|
Other Archaeological Sites / The Neolithic of the Levant (500 Page Book Online)
Antiquity Volume XXXVII (March 1963)
Pre-History and Archaeology Glossary
Excerpts and Definitions and Addendums: The Fall of Troy Nine superimposed cities were uncovered at the mound of Hisarlik on the northwest coast of Asia Minor (Turkey) where Heinrich Schliemann's visionary search for the Homeric Troy had led him. Of the nine stratigraphic levels Troy VI was the most likely candidate for the Troy of Homer. This level yielded Mycenaean pottery showing connections with mainland Greece when the Mycenaean states were at the height of their power. The great epoch of Mycenaean Greece was the early part of the period Mycenaean IIIB, an age of great commercial and cultural expansion and probably also of poitical and military enterprise. Excavations by the University of Cincinnati (Director: Carl Blegen) have been able to prove that Troy VI was undoubtedly detroyed by a violent earthquake circa 1300 BC. The earthquake destruction is explained by associating it with the Trojan horse, an alleged symbol of the Earthshaker Poseidon ... To take this powerful city the Greeks fought for ten years. They could only achieve their goal after the city had been destroyed by an earthquake. Since the Greeks well knew that they owed their victory to Poseidon the Earthshaker they offered him a wooden horse for his great help |
