of
it
survives
to
indicate
that it
enough
the
most
flourishingphaseof
represents
existence,
Troy's
extendingovera period
of several hundredyears in the second
millennium. The remainsof the great
northeastbastionfromthis level calls to
mindHomer'simposingwatchtower.
The
distinctiveslopein TroyVI'swallslends
credibilityto the account in the Iliadof
Patroklos' attempts to scale the
fortifications
simplybyrunningupthem.
Butwe mustagainstressthatthe Iliadis
neither archaeological manual nor
tourist's guide-book. Indeed detailed
correspondencesbetween the Homeric
descriptionof Troyand the site's actual
remains are very slight. Other
sitesmightbe shownto be
contemporary
no less consistentwith this description.
Nonetheless,the locationof Hisarlik,the
topography of its surrounds, and the
natureof the last phaseof its sixth level
are sufficient to provide us with a
historically plausible setting for the
conflict describedby Homer.But this in
itself is not evidencethatsuch a conflict
actually took place. We need to look
elsewhereforsuchevidence.
Potteryfoundon the site indicatesthat
Troy VIh came to an end some time
duringthe firstseventyyearsor so of the
thirteenthcentury,probablyaroundthe
middleof the century.Since TroyVIh is
thatthe levelhe identifiedas thatof theTrojanWar,designated the mostlikelycandidateforHomer'sTroy,thenwe shouldset
as levelII,belongedto the EarlyBronzeAge-a thousandyears our sightson a date around1250 for a possibleTrojanWar.
too earlyforanyconceivabledateforHomer'sTrojanWar.This This would accord very closely with the date given by
in fact was what Schliemann'sassociateWilhelmD6rpfeld Herodotos(Histories2.145), who wrotein the middleof the
concluded.He proposedTroyVI,sublevelh, as the mostlikely fifth centuryand informsus that the TrojanWartook place
himselfcameto someeighthundredyearsbeforehis time.'Giventhat Homer
candidate.It wasa conclusionthatSchliemann
his
death.
before
not
livedin the late eighthor earlyseventhcentury,then he must
accept long
Homer's
that
Professor
Carl
have composedthe Iliadhalfa millenniumor moreafterthe
Blegen
argued
Subsequently
of
seventh
level
at
the
was
the
first
eventson whichit is allegedlybased.The interveningperiod
Troymajor
Troy
phase
ceramic
evidence
that
this
now
know
from
we
But
TroyVlla.
spans the last decades of the Late Bronze Age and the
wastoo late to be associatedwitha majorGreekassaultin the succeedingperiodof severalhundredyearscommonly(though
LateBronzeAge. In anycase, the encroachmentof smaller, increasinglyless appropriately)referredto as the DarkAge.
NEAR EASTERNARCHAEOLOGY
65:3 (2002)
185
um
Ufts
'Ip
'
Ill
4
,
0to
I
'd
I
II
aftb
---
L
m
Heinrich
ca. 1870,around
Schliemann
the timeof hisfirstseasonat Hisarlik.
Planof Troy'snineexcavated levels, showingthe jumbleof remainsthat date from2900 BCEto 500 CE.
EarlyBronzeAge stratifiedlevels at Troy.
Thetrenchcut by Schliemann's
workmenthroughthe moundof Hisarlik.
Relieffrom
Schliemann's
tomb in Athens,
depicting himself
and his wife
Sophia at Troy.
65:3 (2002)
ARCHAEOLOGY
186 NEAREASTERN
metal,as it wasin the
BronzeAge; in other
passagesit appearsto
havebeenin common
use, as it was in
Homer's own time.
The muster-roll of
Greek ships in the
Iliadpreservesin its
list of place names
some vestiges of a
BronzeAge past.But
TheProcessofOral
most of the place
Transmission
oral
names
its
nature,
belong to a
very
By
laterperiodandreflect
transmissionis a dynamic
more accurately a
process.While the actual
essenceof a traditionthatis
pictureof the Greek
world as it was in
in
manner
on
this
passed
in
The
walls
of
lends
to
the
account
the
distinctive
Iliad
VI
Homer'sownday.
be
Troy
credibility
sloping
faithfully
may
preserved,
All this we must
muchelse maybe changed, of Patroklos'attempts to scale the fortificationssimplyby runningup them.
attribute to the
added to, or updated by
each succeeding generation. So we must ask what can be dynamicprocessof oraltransmission,.a
processthatextended
foundin Homer'sepicsthatdoesin factdatebackto the time over a periodof five or morecenturies.What bearingdoes
whenthe traditionsthathe recordedbegan.Towhatextentdo this haveon the questionof the historicalauthenticityof the
his poems,both the Iliadand the Odyssey,representthe end- TrojanWartradition?A commonlyheld view is that in spite
that
productof a body of folklore and tradition that had been of the manyhistoricalinconsistenciesand anachronisms
in
arose
the
down
of
the
the
basis
of
the
centuries?
over
Iliad
tale,
handing
many
evolving
Undoubtedlysome authentic,archaeologically-validated wasindeeda conflictbetweenMycenaeanGreeksandTrojans
in northwestAnatolia towardsthe end of the Late Bronze
relics of a Mycenaean past do survive in the epics. A
of
a
helmet
made
is
Iliad's
the
Age. Episodesfromthe conflict, along with the exploits of
description
noteworthy
example
individualcombatants,werepreservedinitiallyin balladsand
from slivers of boars' tusks fitted onto a felt cap. This
with
a
relief
lays sung at the courtsof Mycenaeankingsand noblemen.
Mycenaean
ivory
closely
descriptioncorresponds
These wereorallytransmittedthroughthe succeedingDark
of a warrior'shead encased in a helmet featuringlayersof
sliveredboars'tusks,as wellas withthe actualremainsof such Age until, probablyin the late eighth century, they were
a helmet now displayed in the National Archaeological woven into an extended narrative poem, with coherent
Museumin Athens. Protective headgearof this kind was structure,theme, and characterization.And this we owe to
totallyunknownin Homer'sown time, or indeed for many the geniusof a blindpoetcalledHomer.
But how surecan we be that this geniuswasinspiredby a
centuriesbeforehis time. In an architecturalcontext, the
at
sites
like
eventthatactuallytookplace?The waris set in a Late
of
Late
Bronze
and
adornment
Age
specific
palaces
layout
that
Bronze
Anatoliancontext,andit is to thiscontextthatwe
to
mind
the
and
Age
sight
greeted
Mycenae bring
Pylos
Alkinous'
must
direct
our
searchforan answerto ourquestion.
threshold
of
the
brazen
he
crossed
as
King
Odysseus
is
described
The
palace'sdazzlingopulence graphically
palace.
Context
byHomerin BookVIIof hisOdyssey.
TroyinitsAnatolian
WehavenotedthatHisarlikis the mostlikelycandidatefor
But while some features of the Mycenaeanworld were
the citadelof Troy,andthatthe citadelbesiegedby the Greeks
preservedin oral traditionwith little or no change in the
in
or
were
Homerictraditioncan mostplausibly
be identifiedwithlevel
centuriesbeforeHomer,othersdisappeared
altogether,
constant
more
on
the
mound.
This
levelrepresents
the
alteredalmostbeyondrecognition
modification
VI,
VIh,
through
precisely
of
and
the
of
and updating.This led to numerousinconsistencies and mostimpressive
existence;
phase Troy's
period its
societies
of
destruction
the
thirteenth
falls
within
the range
Thustheintenselybureaucratic
anachronisms.
century
during
palace
in
the
Linear
B
tablets
have
no
of
dates
for
the
War
Classical
Greek
sources.
revealed
Greece
as
by
proposed
Trojan
Mycenaean
We
would
the
case
for
and
illiterate
in
the
largelylaissez-faire
kingdoms
greatlystrengthen
identifyingVIh
apparently
place
ruled by Homer'sroyalwarlords.The primitivebarn-like with Homer'sTroyif we coulddemonstratethatthis levelfell
servedas the palaceof Odysseusis victimto enemyattack,in accordancewithHomerictradition.
structurethatin the Odyssey
thanAlkinous'royalresidence.In Thereis no doubtthatit sufferedviolentdestruction.Butwe
later
era
of
a
different,
clearly
somepassagesin Homer,ironis treatedas a rareandprecious haveno clearindicationas to whetherthiswasdue to human
canwebethat
Howconfident
Homericepic providesus
withan authenticrepository
thatdatesbackat
of material
least five hundred years
beforethe poet'sown time
and could have been
preservedonly by wordof
mouth through at least
twentygenerations?
NEAREASTERNARCHAEOLOGY
65:3 (2002)
187
or to environmentalforces. Blegen believed that VIh was
to cracksin thetowerandwall
destroyed
byearthquake,
referring
of the citadelandevidenceof floorsubsidence.Thisprompted
himto arguethatTroyVIIa,theimmediate
successor
of VIh,was
the morelikelycandidateforHomer'sTroy.VIIatoo suffered
violentdestruction.Butagainthe causeof its destructionis far
fromclear,and as we have noted, currentdatingof this level
makesit too late to be a candidateforHomericTroy.Further,
whilethe cracksandsubsidence
observed
byBlegenin VIhmight
wellhavebeendueto seismicactivity,
we cannotbe surewhether
thishappenedin the lastphaseof TroyVI or the firstphaseof
TroyVII,or on a scalelargeenoughto causethe destructionof
has
the wholesite (thusEaston1985:190-91).A compromise
beenproposed,whichallowsfordestructionof the sitebyboth
humanand environmentalforces.The proposalis that the
wereseriously
weakenedbyearthquake
to
citadel'sfortifications
the pointwheretheybecamevulnerableto enemyconquest;it
was a combinationof both factors that broughtabout the
citadel'sdestruction
(e.g.,Easton1985:189).
This proposalhas also been used to explain the wooden
horse'sintroductioninto the TrojanWartradition.The horse
wasa well-knownsymbolof the sea-godPoseidon.Frequently
Poseidon(thetheorygoes)inflicted
dubbed"theEarthshaker,"
a devastatingearthquakeupon the citadel, demolishingits
wallsto the pointwhereit fell easypreyto its besiegers.It was
thusPoseidon'sinterventionthat providedthe inspirationfor
the motif of the Trojanhorse. Rather more prosaically,a
numberof ancientwriterssawthe Trojanhorseas a reflection
of a batteringram,or someother kindof siege engine (e.g.,
1.23.8).
Pliny,Nat.Hist.VII202,Pausanias
are,theyreallyaddnothingof
Ingeniousas suchspeculations
Infactthe Trojanhorseepisode,
substanceto ourinvestigation.
a veryearlyelementin thetradition,
receives
thoughundoubtedly
Thehorse'sprominence
onlya coupleofscantmentionsinHomer.
in thetradition
in morerecenttimesis duein largemeasure
to the
treatmentthatVirgilaccordedit in BookIIof hisAeneid,some
seven centuries after the Homeric epics were composed.
Henceforthit hasservedas an almostarchetypal
symbolof the
to its placein the
TrojanWar,in a mannerout of allproportion
originaltradition.Undoubtedlyit wasone of the mostpotent
firstdugintothemoundat
imagesofTroyat thetimeSchliemann
theHomericassociations
attachedto
Hisarlik.
Butmoregenerally,
Hisarliksince Schliemann'sexcavationshave ensuredthat it
represent peak periods in the settlement's existence.
Undoubtedlyits commerciallyvaluablestrategiclocationon
whatlaterGreekscalledthe Hellespont(modernDardanelles)
the result
forits prosperity,
wasto a verylargeextentresponsible
of the widespread
tradinglinksthatit enjoyed.Accessto fishing
groundswith abundantsuppliesof tuna and other marine
animalshas alsobeensuggestedas a contributingfactorto its
Fieldsurveysindicatethatit layamida largeexpanse
prosperity.
a substantial
of richarablesoil,capableof sustaining
population.
Wheredidthe populationlive?The citadelitselfcouldhave
accommodated
no morethana fewhundredpeopleat most,in
its flourishingperiods,andwe mustassumethat the spacious
habitations on the citadel duringthese periods were the
exclusivepreserveof an elite class.The bulkof the population
musthavelivedoutside.Thisassumptionhasbeenput to the
conductedon the sitesince1988
test,andverified.Excavations
havebroughtto lighta substantial
settlementlyingadjacentto
the citadeland extendingto the south, the so-called"lower
city."Thishasled to a tenfoldincreasein the areaknownto be
coveredby the site, from20,000 to 200,000 squaremeters,
duringthe periodof levels VI andVII (ca. 1700-1100 BCE).
Giventhe size and food-producingcapacityof the regionin
whichit lay,Troycouldhavesupporteda populationof around
of
six thousandpeople.Wecan thusreviseourunderstanding
the famous site-from little more than a small citadel
accommodatinga population of a few hundred to a quite
walledcity.4Its dominantfeaturewas
substantialandprobably
its fortifiedacropolis,firstexcavatedby Schliemann,wherefor
muchof the BronzeAge an eliterulingclassresided.
To what extent do the new excavations enhance our
of Troy'sroleandimportancewithinthe world
understanding
of LateBronzeAge Anatolia,andthe NearEastin general?As
we now knowit, Troywas comparablein size to the city of
kingdomof the samenameon
Ugarit,capitalof the prosperous
the Levantinecoast.MeecommentsthatlikeUgarit,Troywas
evidentlya majorcenter and entrep6t(Mee 1998: 144-45).
But Ugaritmust have playeda much more significantrole
withinthe complexof Near Easternkingdoms,politicallyas
well as commercially,given its position on the coast in the
regionthat lay withinthe overlappingspheresof interestof
of the LateBronzeAge-Mitanni,
fourof the GreatKingdoms
Hatti, Egypt,and more indirectly Assyria.Apart from its
abundantwealth in natural resources, Ugarit's valuable
continues to feature as one of the best known and most widely
visited of all ancient sites. To what extent does this attention
reflectits actualimportancein its contemporary
context?
The discovery and excavation of many Bronze Age sites
throughout Anatolia in the decades following Schliemann's
excavations, and the ongoing excavations on and around the
mound of Hisarhlikitself, have contributed much to our
understanding of Troy's role and importance within its
contemporarycontext. There can be no doubt that for much of
its existence through almost two millennia of Bronze Age
history, covering levels I to VII, it was a prosperous and
sometimes flourishingsettlement. The second and sixth levels
strategic location gave it far greater importance in the Near
Easternworldthan the remote kingdomof Troy,situated as the
latter was on the very peripheryof this world. Even so, ceramic
evidence from various sites indicates that Troy had a wide
range of trading contacts with Near Eastern coastal areas,
though as we might expect, the preponderance of its
commercialcontacts were with the Mycenaeanworld.
188
NEAREASTERNARCHAEOLOGY
65:3 (2002)
WasTrojan
SocietyLiterate?
The most markeddifferencebetween Troyand Ugaritis that
the latter has left us a substantial legacy of written records.
The extensive archives of the Levantine kingdom provide us
on the
withsomeof ourmostimportantsourcesof information
the
last
two
the
of
history
Syro-Palestinianregion during
centuriesof the LateBronzeAge. BycontrastTroyhas to this
point left us, fromits entiresecondmillenniumhistory,just
one small, isolated piece of written material, and the
provenanceeven of thisitemis not altogethercertain.Thatis
by no meansan indicationthat writingwas unknown,or as
good as unknown,in the city. On the contrary,Troylike all
otherNearEasternkingdomsof its sizeandstatusmusthave
had a chancelleryservedby scribeseither of local originor
importedfromelsewhere.Writingmaterialsare of a highly
perishablenature,and when clay tablet archivesdo survive
fromotherregionsof the ancientworld,this is often (though
not always)dueto the goodfortuneof the archiveroomsbeing
destroyedin an intenseconflagration.Whilereducingmuch
else to ash, a heartyfirebakesor re-bakesanythingmadeof
clay,includingtablets,and thus preservesthemfor all time.
However there must have been many ancient cities with
literate memberswho have left little or no trace of their
existence.Troyis almostcertainlya casein point.
herewithwritingon it cameto light
The one itemdiscovered
in 1995.It is a biconvexbronze
of
excavations
the
course
during
It was
sealbearinga briefinscriptionin Luwianhieroglyphs.5
foundin the contextof TroyVIIb,andthusdatesto the second
halfof the twelfthcentury.This makesit one of the verylast
of the AnatolianBronzeAge, andit post-datesthe
inscriptions
lastknownHittiteinscription
byseveraldecades.Wecannotbe
in Troyor
whether
the
sealactuallyoriginated
certain
altogether
wasimportedthere,thoughthe formerseemsmorelikely,on the
groundsthat we have the actualoriginalseal andnot just an
impressionof it. One sideof the sealgivesthe nameof a man,
andhis professionas scribe,the othersidegivesthe nameof a
woman.Bothnamesareincomplete.The likelihoodis thatthe
pairarehusbandandwife.
If the seal did in fact originatein Troy,then the Luwian
inscriptionon it hassomeinterestingimplications.In the first
placethe fact that the seal-ownerwasa scribe,as well as the
factof the sealitself,wouldprovideourfirsttangibleindication
of possible scribal activity in the city during the second
endmillennium-thoughin thiscasenearthe millennium's
thuscastingdoubton anynotionthatTrojansocietyremained
illiterate throughoutthis period.And the languageof the
inscriptionwouldprovideus withourfirsttangibleindication
Drawingof a Luwianseal found in a house in stratumVllb.The fact
that the seal owner was a scribe providesour first tangible indication
of possible scribalactivityin the city duringthe second millenniumas
well as our firsttangible clue as to the ethnic identityof the inhabits
of Troy.FromHawkinsand Easton(1996: figs. 1 and 2).
In western and southernAnatolia, a third groupof IndoEuropeanpeoplessettled.Wecall them the Luwians.By the
groups
beginningof the LateBronzeAge, Luwian-speaking
hadoccupiedextensiveareasin the westernhalfof Anatolia.
Collectivelythese areasconstitutedthe regionreferredto in
early Hittite records as Luwiya, an ethno-geographical
designation covering a large part of western Anatolia.
However,the nameLuwiyaseemssoonto havedroppedout of
use, at least in Hittite texts, and was replacedby the name
Arzawa,a generaltermusedto covera complexof territories
collectivelyknownas the ArzawaLands.In its broadestsense
Arzawa probably extended over much of the territory
manyof the same
previouslycalledLuwiya,andincorporated
of
wide
Given
the
spread Luwian-speaking
populationgroups.
peoplesin westernAnatolia,it is a distinctpossibilitythat the
population of the sixth and seventh levels of Troy was
a groupof Luwianorigin.Indeedit maywellbe
predominantly
that earlierlevelsof the city alsohad a Luwianpopulation,or
at leastLuwian-speakers
amongstits population.
CouldLuwiangroupshavespreadeven furtherafield?It has
been suggested that at the time of Luwiansettlement in
westernAnatolia, some groupswent furtherwest, entering
mainlandandislandGreecevia Thraceor the AegeanSea-a
migrationthatmarkedthe arrival,aroundthe end of the third
in the landthat the Classical
millennium,of "proto-Greeks"
GreekscalledHellas (see e.g., Macqueen1986:33). This in
turnhas led somescholarsto believe that therewereethnic
links
between the Indo-European-speaking
of the ethnic groupinhabitingTroyat this time.
populationsof
westernAnatolia and contemporaryHelladic Greece. But
of WesternAnatolia
Inhabitants
TheLuwian
intriguingthoughthe possibilityis that Homer'sGreeksand
The Luwians were one of three groups of Indo-EuropeanTrojanswere closelyrelated,they can at best have been no
speakingpeopleswho enteredAnatoliaprobablysome timeduring morethan verydistantcousins.The fact that the Trojansin
HomerspokeGreekis of coursepurelyan epic convention;
the course of the thirdmillennium.Partsof central and eastern
and by the same token we should not attribute too much
Anatolia were occupied by speakersof a languagecalled Nesite
(now more commonly known as Hittite), which subsequently
significance to the fact that a number of Greek social
alsooccurin a Trojancontext (seeWatkins1986:
institutions
became the official language of the Late Bronze Age Hittite
50-51). Nonetheless, the fairlywidely held view that the
kingdomwhosehomelandlayin centralAnatolia.A secondIndoEuropeangroup,the Palaians,werelocatedto the northwestof the
Trojansof the sixthandseventhsettlementswere,or included,
Hittite homeland,within the regionlaterknownas Paphlagonia. a Luwian-speaking
origin,gains
populationof Indo-European
65:3 (2002)
NEAREASTERNARCHAEOLOGY
189
tradition,
Troyand(W)iliosweretwonamesforthe sameplace.
Wilioswasan earlyformof the nameIliosbeforethe initialw,
representingthe archaicGreekdigamma,wasdropped.The
of bothpairsof namesseemedtoo closeto be merely
similarity
coincidental.And the fact that in the Hittite list the names
DoesTroyAppearin HittiteTexts?
lastwouldbe consistentwitha northwestern
location
As yet we havealmostno writtenrecordsfromthe western appeared
for them if, as seems likely, the list proceeded in a rough
Luwiansthemselves.Howeverwe have manyreferencesto
fromsouthto north.
to the kingdomsthat theyformed,in geographical
them,moreparticularly
progression
One slightproblemwith Forrer's
conclusionwasthatwhile
the archives of the Great Kingdom that became their
overlord-the kingdomof Hatti,the landof the Hittites.The in Homerictradition(W)iliosandTroiawereinterchangeable
Luwian-speakingArzawanstates were the most important names, in the Hittite text Wilusiyaand Taruisaappearas
countriessideby side.Is it possiblethat the namesdid in fact
vassalpossessionsof the Hittites in westernAnatoliafor at
to twoseparatecountries,butthatsubsequently
leastthe lasthalfof the LateBronzeAge.Sinceit is nowclear referoriginally
that, materiallyat least,Troywasa not insignificantwestern one countryabsorbedthe other?Alternatively,whatwe have
in Homeric tradition may represent a conflation of two
kingdom, comparable with cities like Ugarit, since it is
wasof Luwianorigin,and countriesthatwereproximately
locatedandcloselyassociated
likelythatits population
increasingly
in a conflictwithGreekinvadersin the northwestern
since there are extensive referencesin Hittite texts to the
regionof
thosewith Luwian Anatolialatercalledthe Troad.The firstpossibilitymaygain
westernAnatoliankingdoms,particularly
populations,the probabilityis veryhigh that Troyfiguresin some supportfromthe fact that the nameTaruisamakesno
Hittitehistoricalrecords.If so, theserecordsmustgive us the furtherappearancein the Hittite texts, with one possible
onlygenuinehistoricalinformationwe haveso faraboutthe exception.Wilusiyaon the otherhand,appearsseveralmore
kingdomof Troy.The searchforTroyin Hittitetextsthustakes times,in its shorterformWilusa,andit maybe thatits territory
wasexpandedto includethe formerlandof Taruisa,withboth
on veryconsiderable
significance.
in laterClassicalGreektradition.
overeightyyearsago,notlongafterthe namesbeingpreserved
It wasfirstundertaken
The one furtherpossiblereferenceto Taruisa
Hittite languagehadbeen deciphered,by a Swissphilologist
appearsnot in a
called EmilForrer.ForrercarefullycombedthroughHittite Hittitetextbuton a silverbowlof unknownorigin,andnowin
sourcesforpossiblereferencesto Troy,andwhiledoingso he the Museumof AnatolianCivilizationsin Ankara.The bowl
oneof whichrefersto
cameacrossa list of countriesin westernAnatoliathat had bearstwoLuwian
hieroglyphic
inscriptions,
around1400BCE. the conquestof a placecalledTarwiza
rebelledagainsta HittitekingcalledTudhaliya,
(see
bya kingTudhaliya
The list, comprisingtwenty-twocountries,whichapparently Hawkins1997).Althoughno furtherdetailsaregiven,it is very
formeda confederacy,'ended with the namesWilusiyaand temptingto link this inscriptionwith the rebellionagainst
if the link
thatwe havereferred
to above.Incidentally,
Taruisa.
These,Forrerbelieved,werethe Hittitewayof writing Tudhaliya
wouldthenbe byfarthe earliestof all
the GreeknamesTroia(Troy)and (W)ilios(Ilios).In Homeric is correct,the inscription
knownLuwianhieroglyphic
inscriptions,
apart
fromthoseappearing
on sealimpressions.'
Forrer'sproposalto linkthe Hittitenames
BLACK
SEA
Taruisa
andWilus(iy)a
withHomericTroymet
with a good deal of skepticism.Yethe had
madea primafaciecaseforthe identification
as
goun
ftw,
andotherpiecesofevidencehavesubsequently
tic
>O0m
KASKA
providedadditionalif not conclusivesupport
Try
yaahmys
Yasshkay.
for his proposal.In the firstplace,Wilusais
LUSA
Bogask6y
ATTI A
listedin one Hittitetextaspartof thecomplex
w
Hattu
L
"[
of Arzawalands.Wehave noted that these
SEHA
RIVER
lands were inhabited largely, if not
d
O
by Luwian-speaking
predominantly,
peoples.
is itselfa Luwianformation.'
And
I1 I
Wilus(iy)a
TARHUNTA99A
lyalanda
in
the
seal
found
the
+
recently
inscription
Carchemish
ta
AHUR
,
urus
Mountains
'
cp
LUKKA
MeIn
seventh level of Troymayprovideour first
TI
A
MITANNI
IT--A
hard(thoughstill veryslight)evidencethat
- sA •
,
theinhabitants
ofTroyspokeLuwian.
- MEDITERRANEAN
0 100
Yetif we are to show beyondreasonable
200 km
0
UIrit
NU20km
SEA
doubtthatTroy/Ilios
andWilusaareone and
o2;
AMURRU1
the same,we need to demonstratethat the
Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age.
Wilusa of Hittite texts did in fact lie in
some further support from the recently discovered seal
This leadsus to the next
inscribedwith Luwianhieroglyphs.6
stageof ourinvestigation.
0
A
AA
te
Acemhayok
LAND
*
""laun,
CuYPRUS
190
65:3 (2002)
NEAREASTERNARCHAEOLOGY
northwesternAnatolia.The
But this still falls far short
Late Bronze Age political
of prooffor an actualTrojan
The conclusion,firstenunciated War.Which bringsus to the
geography of western Annextstageof oursearch.
atolia has long proved a
now seemsinescapable:
by EmilForrer,
very elusive and frustrating
field of study.The countries
DoGreeksAppearin
Troy has indeed been found in the
of western Anatolia in
HittiteTexts?
particularhave been shifted
texts of the Hittites. It was the royal
This question Forreralso
aroundby various scholars
He
seat of the king of Wilusa, vassal of sought to answer.
But
withbewildering
rapidity.
if
that
Troy
hypothesized
new discoveries are concould be found in Hittite
the
Great
of
I
the
Hittites.
King
stantlyhelpingus to fill some
texts, there ought also to be
longstanding
gapsandresolve
referencesto Greeksin these
some longstandingcontrotexts. In attemptingto track
versies. Wilusa is a case in
down these references, he
point.Thoughscholarshadno doubtthatit laysomewherein beganby askingwhat the Greekscalled themselvesat this
westernAnatolia, they could not agreeon preciselywhere. time.He notedthat in the Iliadand
Odyssey,Homerregularly
Fortunately,a text-joindiscoveredin the 1980shas put the
used the term "Achaian"of the Greeks as a whole. (The
matterbeyond doubt. A text-join occurs when two long- ClassicalGreeksreferredto themselvesas
"Hellenes";the
separated fragments of a tablet are finally matched up. word"Greek"
is adaptedfrom"Graeci,"
the Romannamefor
Establishinglinksbetweenfragmentsof tabletis an ongoing the peoplesof the Greekworld.)On the assumptionthat the
task,requiringthe skillsof specialistepigraphersand made Homeric term had a genuine BronzeAge pedigree, Forrer
necessaryverylargelyby the haphazardway in whichmany searchedthroughthe Hittitetextsfora namethatmighthave
tabletswereunearthedandcollectedduringthe courseof the been the Hittite
equivalentto "Achaia."Given that Hittite
firstexcavationsin the Hittite capital a centuryago. More powerextended to Anatolia'swesterncoast, and that Late
thanonce, the discoveryof a text-joinhas provedas valuable, Bronze
Age or Mycenaean Greeks had extensive trading
in terms of the information that it has supplied, as the
contactswith this coast, it wouldbe extremelysurprisingif
discoveryof an entirelynew text.
Hittitetextscontainedno referencesat all to these GreeksInthiscase,an additional
wasfoundto a well-know quiteapartfromtheirappearance
fragment
in Homerictradition.
letterwrittento the HittitekingMuwatalliIIby a mancalled
Again Forrerclaimedsuccessin his search.He noted that
rulerof the Seha RiverLand,a kingdom the Hittite texts referreda numberof timesto a place called
Manapa.Tarhunda,
belonging to the Arzawa complex. Fromother pieces of
Ahhiyawa,or Ahhiyain a shorter,earlierform.In this he saw
inforation,we knowthatthisparticular
kingdomextendedover the Hittite wayof representingthe Greekname Achaia.As
oneof the rivervalleyslyingnorthof the citycalledMiletosin
mightbe expected,Forrer'sproposalprovokedconsiderable
Classicaltimes.Its HittitenamewasMilawata,or Millawanda. debate, some of it quite heated and personal.Its strongest
Theriverin questionwasalmostcertainlyeitherthe (Classical) criticwasthe GermanscholarFerdinandSommerwho in the
river(see,e.g., 1930sled the ranksof skepticswho dismissedthe AhhiyawaCaicosortheHermos,if notthefamousMaeander
Gurney1992:220-21).Fromthe text-joinwe learnthata Hittite Achaia equationas no morethan "kling-klangetymology."
forceon itswayto Wilusahadto passthroughthe Since then the debatehas continued.Somescholarsargued
expeditionary
SehaRiverLandin orderto reachit. Giventhelikelyroutetaken thatAhhiyawawasno morethana localAnatoliankingdom,
to westernAnatolia,Wilusa othersthat it was an islandkingdomlyingoff the Anatolian
byHittiteares in theirexpeditions
havelainnorthof theSehaRiverLand-thatis to mainland,likeCyprusor Rhodes.Othersagaindeclaredthatit
musttherefore
sayin the regioncalledthe Troadin Classicaltimes.Welearn musthavebeena Mycenaeankingdomof mainlandGreece.
a place
furtherthatclosebyWilusawasone of its dependencies,
We cannot debate here all the pros and cons of the
calledLazpa.Therecan nowbe little doubtthat this wasthe Ahhiyawa-Achaiaidentification.That has been done many
in the 1920s times in the past. Sufficeit to say that the greatmajorityof
islandthattheGreekscalledLesbos,asfirstproposed
Emil
off
coast.
Anatolia's
northwest
Forrer,
scholarsnow believethat Ahhiyawamustindeedreferto the
by
yingjust
Wecan thussaywithconfidencethatWilusalayin the same worldof LateBronzeAge Greece,morepopularlyknownas
regionas Hisarlik,our most favoredcandidatefor Homer's the Mycenaeanworld.The identificationcannotbe regarded
The conclusion,firstenunciatedbyEmilForrer,
now as iron-clad,andsomeof its supporterscautionthat it is still
Troy/Ilios.
seemsinescapable:Troyhas indeedbeenfoundin the textsof no morethana matterof faith.Butthe circumstantial
evidence
the Hittites.It wasthe royalseat of the kingof Wilusa,vassal in supportof it, includingdiscoveriesmadein recent years,
of the GreatKingof the Hittites. We thus have not only a
In somecontextsthe
mustnowbe consideredoverwhelming.
physicalsettingfor the greatcity of the Iliad,but also actual termAhhiyawais used to referto the Mycenaeanworldin
referencesto it in contemporary
historicalrecords.
kingof Ahhiyawa
general;in othercontexts,wherea particular
' '
NEAREASTERNARCHAEOLOGY
65:3 (2002)
191
makeshis appearance,
to a specifickingdomwithinthisworld.
The identificationhas a numberof importantimplications.
One of theseis the additionaldimensionit givesto Mycenaean
studies.Scholarshad longbelievedthat Mycenaeanoverseas
wereconfinedessentiallyto tradingactivitiesalong
enterprises
the coastlandsof the Mediterranean,
withoccasionalenclaves
in theseregions,
of Mycenaeansettler-traders
beingestablished
most notably on the western Anatolian coast. So we may
conclude from the material evidence, especially pottery.
However,the Ahhiyawan-Mycenaean
equationtakesus a step
beyondthis, forit providesus withwritteninformation-the
only such informationwe have-about the history of the
Mycenaeanworld.We knowfromHittite texts that certain
MycenaeanGreekkings became politically and militarily
involvedin westernAnatolianaffairs.IndeedHattusiliIII,who
ruledthe Hittiteworldin the thirteenthcentury,wroteto one
a formof
himboth as "mybrother,"
of thesekings,addressing
addressreservedexclusivelyfor one's peers,and as a "Great
King,"a title otherwiseused only of the elite groupof Near
EasternGreatKings-the rulersof Babylon,Assyria,Egypt,
and Hatti. Fromthe same letter, commonlyknown as the
wasoverlordof
Letter,'we learnthatits addressee
Tawagalawa
of Milawataon the Anatoliancoast,andthatvery
the territory
likelyhe wasusingthis territoryas a baseforthe extensionof
Ahhiyawan/Mycenaeaninfluence elsewhere in western
Anatolia. If so, then inevitablyhis enterpriseswouldhave
threatenedHittite interests, and more specificallyHittite
in the region.
subjectterritories,
Does this bringus any closer to determiningwhetherthe
traditionof a TrojanWaris basedon fact?
in-lawof a man calledAtpa, who governedMilawataas the
Ahhiyawanking'svassal.As we have noted, the letter was
written by Hattusili III" to his Ahhiyawan counterpart.
Unfortunately,the latter'snameis not preserved.It would
have appearedat the beginningof the firstof the threetablets
constitutingthe letter.Onlythe thirdtabletsurvives.Butwe
knowfromthisthatone of the letter'smaintopicswasHittite
andthe supporthe
concernoverthe activitiesof Piyamaradu,
wasreceivingfromthe kingof Ahhiyawa.The letterrefersto
Wilusa.It hadbeen a causeof conflictbetweenHattusiliand
the Ahhiyawanking, but the conflict had been peacefully
resolved:"Nowas we have come to an agreementon Wilusa
over which we went to war...." Even so, Hattusili was
concerned that Piyamaradumight try to provoke a fresh
conflict, and he urgedhis Ahhiyawanbrotherto keep the
undercontrol;the Ahhiyawankingshouldtell
trouble-maker
the matterof Wilusaoverwhichwe,
"Regarding
Piyamaradu:
the Kingof Hatti and I, had becomehostile,he (the Kingof
Hatti)haswonme overandwe havemadefriends... it would
not be rightforus to makewar."
This is as far as we can go in our searchfor evidence of a
conflictinvolvingWilusaandAhhiyawa.If TroyandWilusa
wereone andthe same,thenTroywasclearlya subjectstateof
the Hittitesat the time,andanyaggression
againstit waslikely
to provoke military retaliation from Hatti. That is what
Hattusiliimpliesin his letter.His referencesto Piyamaradu
makeclearthathe sawthis localwarrioras an agent,perhaps
the principal agent, used by the Ahhiyawan king for the
extension of his authority in western Anatolia. Indeed
mayalreadyhavebeen actingin this capacityon
Piyamaradu
the earlieroccasion when for a time he actuallyoccupied
Wilusa.
War
for
a
Evidence
Historical
the
Trojan
Assessing
We do not know how effective Hattusili's letter was in
In broadterms,we have establisheda generalscenariofor
securingWilusa against enemy action. But we learn from
possible conflict between MycenaeanGreeksand Hittite
forces,or Hittite-backedforces,in westernAnatolia.Wenow another letter that in the reign of his son Tudhaliya(IV)
need to narrowourfocus.On the assumptionthat Wilusais Wilusawas againattacked.On this occasionits king,a man
do ourHittitesourcesprovide calledWalmu,wasforcedoff his throneand fled into exile.
the HittitenameforTroy/Ilios,
evidence for a specific conflict involving Ahhiyawan/ Thisinformationis suppliedby a anothertext-join-to a very
Mycenaeanforcesagainstthe kingdomof Wilusa?It is clear fragmentarydocumentcommonlyknown as the Milawata
fromthese sourcesthat Wilusahad a fairlytroubledhistory, Letter,so-calledbecauseit refersto eventsthat had recently
even with
in the thirteenthcentury,the periodin whichthe takenplacein andaroundMilawata.Unfortunately,
particularly
But
the
from
surviving
complete.
TrojanWarwasmostlikelyto havetakenplace.Welearnthat the join the letteris stillfar
the join
and
about
a
contains
fitting
Wilusa,
by
and
attacked
was
passage
its
in
the
portion
by
occupied
territory
century
early
was
Wilusa
that
deduce
can
we
againstthe originalfragment,
a notorious local freebooter called Piyamaradu. This
information is provided by the letter we have referred to
above, written by Manapa-Tarhunda,king of the Seha River
Land, to his Hittite overlord Muwatalli. On this occasion
Piyamaraduwas apparently driven from Wilusa by a Hittite
expeditionary force, but remained at large and continued to
threaten Hittite interestsin the region.
No reference is made to Ahhiyawa in this context, but we
know from another letter, the so-called TawagalawaLetter,
that Piyamaraduwas a prot6g6 of the Ahhiyawan king (who
afforded him protection in his own land when the Hittites
began turningup the heat on him), and that he was the father-
192
NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 65:3 (2002)
once again restored to Hittite control, and that preparations
were underwayfor putting its king back on his throne.
This episode is the last piece of information we have about
the northwesternkingdomof Wilusa. If Wilusa was in fact the
Late Bronze Age kingdom of Troy,then we can start building
up a pictureof Troy'shistoryin this period.Its inhabitantswere
almost certainly one of the Luwian-speaking peoples of
western Anatolia. It belonged to the ethno-political complex
of Arzawalands. For at least the last two centuries of the Late
BronzeAge, it was not an independentkingdombut one of the
vassalstates of the Hittite Empire.It sufferedseveralattacksby
enemyforcesduringthe thirteenthcentury,attacksin whicha
MycenaeanGreekkingmaywellhavebeenimplicated.During
one of theseattacks,the enemyinvadedandoccupiedits land.
On anotheroccasionits kingwasdeposed.On bothoccasions
the country was liberated by the Hittites. The so-called
TawagalawaLetter,which associatesthe king of Ahhiyawa
witha warinvolvingWilusa,datesto aroundthe middleof the
thirteenthcentury.This is the mostwidelyaccepteddate for
the destructionof TroyVIh.Wedo not knowthe nameof the
letter'saddressee,whichmaywell have appearedin the first
tabletof the letter,now lost to us. But there are those who
would like to see in this addressee, a Great King of the
Ahhiyawanworld,the prototypeof Homer'sAgamemnon.
Accordingto Homer,Agamemnonled a confederationof
Greeksinto waragainstthe Trojans.The essenceof this war
wasa ten-yearsiegeof Troy,culminatingin the besiegedcity's
These arethe core
conquest,destruction,and abandonment.
eventsof the Homerictradition.Howclose arewe to proving
that they actually took place?Let us review the evidence
currentlyavailableto us.
1. Wecan with a highdegreeof probability
identifythe site
now known as Hisarlik in northwestern Turkeywith the
ancient citadel of Troy,madefamousby the epic poemsof
Homer.LevelVIh of this site best fits Homer'sdescriptionof
Troy. This level was destroyed some time during the
thirteenth century, probably around the middle of the
century,withinthe periodto whichthe TrojanWaris dated
in ClassicalGreeksources.
2. Unfortunatelywe have no clear evidence to indicate
what caused Troy'sdestruction-human agency, natural
forces, or a combination of both. Admittedly recent
excavationsin the lowercity have producedsignsof military
conflictin the formof arrow-heads
andhumanskeletons.But
as yet the quantityof such remainsis too smallto constitute
evidencefor a sustainedconflictover a periodof manyyears
andinvolvinga largeinvadingforce.
3. It is highlylikelythatTroyor Ilioswasthe kingdomcalled
Wilusain Hittite texts. Wilusawas a vassalkingdomof the
Hittiteempirelocatedin the farnorthwestof Anatolia,in the
regionthatthe Greeksof latertimescalledthe Troad.
4. Weknowthat MycenaeanGreeks,whoseland is called
Ahhiyawain Hittite texts, becameinvolvedin the political
and militaryaffairsof western Anatolia, fromat least the
fifteenth century and particularly in the thirteenth century
when the land of Milawataon the westernAnatolian coast was
subjectto an Ahhiyawan/Mycenaeanking.
5. During this period Wilusa suffereda numberof attacks in
which MycenaeanGreeksmay have been directlyor indirectly
involved. On one occasion, its territorywas occupied by the
enemy; on another occasion its king was deposed and driven
into exile. Homer tells us that the city of Troywas attacked,
occupied, and destroyed by the Greeks, and its royal family
killed or driven into exile.,
How far,then, does this informationtake us towardsproofof
a TrojanWar?The answerhas to be not very far at all, if we are
attemptingto come up with a specifichistoricalconflictthat
occupieda relativelylongperiodof time-ten yearsin Greek
tradition.Farfromprovidingmaterialor writtenevidencefor
sucha conflict,ourAnatoliansourcesin factcastconsiderable
doubton its historicity,
at leastin the formin whichit appears
in Homer.Forexample,whilesiege-warfare
certainlyfeatured
in a numberof BronzeAge militaryoperations,andsometimes
extendedover severalmonths, the notion of a siege lasting
manyyearsis quite out of the question.And the claim that
the Greek forces arrivedat Troyin a fleet of more than a
thousandships (1,186 to be precise)wouldmakethe Greek
armadamanytimes greaterthan the largestknownfleet in
any period of the ancient world. As far as there is any
historicalbasisforHomerictradition,it is to be foundnot in a
singleconflictthat occupieda relativelylong periodof time,
but ratherin a seriesof conflictsthat took place over a very
muchgreaterperiodof time. OurAnatolianwrittensources
provideno evidence for a single, major,extendedattackby
invadingGreekson an Anatolian kingdomthat led to the
eventualdestructionof that kingdom.Ratherthe patternis
one of a numberof limitedattackscarriedout over several
centuries,andperhapsan occasionaltemporary
occupationof
a beleagueredkingdom.Any one of these attacksmighthave
provided the original core of the Homeric tradition, a
traditionthatwashundredsof yearsin the making.
ATradition
Evolves
The genesis of the epic maygo back 150 years or more
beforethe generallyaccepteddateof the TrojanWar.Already
in the latefifteenthorearlyfourteenthcenturywe learnfroma
well-known Hittite text (the so-called "Indictment of
Madduwatta")of Ahhiyawan militaryenterprises on the
Anatolianmainland,andsubsequently
on the islandof Cyprus
(Alasiyain Hittitetexts).The leaderof theseenterpriseswas
"aman of Ahhiya"called Attarsiya.Could the TrojanWar
tradition have begun with a military conflict between
MycenaeanGreeksandAnatoliansin the earlyfourteenth,or
even the fifteenthcentury?Professor
Vermeulehasarguedthat
thereare linguisticas well as otherelementsin the Iliadthat
could well date to this period.Froma studyof a numberof
passages in the Iliad, she concludes that the deaths of
"Homeric"
heroeslikeHektorandPatroklos
werealreadysung
in the fifteenthor fourteenthcenturies."And the military
adventuresin Anatoliaof an earlyMycenaeanGreekwarrior
like Attarsiya are precisely the stuff out of which legend is
created. Indeed it is just possible that Attarsiya (Attarissiya)
was the Hittite way of writing the Greek name Atreus, a name
borne in Greek traditionby one of the firstrulersof Mycenae.
It was perhaps in the earliest days of Mycenaean contact
with western Anatolia that the traditionof a Greek-Anatolian
conflict began its journey. In the course of this journey, the
tradition constantly acquired new elements, many of which
may well have been based on actual historical episodes or
incidents. By the thirteenth century it had also acquired a
specific physical setting, a northwestern Anatolian kingdom
NEAR EASTERNARCHAEOLOGY
65:3 (2002)
193
that duringthe courseof the
unfold.Fromthe vastbodyof
centurysuffereda numberof
legendandfolklorethat such
attackseither by the Greeks
all
over
his
towering
predecessors, eventsundoubtedlygenerated,
themselvesor by their allies
a small numberof episodes
therewasin fact a greatpoet of the
and proteges. Enemyoccuwere selected, and those
late eighth or earlyseventh century
selected were woven into a
pationof its territoryandthe
overthrowof its kingbecame
continuousnarrative,which
whose creative genius brought a
woven into the fabricof the
wascompressedinto a period
long- evolving narrativetraditionto its
of ten years. But the poet
ongoingtradition.
peak of artisticexcellence.
The traditionitselfwaskept
wentfurther.His storyhad to
alive by story-tellers, wanbe peopled with colorful
characters. And so we are
dering bards and minstrels
who, Homertells us, entertainedthe courtsof Mycenaean presentedwith the lordlyAgamemnon,the braveAjax of
kingsandnoblemen.Storiesof the exploitsof greatheroesof massiveproportions,the nobleHektor,the sulkingAchilles,
the distantpastbecameintermingled
withthe deedsof Greek the wilyOdysseus.Otherelementswereaddedfromthe stock
kingsandwarriorsof morerecenttimes.Fororaltraditionby repertoire of epic tradition-intervention by gods and
its very natureenables almostlimitless adaptationsof and goddesses,performanceof strangerituals,encounterswith
additionsto an existingbodyof folklore.Verylikely at the
enchantressesandmonsters,andconsultationswiththe dead
requestof theirpatrons,the story-tellerswereobligedto add or the immortal.Wasthis the achievementof a singleperson?
new material constantly, as they forever updated their
And if so, wasit the achievementof an eighthcenturypoet?
repertoireof tales.Evenafterthe greatBronzeAge kingdoms Or werethere a successionof poetsextendingbackthrough
had fallen,the traditionof a greatwarcontinued.And it was the DarkAge mists?WasHomermerelythe lastof a series?Or
perhapsin thislater,post-Bronze
periodthatthe finalessential was he himself an invention-not a person, but the
componentof the Homerictraditioncame into being-the
personificationof a processthat beganlong beforethe late
totaldestructionandabandonment
of the citadelof Troy.
eighthcentury?Theremayhavebeen one or moreDarkAge
We must emphasizethat no such dramaticend of Troyis poetsto whomthe bard'smantleshouldbe assigned,or at least
attested during the Late Bronze Age in either the
withwhomit shouldbe shared.Yet
the likelihoodremainsthat,
archaeologicalor the writtenrecord.In the archaeological toweringover all his predecessors,there was in fact a great
record,TroyVIIaquicklyreplacedTroyVIh,andwasoccupied poetof the lateeighthor earlyseventhcenturywhosecreative
by the samepopulationgroup,thoughthe dwellingswithinthe geniusbroughta long-evolvingnarrativetraditionto its peak
citadelwerenowhumbler,andthe conditionsmorecrowded. of artisticexcellence.
In the writtenrecord,Wilusawasliberatedfromits invaderson
Undoubtedlydebateon whetheror not Homer'saccountof
at leasttwo occasionsin the thirteenthcentury,andthe local the TrojanWaris basedon factwillcontinue,as scholars,film
rulerhadhis authorityrestoredto him. But theredid come a producers,and anyone else interested in the tale of Troy
timewhenTroywasdestroyedandapparently
abandoned
byits continueto probeforthe truthbehindthe legend.Whyhave
population.Thisoccurredat the end of level VIIb,sometime so manybeen obsessedwithsucha searchforso long?Partof
between 1100 and 1000, in the aftermath of the great the reasonmaybe the beliefthat the poet'sreputationwould
upheavalsthroughoutthe NearEastandGreeceat the end of be all the greaterif we couldprovebeyonddoubtthathis tale
the Bronze Age. Its destruction was very likely due to
of Troyis basedon historicalfact. But surelythe oppositeis
marauders
who featuredin these upheavalsand aboutwhom true.Homerwasa creativeartist,not a historian,and that is
we hear fromEgyptianrecords-the so-called Sea Peoples. how he wouldwant to be judged.His epic compositionhas
Almostcertainlypopulationgroupsfromthe lastremnantsof capturedthe imaginationof one generationof listenersand
the Mycenaeanworldwereincludedamongstthe marauders. readersafteranother,anda countlesssuccessionof visualand
Around 1000 BCEnew waves of Greekscame to settle in
hashe toldhis
literaryartists.Yetthisis not all. So powerfully
westernAnatolia. They knew of the great stories of their storythathe hasconvincedalmostallhislistenersandreaders,
ancestorswhodidbattlewiththe localAnatoliankingdoms.In includingsomeof the mostastutescholars,thathis characters
theyknewof the conquestof a kingdomcalledTroy are based on real people, and that these people were
particular
or Ilios in Greektradition.Manymaywell have visited the participants
in eventsthatreallydidhappen.
Let us for a moment suppose that the Iliad was from
placewherethisconquestoccurred.Whatin factdidtheysee
there?The remainsof a oncegreatcitythathadbeendestroyed beginning to end a workof fiction, that Homer made the
and was now totally abandoned. This provided the final whole thing up. What then wouldbe the greatestfavorwe
element in the tradition-the closing episode to a tale of
could do the poet?Assuredlyto proveto the satisfactionof
conflict,conquest,anddestruction.
everyonethat his storyof Troyhas no historicalfoundation
All this providedthe rawmaterialfor the creativepoet-a
whatsoever.
Thatmorethananythingelsewouldmakeclearto
all the fullextentof the blindlonian'screativegenius.
sequenceof events that took at least five hundredyearsto
' '
194
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65:3 (2002)
Notes
1. In fact there was one (at least in Virgil'sAeneid)-the armysurgeon
Machaon,son of Asklepios.
is used todayas a termof conveniencefor the
2. The name"Mycenaean"
whole of the LateBronzeAge (or LateHelladic)civilizationof mainland
Greece.It reflectsMycenae'sprominencewithin this civilization,in the
archaeologicalrecordas well as in Greekliterarytradition.
3. Other ancient Greekwritersgive dates for the warrangingfromthe
secondhalfof the fourteenthto the secondhalfof the twelfthcenturies.
4. Fora concisedescriptionof recentexcavations,see Korfmann(1995).
5. See Hawkins and Easton (1996). The seal is further discussed by
Starke(1997), Alp (2001).
6. Melchert (2003: 12) remainscautiouson this matter,noting also the
possibility that the inhabitants of Wilusa/Troyspoke a related, but
distinctIndo-European
language.
7. Now commonly referred to as the Assuwan Confederacy on the
groundsthat Assuwafiguresin the text apparentlyas the regionin which
mostof the countrieswerelocated.
8. The earliest of these, found in Tarsusand featuringa king of southwesternAnatolia called Isputashu,dates back to the last decadesof the
sixteenthcentury.
9. Accordingto Melchert(2003: 11-12).
10. Tawagalawawas the brotherof the Ahhiyawanking. He had been
sent to Milawata to arrange the transportation of large numbers of
Hittite subjects back to the Greek mainland. The common tag
receivesno
Letter"is quite inappropriate
since Tawagalawa
"Tawagalawa
morethan a briefmentionin the document,or ratherwhatsurvivesof it.
11. The brotherof Muwatalliand his second successoron the Hittite
throne.
12. Vermeule(1986: 85-86). See also Hiller (1991: 145) regardingthe
tradition of an earlier Trojan War, and Muhly (1992: 16), Cline
(1997: 197-98).
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2001
Das Hieroglyphensiegelvon Trojaund seine Bedeutungfiir
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AUTAT
asa classicist,
trained
Trevor
Originally
Ancient
has
lectured
in
Classics
and
Bryce
at theUniversity
ofQueensland,
History
attheUniversity
andsubsequently
ofNew
where
he
was
(Australia),
England
and
the
Chair
Classics
to
of
appointed
heserved
AncientHistory.
Morerecently
as DeputyVice-Chancellor
of Lincoln
inNewZealand
andcurrently
University
TrevorBryce
is a FellowoftheAustralian
of
Academy
attheUniversity
andHonorary
Research
Consultant
theHumanities
Australia.
Hisrecentpublications
includeThe
of Queensland,
of theHittites,LifeandSocietyin theHittiteWorld
Kingdom
andLetters
oftheGreatKingsoftheAncientNearEast.
65:3 (2002)
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