Empires of the Near East

Overview of Greek Culture

•  Minoans, center in Knossos on Crete, 2900-1150 BCE. Linear A.

•  Bronze Age: Mycenean Era, 1600-1200. Age of Trojan War. Linear B.

•  Dark Ages: 1200-800. Writing lost. •  Geometric period 800-600. Age of

Homer.

Heinrich Schliemann

Schliemann’s Excavations •  1870-73: Nine “Troys”: Homer’s Troy=Troy

II. Treasure of Priam, many small finds •  Spends years digging at other Mycenean

sites •  1878-79: Homer’s Troy=Troy III •  1882: Circuit wall of Troy II found. •  1889-90: At edge of mound, found grey “Minyan” ware, ceramics and structures like other Mycenean sites. At Troy VI, 1000 years later than Troy II.

•  Schliemann dies in 1891.

Photo of Hissarlik Mound before excavation

Excavation of mound Drawing by Schliemann

Early and Late Bronze Age Troy

Troy VI and VIIa

Sophia Schliemann wearing the “Treasure of Priam”

(Troy II, ca. 2300 BCE)

Mask of Agamemnon

Discovered by Schliemann in 1876

Post-Schliemann discoveries •  1891-92: Flinders Petrie cross dates

Mycenean pottery found in Egypt in a secure chronological context

•  1893: Dörpfeld finds great walls of Troy VI encircling the Early Bronze Age city (Troy II). Destruction layer.

•  1932-38: Blegen. Troy has 50 strata in 9 cities. Troy VI destroyed by earthquake: foundation walls shaken

•  Troy VIIa: Rebuilt on these foundations, small, no imported ceramics. Also destroyed but by fire.

“For my part, I have always firmly believed in the Trojan war; my full faith in the tradition has never been shaken by mode and criticism, and to this faith of mine I am indebted for the discovery of Troy and its treasure.”

-Heinrich Schliemann

“A fortress was found to have stood on the very spot where Homeric tradition placed it . . . . From it follows the historical reality of the Trojan War. . . . We shall therefore not hesitate, starting from the fact that the Trojan war was a real war fought out in the place . . . described in Homer, to draw the further conclusion that some at least of the heroes whom Homer names . . . were real persons . . . who did actually fight in that war.” -Walter Leaf

“It can no longer be doubted, when one surveys the state of our knowledge today, that there really was an actual historical Trojan War in which a coalition of . . . Myceneans . . . fought against the people of Troy and their allies.”

-Carl Blegen