The Trojan War

Introduction
We all have read the Greek stories of the Trojan War. The tales of brave warriors like Ajax, Odysseus, Diomedes, Achilles, Idomeneus, Patroclus, Menelaus and Agamemnon. We only of these as fairy tales and nighttime stories nowadays, but there is an element of truth to the Trojan War. Although the characters aren’t real, and all the tribes of Greece and Turkey didn’t join the war, Troy was a very real place, and a war did happen in the area around 1250 BC, and ended in 1240 BC, like the Greek records we still have, say.

Discovery of Troy

in 1865, an archaeologist named Frank Calvert began digging at a small piece of land he had bought from a local farmer at Hisarlik, a small village in Turkey. He began digging, and in 1868, he was joined by Heinrich Schliemann, a German archaeologist. Schliemann dug straight through the hill they were working on; he found a city. But then he realized that there were ten cities, each built on top of the other.  Many valuable artifacts were destroyed  by Schliemann’s digging ferocity. Troy is a UNESCO world heritage site now.

The Mycenaeans

The Mycenaean Greeks were the people of mainland Greece and Crete. The Mycenaeans were very advanced in art and writing, even though they were the smallest and weakest of the Bronze Age kingdoms. The Mycenaeans were in the midst of an economical crisis, and had problems, like:

• Population increase
• Famine
• Dorian invaders from the north
• Trade disabled
• Volcanic activity

The Mycenaeans were desperate. Most of them fled and joined a group called the Sea Peoples. The Greek Sea Peoples then laid siege to Troy. Troy was not an easy target because it was heavily walled and sat on top of a hill. The Mycenaean Sea Peoples, the Denyen and the Ekwesh (the Danaans and Achaeans of the Iliad), finally brought down the city. The survivors from Troy themselves became Sea Peoples, the Teresh and Tjeker (the Trojans and the Teucri)

Conclusion

The Teresh and the Ekwesh were the ancestors of the Etruscan people who lived in north eastern Italy. The Etruscan gods and mythology were borrowed by the Romans, and the legacy of Rome is also the legacy of Troy.