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Did ancient Troy really exist? - Einav Zamir Dembin
Did ancient Troy really exist? - Einav Zamir Dembin
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ترجمة (87)
0:08
When Homer’s Iliad was first written down in the 8th century BCE,
0:12
the story of the Trojan war was already an old one.
0:16
From existing oral tradition,
0:17
audiences knew the tales of the long siege,
0:20
the epic duels outside the city walls,
0:23
and the cunning trick that finally won the war.
0:26
In the end, the magnificent city was burned to the ground,
0:29
never to rise again.
0:31
But had it ever existed?
0:34
By the time the field of archaeology began to take shape in the 19th century,
0:39
many were skeptical, considering the epic to be pure fiction,
0:43
a founding myth imagining a bygone heroic era.
0:47
But some scholars believed
0:48
that behind the superhuman feats and divine miracles
0:51
there must have been a grain of historical truth -
0:54
a war that was really fought,
0:56
and a place where it happened.
0:58
Frank Calvert was one such believer.
1:01
He had spent his youth traveling and learning about ancient civilizations
1:05
before accompanying his brother Frederick
1:07
on a diplomatic mission to the northwest Anatolian region of Çanakkale.
1:11
It was here that Homer described the Greek encampment
1:14
at the mouth of the Scamander river.
1:17
And it was here that fate brought Frank into contact
1:20
with a journalist and geologist named Charles Maclaren.
1:24
Locals and travelers had long speculated
1:26
that Troy might’ve stood on one of the surrounding hilltops.
1:29
But Maclaren had been one of the first
1:32
to publish a detailed topographical study of the area.
1:35
He believed he had found the site –
1:37
a 32-meter mound known by the name Hisarlık,
1:41
derived from the Turkish word for “fortress.”
1:43
Soon after meeting with him in 1847,
1:46
the Calverts bought 2,000 acres of farmland
1:48
that included part of the hill.
1:51
Before they could explore any further,
1:53
the Crimean War broke out
1:54
and forestalled their archaeological ambitions for several years.
1:58
After the war’s end,
2:00
Frank Calvert began to survey the site,
2:02
but lacked the funds for a full excavation.
2:05
This was where the wealthy German businessman
2:07
and amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann came in.
2:12
At Calvert’s invitation,
2:13
Schliemann visited the grounds in 1868, and decided to excavate.
2:18
Eager to find the ancient city,
2:20
Schliemann tore massive trenches all the way to the base of the hill.
2:24
There, he uncovered a hoard of precious artifacts,
2:27
jewelry,
2:28
and metalwork,
2:29
including two diadems and a copper shield.
2:32
Schliemann took full credit for the discovery,
2:34
announcing that he had found Troy
2:36
and the treasure of its king Priam.
2:38
But the real treasure was elsewhere.
2:40
When later archaeologists studied the site,
2:43
they realized that the mound consisted of no less than nine cities,
2:47
each built atop the ruins of the last.
2:50
The layer Schliemann had uncovered dated back to the Mycenaean Age,
2:54
more than 1,000 years too early for Homer.
2:57
But inside the mound was indeed evidence
2:59
for a city that had thrived during the Bronze Age,
3:02
with charred stone,
3:03
broken arrowheads,
3:05
and damaged human skeletons suggesting a violent end.
3:09
It was Troy VII, contained in the middle layers
3:12
and now ravaged for a second time by Schliemann’s careless excavation.
3:17
The settlement, spanning some 200,000 square meters
3:20
and home to as many as 10,000 people,
3:23
thrived until around 1180 BCE.
3:26
Its position at the southern entrance of the Dardanelles strait
3:29
would’ve made a formidable strategic location for both defense and trade.
3:34
Most importantly, there are the remains of a massive fortification wall –
3:38
perhaps the very same one
3:40
from which Priam and Hector once watched the Greeks approach.
3:44
Of course, it’s difficult to be certain
3:46
that these ruins are the true remains of ancient Troy,
3:50
and scholars still dispute
3:51
whether the Trojan War as described by Homer ever happened.
3:55
Yet the evidence is strong enough
3:57
that UNESCO has labelled Hisarlık the archeological site of Troy.
4:01
Regardless of its identity,
4:03
thanks to persistence,
4:04
a bit of faith,
4:05
and a lot of research,
4:07
archaeologists are bringing the long-buried secrets
4:10
of an ancient, lost city to light.
