Troy Studies

Continuation of the Atlantic Theory of Homer's Ilias and Odyssey (part 1: Atlantic Troy; part 2:  Atlantic Ismaros-Kikones). Odysseus' wanderings after his departure from Troy: Route Brittany-Senegal. Study of Atlantic authors De Grave, Cailleux, Gideon, Wilkens, Vinci. Identification of his first stop as North of Spain (Ulla, A Coruña), Kuthera as El Araich (Maroc) and Lotophagia as Senegambia.

Continuation of the Atlantic Theory of Homer's Ilias and Odyssey (part 1: Atlantic Troy). Odysseus' wanderings after his departure from Troy. Study of Atlantic authors De Grave, Cailleux, Gideon, Wilkens, Vinci. Identification of Ismaros as Brittany, Bay of Douarnenez.

Continuation of the Atlantic Theory of Homer's Ilias and Odyssey (part 1: Atlantic Troy; part 2:  Atlantic Ismaros-Kikones; part 3: Atlantic Kuthera-Lotophages; part 4: Atlantic Land of the Cyclopes; part 5: Atlantic Aiolia). Odysseus' wanderings after his departure from Troy: Route: from Corvo, Azores, to La Havana, Cuba. Study of Atlantic authors De Grave, Cailleux, Gideon, Wilkens, Vinci.

NOTES ON THE DATING, AUTHORSHIP AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MEDIEVAL LATIN «HYSTORIA TROIANORUM»

The paper examines the so-called «Hystoria Troianorum» – the medieval Latin story of the Trojan War that was published (1998) in «The Journal of Medieval Latin» by M.L.Colker (from the manuscripts Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS Condé 754 and London, British Library, MS Burney 186) and dated to the 14th century. Compared with fragments of Giovanni Codagnello’s chronicle published by O. Holder-Egger (1891), «Hystoria Troianorum» (or its better part) seems to have appeared much earlier than Colker proposes, – namely in the period before 1235 AD. Unlike most medieval writers, who described the fate of Troy, the author of the «Hystoria Troianorum» emphasizes in his narrative some features of the legendary Trojan past that hardly correlate with contemporary stereotypes of the aristocratic or clerical culture. Thus, the analysis of the short Latin text allows us to elaborate significantly the thesis about high variability of identities based on the medieval «myth of Trojan origin».

This article seeks to demonstrate how the myth of Troy is still relevant to modern-day European culture and identity, drawing on Gregor Feindt et al.’s concept of “entangled memory” as a theoretical foundation. In order to support this claim, it discusses Wolfgang Petersen’s movie Troy (2004), the successful exhibition Troy—Dream and Reality that opened in Germany in 2001; the heated debate sparked by this exhibition among German scholars; and the political discussion about Turkey’s unsuccessful application for membership in the European Union, in which references to Troy played a surprising role.

ABSTRACT: This documentary response sheet contains a series of 112 sequential questions drawn from the video, PBS: Helen of Troy (115 minutes; presented by Bettany Hughes).  The documentary examines what we know about Helen of Troy from Homer's Iliad and the mixed opinions and assessments of later writers and popular folklore. Bettany Hughes also places Helen of Troy within the broader perspective of what we know about elite Late Bronze Age women in Mycenaean Greece and Anatolia (e.g., Hittites), and other aspects of the circumstances revolving around the Trojan War, similar situations known from the Late Bronze Age, and other aspects of this period (e.g., warfare; trade; etc.). These sequential questions aim to maximize both student attention to various pertinent points made throughout the documentary and greater retention of the materials covered by the documentary.  In addition, the documentary has been vetted for overall content accuracy (albeit updated and/or corrected in-class), and selected to provide supplementary visual aids (e.g., images of regions, sites, finds, and other materials), additional specialist views (e.g., interviews), and other data to aid in student comprehension of the course lectures and readings from the textbooks.

Kotsonas, A. 2015. Showcasing new Trojan Wars: Archaeological exhibitions and
the politics of appropriation of ancient Troy, Z. Theodoropoulou Polychroniadis and
D. Evely (eds), Aegis: Essays in Mediterranean Archaeology presented to Matti Egon by the scholars of the Greek Archaeological Committee UK. Oxford, Archaeopress, 235-242.

For over three thousand years people have heard about Troy and the Trojan War which was waged between the Spartans and the Trojans, as well as their allies. The poet Homer wrote about this war from the Greek point of view, the Greek historian Herodotus also wrote about the war from the Greek standpoint, while Virgil took a different approach and told his story from the perspective of the defeated Trojans and Aeneas, their prince. Even with so many different people and cultures writing over the centuries about Troy and the infamous war that took place there, many historians and archaeologists who are still divided on whether or not this event actually happened at all. In spite of this division, there has been some rather overpowering evidence discovered over the last two hundred years that gives credence to the actual existence of Troy and the Trojan War as it is described in Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid.

"Zanggers Wegweiser nach Atlantis löst das Geheimnis gleichsam in Luft auf. Seiner Meinung nach ist die Platon-Erzählung nichts anderes als eine 'verzerrte Erinnerung' an das große Troja, jene antike Metropole am Hellespont (Dardanellen), die wahrscheinlich im 13. Jahrhundert vor Christus der List des Odysseus und der Schlagkraft von 100 000 griechischen Soldaten erlag, wie der Dichter Homer berichtet." (DER SPIEGEL)

A 2012 study by Göran Henriksson raised the possibility that a solar eclipse was described in the Iliad of Homer. If so then it would be one of the earliest dateable eclipses and of value to astronomers and geophysicists to determine the stability of the Earth's rotation back to the second millennium BC; and thereby confirm circumstances of other ancient eclipses. In 2005-6 I published my own research on the subject of eclipses visible from Amarna, Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty and from Anatolia, to investigate whether there was a non-linear change (a wobble or nutation) of the Earth's rotation ongoing at that era, residual from an earlier astronomical event. The possibility of another dateable eclipse observation allows an opportunity to revisit those concepts; together with its potential value in tying early-historical and legendary events to the Julian calendar.

Questo volume è dedicato al terzo libro dell'Iliade, e riunisce insieme tre elementi: il testo dell’Iliade, una traduzione interlineare rigorosamente letterale ed un commentario. Non sono a conoscenza di un altro testo in cui tutti questi tre elementi siano riuniti insieme, e siano presentati in lingua italiana. Non intendo rivendicare l’aver colmato alcuna lacuna: ho semplicemente voluto realizzare lo strumento a mio parere più pratico, per un lettore appassionato di Omero, al fine di consentirgli allo stesso tempo e con un unico volume tra le mani di leggere il testo greco del poema, confrontare una proposta di traduzione ed approfondire vari aspetti del testo con un esteso commentario a piè di pagina.
La traduzione ed il commento sono preceduti da un'introduzione al libro, e seguite da alcune schede lessicali e di approfondimento. La traduzione, le schede lessicali e l’impostazione complessiva del presente lavoro sono originali, mentre per il commento e le note mi sono mi sono appoggiato in larga misura ai due fondamentali commentari di W. Leaf e G. S. Kirk, che ho parzialmente tradotto e variamente integrato tra di loro e con altre fonti. Le note sono principalmente focalizzate sul lessico e sulla grammatica. Per un'analisi grammaticale dettagliata che si integra al testo greco e ad una traduzione letterale interlineare, si veda il lavoro di J. J. Jackson.

A new solution is offered to a difficulty posed by Homer’s Iliad: Hippothoos, the leader of Troy’s Pelasgian allies, fought against the Greeks and died far from his home in Larissa. However, soldiers from the distant Larissas familiar to us fought not for the Trojans but for the Greeks, if they fought at all. The approach herein is a thorough survey of 18 known and likely Larissa locations, considering Homeric, mythological, archaeological, and numismatic evidence. This survey is followed by a systematic evaluation with regard to seven criteria. It appears likely that there may be two widely-separated Larissas of Hippothoos and his Pelasgians. The Larissa of Iliad 17 is probably in the Greek homeland, most likely on the river Peneios in Thessaly. The Larissa of Iliad 2 may well be in the eastern Balkans. The Balkan location is probably on Thrake’s coast of the Sea of Marmara, perhaps at the west of Mygdonia. An alternative location is the west coast of the Black Sea, somewhere around Naulochos, Moisia where a little-known Larissa was mentioned by Strabo.

This essay takes into consideration some of the literary intertexts of the medieval fairy tale-like poem 'Asinarius' in order to arrive at a comic-parodic reading. Among these are Simon Aurea Capra's 'Ylias', Vergil's 'Aeneid', Nigel of Longchamp's 'Speculum stultorum'', as well as a series of textual and iconographic variations on the proverbial theme of the 'ass and the lyre'.

Vpád morských národov do priestoru starovekého sveta neustále láka pozornosť bádateľov. Je to jeden z najpozoruhodnejších a najtragickejších komplexov udalostí v dejinách ľudstva. Nešlo iba o inváziu bojovníkov na dané územie. Do pohybu sa dali celé
národy, etnické a kultúrne zoskupenia, aby na sklonku doby bronzovej najmä vo východnom Stredomorí, ale aj v iných častiach Eurázie, zmenili dávny svet. Ten už bol po tomto veľkom sťahovaní národov iný.

The Dendra panoply was originally discovered by Professor Paul Åström and Dr Nicolaos Verdelis, in tomb 12 in Argolis/Greece, near Midea citadel and is dated on LHIIB period. Since it is considered the first complete set of body armor that has ever been found in the archaeological records, it emerges a series of questions of how a warrior could perform under this panoply. The remit of this thesis is to investigate possible answers on the function and the nature of the Dendra panoply in terms of experimentation. The author uses the work of Åström and Verdelis as his primary source, but supplements it with other significant academic works on this subject. The research expands on the relevant archaeological findings and the Linear B ideograms concerning this type of armor. To better understand the function and effectiveness of the armour a series of experiments were conducted in which a replica of this armor was reconstructed and tested in the context of mobility, stability and in conjuction with the use of several weapons. This thesis mainly argues that this was intended for use by infantry who would use a spear as his main weapon, while his operational task could not have been conducted without the cooperation of light troops. It is highlighted that the Dendra panoply warrior needs a lot of open space and cannot operate efficiently in close-combat conditions. The ability of a Dendra panoply warrior to stand on a chariot, while on charge, remains doubtful.

The paper analyzes the design principles involved in the construction of the 13th century BC Lions Gate at Mycenae. It is shown that this design involves Basic Geometry, namely three circles, an isosceles (quite possibly meant to be equilateral) triangle, and a trapezoid containing a square. Moreover, the paper shows that a modulus of the monument was put in place and the 3-d (cubic) dimensions of the modulus (about 3.80 meters on each side) is derived. Issues related to the monument’s morphology are addressed (it resembles a spear), a feature shown to be shared by all Mycenaean Era tombs’ entrance. The topic or corbelling, a construction feature encountered in the monument, is somewhat extensively elaborated. In addition, the roots of the Mycenaean Lions Gate are traced to the Lions Gate at Hattusa. The Elementary Geometry and more primitive in construction Architecture of the Hittite monument are also examined. The paper concludes with a reference to the broader historical context within which the Lions Gate at Mycenae and that at Hattusa appeared. The 2-century long aftermath, following the collapse of both the Mycenaean and Hittite Civilizations at the end of the 13th century BC, is very briefly reviewed.

Özet
Çanakkale’nin marka imajı oluşturulurken hedef kitlesi tarafından nasıl algılanacağına ilişkin bir marka kimliği yaratmada; dünya çapında bilinen Troya Müzesi ve Ören Yeri’nin rolü büyük olacaktır. Troya, markalama stratejisi oluşturulurken, rakiplerden farklılaşmak için önemli bir
rekabet üstünlüğüdür. Dolayısıyla şemsiye marka olarak kullanılabilecek Troya, hem Çanakkale’nin
destinasyon markalaşması çalışmalarının odak noktasını oluşturacak; hem de şehrin diğer tarihi,
doğal ve kültürel değerlerinin dengelemesi ile kentteki turizm hareketini hızlandıracak ve geliştirecektir. Çanakkale destinasyonunun çekicilik unsuru olarak Troya Müzesi ve Ören Yeri’nin marka etkisinden faydalanılarak hazırlanması gereken pazarlama stratejileri bu çalışmanın temel konusudur.

Anahtar kelimeler: Destinasyon Markalaşması, Çanakkale, Troya Müzesi, Troya Ören Yeri

Abstract

The world-famous Troy Museum and Archaeological Site of Troy would play a large part while creating a brand image of Canakkale regarding the target audience's' perception while developing a brand identity. Troy would be an effective competitive advantage of Çanakkale to differentiate from competitors in this branding strategy. Therefore, Troy, used as an umbrella brand, would be the focal point of the destination of Çanakkale's branding efforts and by balancing the other historical, natural and cultural values, and also it would accelerate and improve the tourism movement of the city marketing strategies that should have developed by making use of the brand influences of Troy Museum and Archaeological Site of Troy as the attraction factors of Çanakkale destination are the main subjects of this study.

Keywords: Destination Branding, Çanakkale, Troy Museum, Archaeological Site of Troy

Obwohl llias und Odysee keine historiographischen Texte sind, sondem 'Heldenepik', also eine spezielle Form von Literatur, werden diese Texte häufig mit dem bzw. einem Troianischen Krieg in Verbindung gebracht. Wer das tut, setzt voraus, daß die Homer zugeschriebenen Texte brauchbare historische Informationen enthalten. Kann und will aber Heldenepik Wissen über die Vergangenheit bewahren und weitergeben? Die Antwort hängt davon ab, was unter 'Heldenepik', zu verstehen ist. Das ist keineswegs so klar, wie es erscheinen mag. Der Stand der Forschung wird in vier Abschnitten besprochen: erstens in einer Skizze des Bildes, das man als das traditionelle bezeichnen kann; zweitens in Hinweisen auf die inneren Widersprüche in dieser Auffassung; drittens in der Beschreibung der in diesem Bild nicht berücksichtigen jüngsten Forschungsergebnise,  und schließlich in einem vierten Abschnitt, in dem die Argumente dafür genannt werden, daß 'Heldenepik', keine Form von Literatur ist, die in die Vergangenheit blickt, um diese zu bewahren, sondern die den Blick in die Vergangenheit für ein Plädoyer benüzt, wie die Gegenwart und die Zukunft gestaltet werden sollen.

in Roman times an aqueduct brought water to Ilion from a source in the mountainous interior of the Troad. This article describes the physical remains of the water system and proposes a course for the aqueduct between 20 and 30 km long. The best known segments of the aqueduct include a large masonry bridge across the Kemerdere valley and part of an underground masonry conduit near the village ofTevfikiye. The aqueduct had an initial segment of terracotta pipelines which later carried water into a subterranean channel. The link between the these two systems has not been located, but the engineers may have put it at a transitional point in the topography between mountains and plateau, which is today marked by the village of Gökçali. Neither the source of water in the mountains nor the point at which the aqueduct entered the city has been found, but the loss in height over the entire length of the water system can be estimated at 400 m. The bridge across the Kemerdere valley is the largest of several bridges on the aque duct. It is also among the largest aqueduct bridges in Turkey, with a span of 16 m and a water channel elevated 27.5 m above the valley. Evidence for accurate dating is sparse, although the bridge's construction materials and technique point to the Julio-Claudian or Hadrianic period. The keystone was decorated with a bust which has weathered beyond recognition. The bust may have depicted Apollo Thymbraeus, who supposedly had a nearby sanctuary that was tied to the legendary fail ofTroy as the setting for Apollo's gift of prophecy to Cassandra and Achilles' abduction and murder ofTroilus.

Esperimento di traduzione dell'Iliade di Omero. Libro XIII: 'La battaglia alle navi'. Traduzione interlineare con vocabolario essenziale in linea. La traduzione è accompagnata da commenti e note grammaticali. Il testo dell'Iliade è quello dell'edizione di David B. Monro and Thomas W. Allen, Oxford (1920), disponibile in formato digitale su Perseus Digital Library. Le fonti principali per i commenti sono W. Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900), e R. Janko (ed. Kirk), The Iliad: A Commentary (1994). Altri testi di riferimenti utilizzati - P. Chantraine, J. D. Denniston, W. W. Goodwin etc. - sono citati di volta in volta nel commento. La traduzione è interamente mia, ma ho consultato altre traduzioni quali quelle di A.T. Murray, G. Paduano, R. Calzecchi Onesti e G. Cerri.

SUMMARY: Lecture 19-a provides an overview on the city of Troy, the Trojan War, and other aspects of this settlement, its peoples, and their role in the Late Bronze Age and later periods. This lecture is designed mainly as an educational resource for college students (i.e., normally posted only on my institution's course website), the public (e.g., people auditing my course), and interested colleagues from other disciplines (to whom I provide copies privately).  I am posting it here, both as a broader access, educational tool, and especially to promote the study of this region and its past societies.  For further knowledge about this region and period, I refer interested parties to the textbooks and other sources from which the materials were extracted (see syllabus), and/or the bibliographies in these works and my online resource guides (see other files in my academia folders).  The lecture summarizes the pertinent materials in the course textbook(s), adding in other data, and furnishing numerous images to clarify information encountered within the textbook(s).  Some generic imagery (usually indicated as such) is posted to aid in transmitting various concepts visually, and/or when a specific image remains not located (temporarily).  I update and revise such lectures each time, with such elective courses normally being taught once every two years.  I try to cover the most current, mainstream views, and usually place summary notes at the end of each lecture alongside some of the key sources used for compiling the ppt.  Over time, each lecture is improved, errors rectified, and additional data placed within the lecture.  These ppt. lectures take many hours to compile, but they have proved useful to many of my more serious students and I hope they can be of benefit to others as well.  My apologies for any errors I may have made, and my liberal usage of educational imagery from professional sources and vetted internet sources. REVISED: April 2024, some text and images, and diverse re-formatting and editing, plus new sources added at end.

The death of an individual leaves a corpse that constitutes a problem that can be solved by burial or cremation. The graves offer extensive information on funeral solutions which vary greatly in different cultures. What role does ritual play in mortuary practice and the handling of the dead body? The body processed to be preserved from complete disappearance illustrates how the choice of burial is at the origin of relics. There are cases with bones of the dead, which have been removed to be reintroduced into the world of the living, who teaches us to separate from death circumstances. That's why we wanted to have a regard on the vestiges of the ancient world and prehistory that keep the memory. This is the case of the Attic Vivenzio funerary hydria from Nola with a scene of the fall of Troy who became a sort of illustration of the Greek and Roman history and of a prehistoric Magdalenian fossil man from the late glacial eras at Veyrier-sous-Salève.

Simpson, E., ed. The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, is a Festschrift celebrating the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Oscar Muscarella is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a formidable scholar who has excavated at sites in Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He has published eight books and nearly 200 articles, excavation reports, and reviews on topics ranging from the arts of antiquity and the importance of connoisseurship, to the difficulties of dating and the problems of forgeries, the looting of ancient sites, and the antiquities trade. The forty-seven contributors are experts in the areas of Muscarella's interests and are major scholars in their fields. This volume constitutes an unusual, important, and timely addition to the archaeological and art historical literature.

Questo volume è dedicato all'ottavo libro dell'Iliade, e riunisce insieme tre elementi: il testo dell’Iliade, una traduzione interlineare rigorosamente letterale ed un commentario. Non sono a conoscenza di un altro testo in cui tutti questi tre elementi siano riuniti insieme, e siano presentati in lingua italiana. Non intendo rivendicare l’aver colmato alcuna lacuna: ho semplicemente voluto realizzare lo strumento a mio parere più pratico, per un lettore appassionato di Omero, al fine di consentirgli allo stesso tempo e con un unico volume tra le mani di leggere il testo greco del poema, confrontare una proposta di traduzione ed approfondire vari aspetti del testo con un esteso commentario a piè di pagina.
La traduzione ed il commento sono preceduti da un'introduzione al libro, e seguite da alcune schede lessicali e di approfondimento. La traduzione, le schede lessicali e l’impostazione complessiva del presente lavoro sono originali, mentre per il commento e le note mi sono mi sono appoggiato in larga misura ai due fondamentali commentari di W. Leaf e G. S. Kirk, che ho parzialmente tradotto e variamente integrato tra di loro e con altre fonti. Le note sono principalmente focalizzate sul lessico e sulla grammatica. Per un'analisi grammaticale dettagliata che si integra al testo greco e ad una traduzione letterale interlineare, si veda il lavoro di J. J. Jackson.

Pınarbaşı-Kumkale plain which resides in the northwest of Troad Region was known as the plain of Troy in ancient times. Ancient Troy resides in the middle of the plain, which has Aegean Sea and Hellespont in the east and it’s north side, and low mountain range in it’s southwest side. Scamander river that originates from Ida Mountain pours through this plain fl owing from South to North. Historical remnants, that were found at the heights in Ballıdağ Hill which rises at the shores of Scamander river and at the South, just right at the entrance of Troy plain were thought to belong to the ancient Troy. Schilemann who assumed the site as Troy before Hisarlık hill, had excavated these places. Hovewer, studies afterwards did shown that this zone as Gentinos. Gentinos is a small settlement in Troas region which belongs to one of the series of ancient settlements in Araplar strait
between Troy and Ezine plains. Researches did show that the city had continued it’s existence from Archaic age through the Hellenistic age and it’s people relocating to Troy afterwards.

Lo studio dei poemi omerici obbliga i critici ad occuparsi di un arco cronologico molto esteso, corrispondente a circa dieci secoli, quelli che intercorrono tra il XVI ed il VI secolo a.C. Perché? Prima di tutto occorre considerare che il contesto culturale dei poemi omerici è rappresentato dalla civiltà micenea, e che questa si è sviluppata nel cosiddetto Tardo Elladico, tra il XVI ed il XII secolo a.C. Le vicende dei due poemi si collocano invece, pressappoco, nel XIII secolo a.C., se è vero che Troia è stata distrutta dagli Achei dell'Iliade nella seconda metà del XIII secolo a.C. (tra il 1240 ed il 1230 a.C.). I poemi omerici raggiungono però la loro forma finale, la forma monumentale che è giunta sino a noi, solo tra la fine del IX e gli inizi del VII secolo a.C. Occorre però considerare ancora una circostanza. In un romanzo storico moderno il critico deve tenere presenti solo due momenti, due periodi: il periodo descritto raccontato nel romanzo, ed il periodo nel quale si collocano lo scrittore stesso ed i suoi lettori. Ma nel caso dei poemi tradizionali – cioè dei poemi tràditi, trasmessi, tramandati - anche il periodo che intercorre tra questi due momenti è di vitale importanza.
La prima parte del libro di Kirk, che qui presento nella traduzione italiana, costituisce un'interessante ed utile introduzione ai poemi omerici, al loro contesto storico e ai meccanismi della loro composizione e trasmissione.

Ecco l'ultimo passo - tradotto e commentato - che condivido dal libro 14 dell'Iliade: si tratta della ripresa dei combattimenti tra Greci e Troiani dopo la scena dell'inganno a Zeus. Il Sonno lascia la cima del Gargaro (il Monte Ida), dove Zeus è profondamente addormentato tra le braccia di Era, e raggiunge Poseidone sul campo di battaglia per comunicargli che ora ha mano libera e può aiutare i Greci come meglio gli aggrada. I combattimenti possono dunque riprendere (o almeno la descrizione di questi da parte di Omero). Il brano che condivido include il duello, ormai lungamente atteso, tra Aiace ed Ettore.
Pubblicherò a breve l'intero libro su amazon. I precedenti libri I-XIII sono già disponibili, e si possono acquistare per esempio accedendovi al link https://amzn.to/2SckJFI
Il testo greco di riferimento è quello di D.B. Monro e T.W. Allen. Per la selezione dei commenti e delle introduzioni, per questo libro mi sono avvalso, oltre che dei commentari di W. Leaf e R. Janko, anche dell'edizione inglese del libro XIV del Basel Commentary edito da Martha Krieter-Spiro e Stuart Douglas (2018). Oltre che, naturalmente, di altre edizioni come quella di G. Paduano.