TROY:THE LAND WHERE LEGEND CAME TRUE
 First
there was a book, the Iliad, written approximately 2720 years ago
by Homer, one of the greatest poets the world has ever known. This
epic work told of a war, inescapable fate, the destruction of a
city, and tragic defeat. This splendid city lying southeast of the
Dardanelles Strait was known as Wilusa, Taruisa, (W)ilios or Troia.
When Homer began to write his epic poem about the ten-year war between
the Achaeans, as he called the Greeks, and the Trojans, he was also
laying the foundations of European literature. From that time on
he and the legend he created were to be a central element in the
history of European thought and culture. European peoples and aristocratic
families attributed their origins to Troy and its heroes. Rome traced
its foundation to Aeneas the Trojan, and chivalric romances of the
12th and 13th centuries considered the Britons, Franks, and Normans
to be of Trojan ancestry. For a time the Turks (Turci), too, were
regarded as descendants of another Trojan, Turcus or Turkoy, who
had fled from the city.
Since Greek and Roman times the myth of Troy has
fired people's imaginations, and kings and rulers, including Alexander
the Great, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Hadrian and even the Ottoman
sultan Mehmed II were drawn here by that dream. In 1462 Sultan Mehmed
travelled to Çanakkale to find the ancient Ilios, since he
believed that by his conquest of Istanbul he had avenged the Trojans.
But the story does not end there. Throughout the middle ages and
the modern period many travellers, historians and adventurers came
in search of this lost land, so keeping the dream of Troy constantly
alive in people's minds. Eventually, the first official excavation
at Hisarlik was launched by Heinrich Schliemann in 1871, and finally
the legend became fact when he discovered what was certainly the
remains of Troy.
The latest excavations at Troy began in 1988 by a team of archaeologists
from Germany's Tübingen University under Professor Dr Manfred
Korfmann. These have opened a new window onto Troy and its legend.
The journey of exploration through legend and fact
to uncover the secrets of Troy is still not at an end, but it is
now being documented by a remarkable exhibition at the Archaologisches
Landesmuseum in Stuttgart entitled Troy, Legend and Fact. The most
extraordinary finding revealed by the sections of the exhibition
devoted to archaeological excavations at Troy is that this was an
Anatolian culture. For thousands of years Troy has been seen as
belonging to Greek Mycenaean culture, and as the origin of today's
European cultures. Yet Korfmann and his team now have evidence that
Troy was the city of Wilusa or (W)ilios mentioned in Hittite official
correspondence as a city of the Luwians, an Anatolian people. Regarded
as one of the foremost archaeological discoveries of the 20th century,
this evidence is a bronze seal bearing a Luwian hieroglyphic inscription,
which is regarded as a find of the utmost importance in throwing
light on relations between Anatolia and Troy.
 The
theory that the Trojans might have been Anatolian gained weight
with the discovery of a lower city dating from the 17th-13th centuries
BC and defined as High Trojan Culture. This town, divided into levels
VI and VIIa, corresponded to Homer's Troy, and is characterised
by finds such as the anthropomorphic vessels and drinking cups known
as depas unique to Anatolian cultures. Further confirmation has
been the fact that the architecture of buildings and walls differs
significantly from that of the Aegean region and Greece.
Other evidence supporting the theory that Troy lay
within an area dominated by Luwian or Hittite-Luwian language and
culture include a bronze figurine thought to represent a god of
Anatolian and eastern origin; cremation burials in urns in accordance
with Anatolian tradition; pillars and steles which were a frequent
feature of the Hittite and subsequent periods; and a sacred building
known as a megaron.
Striking resemblances between descriptions of Troy
in the Iliad and the findings of excavations have undermined the
view that Homer's account was fictional. In particular, layers revealing
destruction by fire at the end of levels VI and VIIa is evidence
of a war lost by the inhabitants, and these layers correspond exactly
to the late 13th century BC, when the Trojan War described by Homer
is thought to have taken place. Further evidence that the war was
lost is provided by skeletons abandoned without burial or only hastily
buried at the scene of destruction; and abandoned catapults and
sticks thrown down by people unable to defend their city.
Schliemann, who first commenced excavations here
in 1871, removed his finds to Europe between 1873 and 1890, some
with permission and some smuggled (the A and L treasure troves).
Today these objects are scattered throughout the world in over 45
museums, institutes and private collections.
Professor Korfmann, who is one of the scientific
advisers to the exhibition and took part in its planning, now has
a new dream: to return the finds from Troy, a site belonging to
the universal cultural heritage, to the land from which they came.
But his first priority is to establish the planned museum at the
site. l
* Nermin Bayçin is an archaeologist.
Photos MEHMET GÜLBIZ
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