CULTURE STRATA OF TROY
Troy
was founded about 3000 B.C. and continued until 400 A.D.
This city contains 9 culture strata. It was most thoroughly
examined as the result of three excavations. It is the
first excavation site in Anatolia. Troy was a city civilization
as of the moment of its foundation. The fact that it possessed
a fortified castle, an army, a temple, a palace and houses
proves the existence of city civilization. We see these
entire thing in Troy I. Therefore, Troy possessed a city
civilization from its earliest moments. While other cities
in Anatolia show the characteristic of the Neolithic Age,
contemporary Troy shows the characteristics of the later
Heliolithic Age. There were 9 cities, which were built
and destroyed on the remains of each other. That is, when
one city was demolished another was built over this and
beginning about 3000 B.C., this continued up to 400 A.D.
Because of this, it is the most important culture center
of Western Anatolia.
The
Roman period in Troy has not been excavated, but it has
been established by sinking shafts that the Roman walls
follow the places where Tevfikiye village is. It stands
today as it was, awaits the day when it will be completely
exposed underground. We can give the chronology of the
IX Troy strata, which appeared with the Dorpfeld dig and
became definite with the Blegen excavation, as follows:
Troy I 3000-2500 B.C. Troy II 2500-2300 B.C. Troy III
2300-2200 B.C. Troy IV 2200-2100 B.C. Troy V 2100-1900
B.C. Troy VI 1900-1300 B.C. Troy Vila 1300-1200 B.C. Troy
Vllb1 1200-1100 B.C. Tjoy Vllb2 1100-900 B.C. Troy VIII
900-350 B.C. Troy IX 350 B.C.-400 A.D.
After
reading mythology and imagining the rage of Achilles,
the bravery of Hector, the battlefield which Priam watched
with worried eyes and after getting shortly acquainted
with the history of the strata, we can now make strata
visiting the ruins together.
After
entering through the main gate, a stony road takes us
to stairs with a few steps. When we ascend these stairs
built by Blegen, we come face to face with the ruins.
After gazing at the walls of Troy VI from afar, let us
descend the stairs to examine them closely and walk around
the ruins.
On
our right is a wall belonging to the longish Hellenistic
period. On our left is seen a part of the city wall of
Troy VI. The visible portion of this wall was among the
strongest of the contemporary walls. It extends for about
90 m. It has a height of 6m. and a breadth of 5 m. Its
lower part is inclined. Its upper part is straight with
a thickness of 2 m. The inclination of the wall made of
local limestone, the fastening of the stones to each other
with no space in between and without mortar, relates how
skillful the Trojans were in masonry. The upper part of
wall must have been made, as everywhere, of sun-baked
bricks. The wall was built in polygonal from with an inclination
of 37 cm in 1m.
Now
is seen, in the plans in front of us, a tower named tower
6th. As the towers were added to the wall later, their
techniques are different. The front face of the tower
with a quadrangular plan is 11 m., its protrusion from
the wall being 8 m. The front wall is slightly thicker
than the sidewalls. From the traces of the remains it
is understood that the tower was two storied. One descended
to the upper story through a door opened from the walls
within the walls within the city and from the upper story
to the lower story by means of a flight of stairs. As
we see, the tower and the wall have been built very thick.
As
Blegen encountered the traces of an earthquake while examining
this tower, he says that the tower and Troy the 6th were
destroyed by an earth tremor. Dorpfeld says they came
to an end by fire. We do not know which excavator you
will find right after a fairly careful examination, but
after the second Turkish Congress of History held in 1937,
Dorpfeld too shared Blegen's opinion.
When
we follow the wall, 25-30 m. further, we enter from the
road left open by two city walls. This is the gate seen
in the plan as gate V. It has been formed by the extension
of two city walls into each other for 5 m., with a space
of 2 m. in between. This space has been closed with a
two-leafed wooden gate. We may think that, in war time,
the enemy, after escaping from the spears and arrows hurled
from the tower, when attacking the gate can be quickly
annihilated by soldiers lining the two sides of this corridor.
This too is an architectural characteristic peculiar to
Troy.
When
we enter through the gate, climb the stairs and turn to
the left, we shall encounter the houses of Troy VI and
VII. Let us walk in the direction of the arrow and see
first the room where the signboard with Troy VII written
on it is. In this room, jars buried in the ground will
attract our attention. These are provision jars placed
for use in wartime. The W.C. holes we see in certain places
explain that Priam's castle was built to meet all requirements
in wartime.
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