Troy

The site known today as Troia (also Troja; Turkish: Hisarlık) is an archaeological site located a few kilometers south of the Dardanelles in northwestern Turkey (Çanakkale Province). The central mound of ruins consists of the remains of a series of fortified Bronze Age settlements (ca. 3000–950 BCE). Especially during the Late Bronze Age toward the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, a larger area outside the citadel was also inhabited (“Lower City”). Later, the Greek and Roman city of Ilion (Ilium) was located on and around the mound.

Troy is considered the site of the Trojan War, which Homer recounts in his epics, the *Iliad* and the *Odyssey*. However, it cannot be said with certainty which historical events these Greek heroic sagas are based on. Many researchers believe that the site was the capital of the land of Wilusa, which is mentioned in Hittite written sources from the 2nd millennium BCE.

Knowledge of the exact location of Troy or Ilion was lost during the Middle Ages, even though the stories of the Trojan War were widely known through literary and artistic depictions. It was not until the 18th century that European researchers began searching the region of Troas for traces of the places and events described in the epic. This led to excavations on Hisarlık Hill, which were initially begun by Frank Calvert in 1863 and continued by Heinrich Schliemann (1870–1890), Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1893–1894), and Carl Blegen (1932–1938).