The Ancient History of Troy: How archaeologists found the lost city of Troy

in #history5 years ago

Dear Stemians, how are you all? Welcome to you in my blog. Today I was inspired by watching the Troy movie and then I visited some websites to know about The Ancient History of Troy. Then I collect some information about The Ancient History of Troy. After, I start to write about The Ancient History of Troy and I think this history has helped me to know something new about Troy City. So I think this article will help you learn more about The Ancient History of Troy. So let's go inside the History...


Walls of Troy, image credit: commons.wikimedia.org, Author: CherryX_ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

We almost know about Queen Helen. Especially those who are more interested in history and literature, they know Helen and a little about The Trojan War. In 8th-century B.C, The acclaimed Greek poet Homer describes the Trojans and their city in The Iliad and The Odyssey. The city of Troy was destroyed by the Greeks in this war.

According to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Helen was the wife of Menelaus. Menelaus was the king of Mycenaean Spartan. Troy city was near to Spartan. Spartan king Priam was the prince of Troy. His two sons, Hector and Paris, traveled to Spartan for their business work. Menelas organized a dinner in their honor. In this dinner, Queen Helen was introduced with Paris. Paris the prince of the city of Troy was fascinated by the beauty of Helen. Then daily they secretly meet each other. In a short time, Helen and Paris fell in deep love.


Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo - The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy, image credit: commons.wikimedia.org, Author:
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo_ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

After, while returning from Spartan, King Paris decided that without Queen Helen he can't come back in Troy. Then Paris secretly came to the city of Troy with Queen Helen. When this news spreading in Spartan, Menelaus decided to take revenge against King Paris. His brother Agamemnon was the king of the state of Mycenae, and the leader of the Greek forces. Under his leadership, the Greeks attacked Troy with huge armies. Troy fighters kept the original city intact, even after losing its port to the Greek invasion. The Greeks failed to defeat the army of Troy even after a long ten-year war. After all, they accept the means of deception. By fooling the people of Troy, thousands of soldiers enter the main city by hiding in a huge wooden horse called 'Trojan Horse'. And in the darkness of the night, they set fire to Troy and completely destroyed Troy city.


History of the famous Troy war, image credit: commons.wikimedia.org, Author: Jean Mignon_ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Hundreds of books have been made from this famous 'Battle of Troy' history, even in Hollywood movies. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, literature and history fans would find that the "Trojan War" is not fictional Greek mythology. Rather, the events of this war are entirely true. And this was determined by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. He first explores the ancient Troy city, whose present location is in Hisarlik, Turkey.

Who was Heinrich Schliemann?

Heinrich Schliemann was born in Germany in 1822. Being a child of a poor family, he stopped studying before he crossed the border. After leaving his studies he started a business. But Heinrich could not do business in his homeland. He left to Moscow in Russia. There he sold the raw material of ammunition near the Imperial Russian Army and changed the wheel of his fate. Then he started to study again. Besides, he started traveling to different countries, History always attracted him more than natural beauty. That is why he revolved around various historic places in the world. He traveled around the country to learn 15 foreign languages and he established himself as a professional archeologist. Heinrich Schliemann's personal diary and his book, It is known from his book that when Heinrich was only eight years, his father described him about the story of Troy's war. Since when he heard the story, a dormant desire arises in his mind. From that age, he dreamed of finding the historic Troy city. In 1868, Schliemann went to the island of Ithaca in Greece on an education course. There he had got the opportunity to visit the Odysseus Palace (Odysseus in Roman). From there, he came directly to Turkey via the Marmara Sea. The main purpose of his journey was to find the ancient Troy city. And his only companion on the tour was Homer's Iliad. The Iliad was the key guide of Schliemann to find Troy City.


Excavations at Troy, image credit: commons.wikimedia.org, Author:
Internet Archive Book Images_ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

How Troy City was discovered

When Heinrich Schliemann made the final decision to find Homer's described Troy City, he identified three locations in total. The foremost of these is the Bunarbasi (also called Pinarbasi). Along with this were Balli Dagh. The most backward was the Hisarlik city. However, a number of older writers and historians refer to Hisarlik as Homer's Troy City. The last place was Alexandria Troyes.

The ruins of the famous Troy city, image credit: flickr.com, Author: Leonora (Ellie) Enking_ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Schliemann started digging in Bunarbasi to the summer of the year. At the same time, he also visited other areas of Turkey, including Hisarlik. Late in the summer, a British archaeologist named Frank Calvert met with Schliemann in the town of Hisarlik. This time Calvert worked in the British Embassy in Turkey. Besides, he worked to search for archeology. Calvert finds Hisarlik even before Schliemann. And his belief was that Hisarlik was a history of famous Troy city. But he failed to convince the British Museum.

In 1865, Calvert first started to excavate Hisarlik and got enough evidence to support his claim. But there was a lot of money needed to start the excavation and Calvert was failed to arrange that money. On August 1868, he invited Schliemann to dinner. Calvert then showed Schliemann the archeology he had recovered and for lack of money, he allowed Schliemann to do his unfinished work.


An ancient Greek mask discovered by Schliemann, image credit: flickr.com, Author: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany_ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

In the same year, Schliemann went to Paris city. There he did a lot of research with Troy and Mycenae. While in Paris he wrote numerous letters to Calvert and told him to find out which place in Hisarlik would be most ideal for digging. Schliemann also wrote a book about his travels to Paris and all the activities in the area. But he didn't mention Calvert in that book. In 1870, Schliemann started the excavation with Frank Calvert's approval and his other worker.

In 1871 Schliemann and the other worker discovered the walls of an ancient castle built by humans. But his idea was that Homer's described Troy city would be more beneath. Then he started digging down. In 1873, he found a castle. Also, get a huge amount of treasure. Secretly he trafficked this treasure from Turkey to Germany. He believed he had discovered the city of Troy. But later research revealed that there were a total of nine Troy city ruins. Of these, the sixth Troy is the famous Homeric Troy, which dates back to 1500-1000 BC. Each time the previous Troy City was rebuilt after the destruction.

In 1874 Schliemann published another book about his discovery. In his book, he presents various arguments in favor of his invention. But even then most archaeologists did not fully believe in Schliemann's discovery. However, British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone accepted Heinrich Schliemann's discovery. Gladstone himself was well-versed in archeology. On February 1874, Schliemann proposed to begin the excavation of Hisarlik again. But the Ottoman government expressed its reluctance to grant him permission. Finally, he got permission to dig again in 1876. Schliemann excavated Hisarlik four times in search of the city of Troy. Wilhelm Dörpfeld assisted him in his latest excavation. Also, previously Dörpfeld was to find to ancient patterns. With the help of his experience, he was able to prove Hisarlik as an ancient Troy City. In addition to Troy, he also discovered the kingdom of Mycenae. However, Troy made him famous in the world.

Conflict with Troy's detector

Heinrich Schliemann has been known throughout the world as an inventor of the ancient Troy city. But his most famous claimant Frank Calvert started the excavation at Hisarlik five years ago and he was the first to confirm that the ruins of the ancient Troy city were Hisarlik. While helping Schliemann to find out the ancient history of Calvert, the German archaeologist did not consent his respect. In all his writings he presents Troy's invention as his sole achievement. Which many archaeologists refuse to accept.


Noort Final battle of the siege of Troy, image credit: flickr.com, Author: Adam van Noort_ Creative Commons Attribution

Schliemann is believed to have spent a great deal of money on discovering Troy in secret. He also smuggled much of the wealth he received at the end of the excavation. But Frank Calvert truly loved the history and he made a mistake by giving Hisarlik to Schliemann. At the end of life, Schliemann suffered from various diseases. He went to various specialist doctors in Europe due to ear problems. But he was not relieved of his disease. At the end of his life, he suffered from severe pain in his body and eventually died on December 25, 1890.

Image sources AND LICENCES:

All the images which I used in this post, they are free for commercial use and royalty-free. Original images links also provided under them.

If You Want To Further Reading About This Article Don't Forget To Checkout These REFERENCES:

Dear Stemians, Thanks and Wellcome again from me, to read my another article by wasting your valuable time. I think this article has helped you to provide you with important information about The Ancient History of Troy and your thoughts on about this article are extremely valuable to me. If you wish you can share your valuable thoughts or opinions by leaving a comment about this article. I think your opinions about this article will help me to be more interested in writing more article like this. So don't forget to leave your opinions about this article. If you like this article, then don't forget to upvote this article. Also You can and resteem this article to help others know about The Ancient History of Troy.

Wish you have a great day. If you wish to read more article in my blog, then you can check out my other article from the below-mentioned list:

A Brief History Of First Human In Spaceflight

Sir William Lawrence Bragg: The younger Nobel prize personality Who Beginnings of X-ray Crystallography in science

Behind of The Abel Prize: The highest award in mathematics history

Confirmation Bias: A tendency which influence your thought and decision in social life.

The Battle of Wounded Knee Massacre of 1973: The Backstory Behind The Bloody Encounter Of 'Wounded Knee'

Great Chicago Fire of 1871

The Mystery Of New York City Draft Riots Of 1983

The Weird Haunted History Of Abandoned Place

𝖀𝖕𝖛𝖔𝖙𝖊 𝕱𝖔𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖜 𝕽𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖒 @undead-writer

Sort:  

Hello! I find your post valuable for the wafrica community! Thanks for the great post! We encourage and support quality contents and projects from the West African region.
Do you have a suggestion, concern or want to appear as a guest author on WAfrica, join our discord server and discuss with a member of our curation team.
Don't forget to join us every Sunday by 20:30GMT for our Sunday WAFRO party on our discord channel. Thank you.

I knew the story from Homer and I even remember having studied the follow-up (in original version: Latin), during my high-school time. However, I must admit I have never read anything about the excavation processes. I am happy to have found your post :)

Congratulations @undead-writer! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You received more than 3000 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 4000 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.19
TRX 0.15
JST 0.029
BTC 63398.53
ETH 2660.51
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.77