The Greek Age of Bronze

The Trojan war tales, handed down through the centuries by Homer and other Greek and Latin bards and poets, have excited the collective immagination representing the most worldwide famous myth.
Which historical reality is behind these tales? A conflict or a series of local wars in a period and location which can be archaeological related with the Homeric Troy really happened?
Comparing some documents and sources as well as analizing the esametric rules and linguistic form of the Iliad, it is now possible to make a reasonable reconstruction of a series of facts which, when placed in a specific historical context, can provide us with some answers reducing the possibilities.

THE ILIAD COMPOSITION IS OLDER THAN HOMER

One of the question matter of debact between the scholars is about the origin of the Homeric poems. Which material inspired a poet to produce a work of such great quality? Where did it come from? It has seemed implausible that the poet should have completelly invented it. Have the bards of the eighth century BC. take reference and gave continuity to works and oral compositions originated many centuries before them?

Linear B tablet from Pylos

Since the British architect Michael Ventris deciphered the Linear B tablets in 1959 found in several Achaeans settlements in Greek mainland and Crete, it was clear that this language used by the Helladic population of the late bronze age (1600-1100 BC.) was an early form of Greek-language.
The Linear B was thus a difficult and archaic Greek- 500 years older than Homer- and written in rather abbreviation form, but Greek nevertheless (*1).
The importance of this discovery leads to the fact that the bearers of the Achaean culture were ethnically identical with those of the revived Greek culture of the eight century BC. Comparing the linguistic form of the Linear B and the later Greek form of the Homer's time the most obvious difference is the loss of the digamma "W". In the old form the "W" is still written, and thus at that time pronunced; in the later form it has been lost, meaning that by this time it was no longer pronunced.
As well explained by Prof. Joachim Latacz in his book (*2) this fact leads to a very interesting discovery about the origin of the Homeric poems.

Homer's verse is written in hexameter lines. The basis of this versification lies in the difference between long and short syllables. The hexameter (six-measure) comprises the six-time-repeated dactylic foot [- ~ ~], which may be replaced by a spondee [- -]. This means that a hexameter can be formed only by a series of six feet in the form " one long syllable followed by two short syllables" [- ~ ~] or of feet in which the two short syllables are replaced by a single long syllable [- -]. It is therefore never possible to use a measure consisting for example of one long syllable, one short syllable, and one long syllable [- ~ -] or of three short syllables [~ ~ ~].
But in Homeric text there are several hexameter which exhibit precisely these impossible measures, thus violating the hexameter rule. What can have happened here? Any Homer scholar know that Homer does not usually make mistakes!
The answer was found by the British scholar Richard Bentley he established that in all these cases the apparent error could be accounted by the loss of digamma "W"; a Greek bard of the eighth century BC. like Homer, who did not pronunce the sound "W" and therefore did not write it, composed his lines as if he did pronounce and write it. This means, firt of all, that the poet of our Iliad cannot have been the inventor of the genre in which he writes. If he had been the "W" would have played absolutely no role. Thus the poet inherited the genre from his predecessors who practised the genre at a time when the "W" was still pronounced. This takes us back to the Achaeans Greek when , thanks to Ventris' decipherement, we know that the "W" was written in Linear B and therefore pronounced at that time.

There are also some archaeological avidences that the Homer's poems had origin in the Achaean period. The poems mentioned several undubfull elements coming from the Late Helladic time like the boar tusked helmet (see the pages dedicate to the helmets), full body shields (see the page dedicated to the body shields), abbondance of gold elements, huge walls well constructed defending the cities, important rule of the women in the palace style society. Furthermore the continuos list of people, objects, number of dead, and the elaborate structure of the ships catalogue shows a striking resemblance to the bureaucratic and amministrative record-keeping in the Achaean palace cultures as we encountered in the Linear B tablets.
In the famous ships catalogue (*3) twenty-nine contingents of attackers are listed, each forming a geographical and political entity. Each of these shows the same structure: (1) name of the region and enumeration of the places furnishing men for the expedition (2) names of the respective commanders, (3) the number of the ships and the crew number for each. This list embraces 267 hexameters and record not less than 178 geographical names which have been largely retained until today, so that in this list of troop contingents we can recognize Greece.
Through the catalog of the ships we can now try to determine the time when the tales of Troy was originated. So far not one of the 178 geographical names in the catalogue of ships has been proved to be fictitious. Moreover the majority of these location are knows to us from sources outside Homer. An important point is also that the area cover by these names enclosed almost the entire area of Greece, though its political division and area of settlements in some cases do not correspond to the one of eighth century BC.
The Greeks of the historical time were unable to locate almost one quarter of the places named in the catalogue, which can only mean that, by the eighth century, these places were no longer populated.

The most likely solution of the problem is to assume that these place-names and places indeed no longer existed in the Homeric time (or later), yet had once existed and were large enough to provide crew for a war expedition. In the nature of things, this time could not have been the as call " Dark Age" (1000-900 BC.) but only that of the Achaean age. The modern Archaeaology give us new confermations about this assumption being some places named in the catalogue abandoned before the Dorian occupation (about 1000 BC.) and after and never resettled have been now discovered like for instance the Lakedaimon near Sparta or Eutresis and Elenion mentioned in a Linear B tablet found in the 1990s near Thebes.
Furthermore we now know that also elements generaly considered prerogative of the early iron-age like the cremation of the dead peoples, the utilization of iron waponry or the proto-oplitic tactics were also know and used during the final period of the Late Helladic time as well as in Anatolian areas. All these elements give us a reasonably evidence of the period when the Trojan war tales had their origin, but of course they can't prove alone the historicity of the war and the existence of a city called Ilios.

TROY EXCAVATIONS.

Troy area in the late 13th Century BC

Since the ancient Greek time the site of Troy located in the north-west of Anatolia close to the narrow straits known as Dardanelles (the Greeks called this straits "the Helles-pontos") was treated as a site of national triumph and piligrinage. Alexander the Great paid homage to the shrine when he crossed into Asia in 334 BC. By Roman times Julius Caesar visited the Sigeum promontory and the semi-derelict remains of Ilion. Under the Caesars a new phase of construction began the site was intensively visited and honored by Greeks and Romans.
Even if the settlement fell into disuse, in the sixth century AD. it continued to be honored. Many travellers accounts (Cyriac of Ancona, Mehmett II, Elizabeth's ambassador John Sanderson etc...) survive from the Middle Ages and the story of Troy never lost its appeal. Even if the precise topographical location of Ilios was apparently almost forgotten by the accademic world, with the birth of the moder archaeology the site of Ilios was againg excavated and rediscovered by several archaeologist like Frank Calvert, Heinrich Schliemann, Wilhelm Doerpfeld, Carl Blegen and recently by Manfred Korfmann and his team of the Troia Project

The settlement consisting of ten stratificated cities built in some cases one over the ruins of the other (see also the page dedicated to Troy). Two of these stratifications, named as Troy VIh and Troy VIi (formerly called Troy VIIa) dated between 1300 and 1180 BC., seem to be compatible with the city described in the Homeric poems. It was a well-built Bronze Age Anatolian style citadel with large streets, strong walls and towers. The fortifications around the royal citadel consist of gently sloping walls of well-cut masonry with vertical offsets and masive towers (cf. Homer's "angle of the lofty walls", and "strong towered Ilios").

The recent exavations leads by Manfred Korfmann had reveleated a possible existence of a lower town in the south-west area from the upper citadel excavated by the first archaeologists. With this lower town the total area of the city covered about 200,000 square metres, with an extimated population of 6,000 inhabitants. By using new technique like geo-magnetic imagin (a form of X-ray photography which made it possible to obtain an extensive picture of the lower strata without disturbing the surface strata) it has been possible to determinate the position of two defensive ditches the first was about 400 metres south of the citadel, wich probably enclosed the total area of Troy VI, the second a hundred metres beyound the first, at the very bottom of the hill. Even if further excavations and evidences would be necessary to preciselly identify the structure of this lower town, some remains in the north-east bastion of the citadel seem to be the meeting point between the bastions of the upper citadel and the defensive wall around the lower town. Based on this discovey Troy VI was more than a citadel-a kind of cliff-top eyrie with the function of a "Knight's castle" but a large Anatolian royal seat and trading centre, located in a strategical area to control the sea-trade routes of the Dardanelles between the Mediterranean areas and the Black Sea.

Spearheads and arrowheads from Troy VIh/ VIi strata

Around 1300 - 1270 BC. Troy VIh was severely damaged by an earthquake, as is evident from the large vertical cracks in the surviving fortification walls. Nevertheless, Doerpfeld found evidence for fire or fires at various places in the desctruction level of Troy VIh. Likewise Korfmann' s excavation has also revelated signs of war, namely a thick charcoal layer dayed roughly to 1250 BC. as well as slingshots, bronze spearheads and arrowheads scattered in the debris and lodged in the fortification walls.
The remains of houses of Troy VIh and the citadel fortifications, were hastily repaired and reused and many new ones built in former empty spaces.There is no cultural and political break and change of population between Troy VIh and Troy VIi even if a considerable drop in quality for the new domestic structures is evident. The new houses are smaller and cramped, while the rebuilt ones are partitioned. All the evidence points to an increase in population, and the number of large storage-vessels (pithoi) set deeply into the ground, inside the citadel could represent a sign that the Trojans of this period did not feel secure and thus had adopted a "siege mentality".

Troy VIi was sacked and destructed by fire in a date between 1220 and 1180 BC. (more likely 1210 BC.). Human sketetons in the burned rubbish as well as arrowheads and slingshots have been found.
The destruction by fire, the traces of bodies, the weaponry- put them together with the overcrowded conditions and the storage jars, give the image of a threatened community desperately laying in supplies to withstand a siege, and than the evidence of their final desctruction. Was this the archaeological proof that the Trojan War had actually taken place? The citadel discovered in the Hisarlik hill was actually the ancient Ilios and the Homeric Troy?

HOMERIC ILIOS IN THE HITTITE TABLETS

Remarkable discoveries in central Turkey have lead to the decipherment of the Hittite language and have revealed the existence of a great empire which stretched from the Aegean to the Euphrates valley at the precisely the time when more likely the Trojan War occurred. In the Hittite archives we have thus real historical texts to interpret: diplomatic letters, treaties, annals and royal autobiographies where the relationship between the Hittite empire and their neighbours (places and populations) are often described. Several Hittite tables make reference to the city or the area of Wilusa one time also associated with the name Taruwisa (*4). This city was located in the Assuwa country in the North western area of Anatolia. This area was involved in some conflict with the under expansion Hittite empire. The Hittite king Tudhalija I (about 1420-1400 BC) defeated some of the local population which were absorbed into the Hittite kingdom, while other countries remain indipendent even if under the Hittite political influence.
For the above mentioned phonetic laws of Greek the name Ilios was before Homer Wilios which is phoneticaly comparable with the Hittite form Wilusa. Furthermore, even if the name Taruwisa can't be fully phoneticaly associated with the Greek Troia the similitude is at least reasonable.The city of Wilusa under the Hittite King Muwattalli II (about 1290-1272 BC) become what the Hittite called "soldier servant" that is a Hittite vassal state with military responsibilities and with a promise of Hittite military protection in return. (the Hittite tablets also mentioned Wilusa troops/chariots fighting in the Qadesh battle of 1274 BC).
Following the Hittite tablets description and comparing them with some archaeological evidences it is now possible to connect Wilusa with the city excavated in the Hisarlik hill traditionaly identified as the Homeric Troy.

Hittite tablet from Hattusas (Bogazkoy)

One of the most clear evidence was found years ago by Professor David Hawkins of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.In the Karabel pass which takes the road from Ephesus to Sardis over the Imolus range, not far from the modern Turkish city of Izmir, there's an ancient sculpture of an armed human figure cut into the rock. However, no one knew what it meant, because until Hawkins' breakthrough, no-one had been able to decipher the inscription associated with the sculpture. Hawkins' translation identified the human figure as the King of a powerful western country called Mira. The sculpture probably marked Mira's northern frontier with another kingdom called the Seha River Land. We now know that this kingdom extended north from the Karabel pass towards the northwest corner of Anatolia. When taken in conjunction with a letter, this new information helped scholars to locate the kingdom of Wilusa. The letter was written by a king of the Seha River Land called Manapa-Tarhunda to his Hittite overlord. It describes how a notorious local trouble makers called Piyamaradu (*5) has attacked Wilusa. The Hittite King orders Manapa-Tarhunda to drive Piyamaradu out, but he fails dismally and the Hittites send out an expeditionary force to do the job themselves. Before reaching Wilusa, the Hittite force arrives first in the Seha River Land and from there march directly into Wilusa. This leads to the inescapable conclusion that there is only one possible location for Wilusa - in the far Northwest corner of Turkey, the precise location of the site of Troy. It seems likely that Wilusa and Troy are one and the same.
Furthermore in the Hittite treat with Wilusa of Muwattalli II (about 1290-1272 BC) an underground watercourse is mentioned (The Troy watercourse is also mentioned by Homer and it has been actually found by Manfred Korfman excavation), the Wilusa deity is Appalliunas (The Apollo deity protector of Homeric Troy?) and the Wilusa governor or King is Alaksandu (which remaind the Greek name Alexandros the other name of Paris).

Western Anatolian based on Hittite tablets

There are several Hiitite diplomatic documents showing references with the city or the area of Wilusa:
1)Wilusija (later called Wilusa) appeared in the Hittite text under King Tudhalija I (about 1420-1400 BC) when this King defeated a coalition of 22 Luwian countries and cities located in the Assuwa, Arzawa, Seha river and Haballa areas. In this damaged annals also the name Taruwisa is mentioned.
2)On a letter dated around 1310-1280 BC by King Manapa-Tarhunda of Seha river land (*6) to a not specified Hittite King (more likely Mursili II about 1318-1290 BC) Wilusa and the surrounding areas are mentioned because the mercenary called Piyamaradu had depose the governor of Wilusa Kukkunni and he is also moving to attack the island of Lazpas (Lesbos) but the Hittite army moved in the area defeating the mercenary. In this letter Wilusa is described as a city located up to north of the land under Manapa-Tarhunda control, thus in the Troad area.
3)During the Kingdom of Hittite King Muwattalli II (about 1290-1272 BC) a tablet decribes the alieance treat between the Hittite empire and the new governor or King of Wilusa named Alaksandu. In this document the Wilusa deity Appalliunas (Apollo ?) and the underground watercourse of the land of Wilusa (actually found by archaeological excavation) are mentioned.

4)In the Tawalagawa letter the Hittite King Hattusili II -formerly III- (about 1265-1240 BC) wrote to the Great King of Ahhiyawa (Achaeans) about his concern for the activity of Piyamaradu who in collusion with the Ahhiyawa king's brother Tawagalawa (which seems correspond to the Greek name of Eteocles) based in Milawanda (Miletus) are making raids in Lycia. Hattusili II is thus obligate to send his army in the Milawanda area, and Piyamaradu with Tawagalawa have fled overseas. In this letter a past hostile situation in the Wilusa area is also mentioned.
5)In the Manapa-Dattas letter the King of the Seha river land (South of Arzawa and Wilusa) wrote to an not identified Hittite King Hattusili II or Tudhalija III -formerly IV- (about 1240-1215 BC). In this letter Manapa-Dattas make reference to an Hittite army which is moving on west and to somebody who is making war action in the Wilusa area. Furthermore the Seha river land has been attacked by Piyamaradu army which has also attacked Lesbos island.
6)Another reference to Wilusa said that the deposed governor of the area Walmu (successor of Alaksandu) was refugee to the Myra King but Tudhalija III order him to return back to Wilusa.
7)The last mention of Wilusa in the Hittite text is in a letter from Suppiluliuma II (after 1215 BC) to the King of Myra about some contrast for the throne of Wilusa.
8)An interesting reference about Wilusa it has been also found in another Hittite table with religion locutions about the holly city of Istanuwa. In that area was recite a song which starts:..."When they comes from the sea to wilusa". Unfortunately the text is incomplete but if the song makes reference to something happened in Wilusa more likely it was a glorious military event. But since the city of Istanuwa wouldn't precious located or other elements will be discover, this possible "Wilusiad" will remain just a speculative hypothesis.

It is now clear that in the Bronze Age the area traditionaly identify as the Homeric Troy was know to the Hittites as Wilusa and the Greeks as Wilios. Moreover, in the "land of Wilusa" at the end of the fifteenth century BC, the Hittites knew an area called Taruwisa, which can scarcely be distinguished from the Greek Troia. This city was an important political-economical Luwian center and that it was, since about 1290 to 1215 BC, allied with the near Hittite empire. We know from the Hittite tablets and archaeological excavation that war actions, destructions and diplomatic crisis occurred in that area. The city that Homer's Iliad tells of is therefore certainly a historical reality, and in the Broze Age it lay in precisely that area of north-west of Anatolia where the tradition places it.
But were the Achaeans involved in these events? Were the Homeric Achai(w)oi mentioned in some historical documents and were they involved in warfare activity in the western Anatolian area during the late Bronze Age?

Reconstruction of Troy VIh/VIi (Wilusa of the Hittite text)

THE ACHAEANS IN THE HITTITE TABLETS.

Possible representation of Ahhiyawa warrior on Hittite pottery (about 1350 BC)

In Several Hittite texts the population of Ahhiyawa, which occurred at an early date as the name of a country, is mentioned. Not only does this name bear an obvious phonetic resemblance to the Achai(w)oi found in the Iliad and the A-KA-WI-JA-DE on Linear B tablet C 914 from Knossos "...a hecatomb of cattle is sent to akhaiwian.." which seems to be a unique Cretan reference to the mainland Greeks (*7). But this word also, considered geographically and politically, seems to point to the people we know as "Greeks". In the so-called Taswagalawa letter the Hittite King Hattusili II (about 1265-1240 BC) consistelly addresses the King of Ahhiyawa formally, using the style " my brother". The significate of this is that the King of Ahhiyawa is placed on the same level as the Kings of Egypt, Babylon, Assuria and the Hittite King himself (*8). Furthermore it is clear that, at least at the time the letter was writen, the Ahhiyawa were a political and military force to be reckoned with. Some expressions like "By ship" and "crosing" suggested that the Ahhiyawa were located overseas most likely to the west of Asia Minor. Based on some Hittite tablets the Ahhiyawa operational center in Anatolia was located in the city of Millawanda following the Hittite army trip of King Hattusili II to reach the area and based on some other places mentioned in association with Millawanda, that can be located in the interland of Miletus, it is clear that the geographical location of Millawanda correspond to the city of Miletus (*9).

In Miletus an Achaean style citadel as well as pottery, and other Mycenaean elements have been actualy discovered. Based on the above mentioned Hittite documents this settlement was attacked and sacked around 1315 BC by Mursili II and by Hattusili II around 1250 BC. Evidences of destruction in the Achaean Miletus are in fact also attested by the archaeological excavations.In these periods the Achaeans settlements in the Anatolian coast and the relevant diplomatic relationship with the Hittite empire seems to be lead by the Achaean city of Thebes. In the letter of Hattusili II the name of the Ahhiyawa's Great King brother is Tawagalawa which seems related with the Greek name Eteocles (two occurrences of the name Etewokleweios in the Pylos tablets seems to supply an evolutionary link between Tawagalawa and this early version of Eteocles) and thus traditionaly related with the Achaean kingdoms of Orchomenos and Thebes. Another evidence is in a letter from the Great King of ahhiyawa to Hittite King Hattusili II. In this document (written in Hittite but the linguistic features of the text confirm that the writer spoke Greek, rather than Hittite, as his mother tongue) the Ahhiyawa King call himself heir of Kadmos which is traditionaly the founder of the Achaean city of Thebes. This is archaeological reasonable being the city of Thebes, before its destruction (about 1250 BC) (*10) comparable in size and political/military power with Mycenae.

In this Achaean pottery fragment from Miletus dated LH IIIB2 (about 1250 BC) a typic Hittite style high helmet or pillar seems to be represented.

There are several Hittite documents in which Ahhiyawa appears:
1)The earliest is the so-called Indictment of Madduwata. It dates to the beginning of the 14th century BC (thus under the reign of Arnuwanda I about 1400-1375 BC or Tudhalija II about 1375-1355 BC) and recounts Hittite dealing with a certain Madduwata, forced to flee his country by Attarsiya whom the Hittites called Man of Ahhiya(wa). Madduwata was installed as a Hittite vassal ruler somewhere in southwestern Anatolian; however, he proved to be an ungrateful and overambitious person, who caused serious trouble for his overlord by attacking Hittite posesions in what appears to have been the area of classical Lycia and Caria. Later he even invaded Cyprus in alliance with his former enemy Attarsiya.
2)The next reference to Ahhiyawa comes from the time of the Hittite King Mursili II (about 1310-1290 BC). He conquered the country of Arzawa, which lay in the area of classical Lydia, with its capital Apasa (classical Ephesus). Relying on the King of Ahhiyawa, it engaged in hostilities against the Hittites and incited the land of Millawanda to rebellion, but was defeated and its prince probably handed over to the Hittites by Ahhiyawa King.
3)Probably the most important, and certainly the longest, Hittite text regarding Ahhiyawa is the so-called Tawagalawa letter. It is the letter of the Hittite King Hattusili II (about 1265-1240), to the Great King of Ahhiyawa, whose name is unfortunately not preserved. The letter is named after the first person mentioned in it, which is Tawagalawa, brother of the Ahhiyawa King. A more suitable label, however, would be "the Piyamaradu letter" because it is a complaint of the Hittite King to his fellow sovereign in Ahhiyawa about the depredations of Piyamaradu on Hittite territory, apparently committed with the tacit approval of the Ahhiyawa King. The most prominent feature of the letter is the apologetic and conciliatory tone used by the Hittite King to addressthe King of Ahhiyawa, probably a proof that the country of the latter was a respectable military power beyond Hittite reach. All this compatible with the facts known to us about the Achaeans of that age.

4)In the letter of the Great King of Ahhiyawa to Hittite King Hattusili II (written in Hittite but the linguistic features of the text confirm that the writer spoke Greek, rather than Hittite, as his mother tongue) the King of Ahhiyawa cites a previous letter from his correspondent. This means that by the time this letter was written a regular exchange of correspondence was established between Hattusa and Ahhiyawa. The letter deals with the matter of the islands which oroginally belonged to Assuwa. The Hitite King asserted in his message that these islands belonged to him. The King of Ahhiyawa objects that an ancestor of his received the islands from the King of Assuwa. These islands were more likelly Lemnos, Imbros, and/or Samothrace. Furthermore the Ahhiyawa king explains that a forebear of his had given his daughter in marriage to the then King of Assuwa (which after the chronology of Kings know to us must have been in the fifteenth century) and that consequently the islands had come into possession of Ahhiyawa. The mentioned forebear is Kadmos whom as above mentioned is inseparably linked with Thebes(*11)
5)In a fragmentary tablet from Hattusa the Hittite King Hattusili II mentioned a personal involvement of the Great King of Ahhiyawa in possibly fighting along the Anatolian coast. The tales is told after the successfully war campaign of Hattusili II in the western lands. In the tablet is mentioned than meanwhile the Hattusa army moved in the Seha river land the Ahhiyawa king withdrew (the translation... Ahhiyawa king withdrew... is dubfull it could also be interpretaded as... Take refuge with the King of Ahhiyawa... or...relied on the king of Ahhiyawa for support... In this case the subject could be again the trouble makers Piyamaradu)

6)The Hittites remained active in the Aegean area even close to the end of their empire by the texts from the time of Tudhalija III (about 1240-1215). He not only successfully suppressed the revolts in the west-namely the land around the Seha river, and the southwest Lycia and Caria, but even managed to establish control over Millawanda.
In the as called treaty of Tudhalija III with his brother in law and vassal King Sausgamuwa of Amurru (contracted around 1220 BC), the King of Amurru was not only expressly instructed to impose a strict tarde blockade on Ahhiyawa, but the Great King of Ahhiyawa was deleted from the evidently very longstanding formula of Great Kings.(*12)

Achaean arrowheads from Troy VIh/VIi strata

Citadel under siege on the silver rhytom from shaft grave IV at Mycenae dated around 1550-1500 BC

Unfortunately no similar diplomatic style documents were produced by the Achaean palace administration or at least no evidences have been so far attested. Nevetheless some of the linear B tables from Pylos seem provide evidence of female slaves coming from the eastern Aegean. The women were either captured during seaborne raids, or brought from slave traders. The fact they are usually mentioned with their children but not with men implies the familiar raiding pattern of predatory warbands, when the men are killed and the women carried off. These groups of women are recorder doing menial tasks such as grinding grain, carding flax and spinning wool. Their ration quotas suggest that they were numbered in the hundreds (about 700 women with their 400 girls and 300 boys who..."belong to them"). Many are distinguished by ethnic adjectives, probably denoting the places they came from, and though some of these are still not understood, several of the women come from eastern Aegean island or the western seaboard of Anatolia- Knidos, Miletos, Lemnos, Halikarnassos, Chios and AS-WI-JA which seems to be related the Assuwa (Lydia) of the Hittite tablets. Recorded on one tablet from Pylos (PY Ep 705.6) there is even the enigmatic name TO-RO-JA (woman from Troy?). These descriptions often use the term LA-WI-AI-AI "captives" which is the same word used by Homer to describe women seized by Achilles at Lyrnessos during a predatory foray south of Troy (*13).

It was now clear from the Hittite tablets and from several archaeological evidences that the Achaeans of the 14th and 13th centuries BC (the heyday of their civilisation) were largely involved in trade, diplomatic and armed foray along the shores and islands of the western Anatolian. Based on these elements is it thus possible to make some reasonable hypothesis about the historicity of the Trojan war also taking into account the traditonal Myth?

TROJAN WAR HYPOTHESIS

Considering the above mentioned elements coming from the historical documents and the archaeological sources we can thus express two main hypothesis:
1st hypothesis:
Since the 14th century BC the Achaeans under the leadership of Thebes have extended their control in several western Anatolian shores and eastern Aegean islands. In these areas their most important logistic and military centre was Miletus. The Achaeans were allied with some local populations but they also entered in conflict with the near Hittite empire with which they kept regular diplomatic relations. The continuous raids and the war action of the Achaeans and their most important Anatolian ally Piyamaradu forced the Hittite King to send his troops to destroy the citadel of Miletos. The Achaeans thus move their attention to the strategic city of Wilusa and the other nearby islands and areas (Lesbos, Seha river land, Arzawa). The city of Wilusa was attacked and partially damaged around 1300-1270 BC (Troy VIh) also due to an heartquake that could have weakened Troy's walls and left them open for attack. This first event was probably conducted by the Theban's Achaeans together with their ally Piyamaradu. The Epic echo of this first destruction could be represented by the myth of Herakles (himself also related with Thebes) who destroyed Troy one generation before the Homeric Trojan war. In that period the citadel of Wilusa was a Hittite vassal state so the Achaeans were soon obligated to withdraw by the intervention of the powerful Hittite army.
Around 1250-1230 the citadel of Thebes was destroyed by a coalition of other Achaeans reigns (Epigons Myth), after which Mycenae took the leadership of the Achaeans states. The diplomatic relations with the Hittite empire were interrupted (The Achaean Great King was in fact deleted in the Hittite tready of Tudhalija III). Around this period the Hittite empire started to enter in crisis and the reciprocal diplomatic treaty with the city of Wilusa ended. The Achaeans under the leadership of Mycenae moved again to the Anatolian shore and they sieged Wilusa and the other surrounding areas. If we consider the earliest possible date of Troy VIi (formerly Troy VIIa) destruction, Wilusa was conquested, destroyed and burned around 1210 BC. But the Bronze Age society was almost at its end around this time, and most of the Achaeans citadels in different times and modalities also fell some decades later because of internal conflicts, migration flows, and the changes in the economical and social status. This threw not only in the Greek mainland but all the Mediterranean areas into confusion. But the Epic echo of the war against Wilusa was already part of the late Achaeans society tales and the Iliad started to take consistency as a oraly trasmitted poems.
2nd hypothesis:
For two centuries the Achaeans have extended their control on several western Anatolian shores and eastern Aegean islands. These campaigns were mainly conducted under the leadership of Thebes and after its destruction under Mycenae. The Achaean main centre of control for their raids and war actions was located in Miletus. It is attested that the Achaeans operations were conducted together with some local allies first of all the mercenary Piyamaradu. These actions forced the Hittite king to send his troops to destroy the citadel of Miletos. The Achaeans thus move their attention to the strategic city of Wilusa and the other nearby islands and areas (Lesbos, Seha river land, Arzawa). The city of Wilusa was attacked and partially damaged around 1300-1270 BC (Troy VIh) also due to an earthquake that could have weakened Troy's walls and left them open for attack. Because the Hittite intervention the city was not completely damaged and conquested even if during the next decades it was again under siege by the Achaeans and their ally Piyamaradu. The diplomatic relations with the Hittite empire continued until the death of the Great King of Ahhiyawa (Agamemnon ?) when he was deleted in the Hittite treaty of Tudhalija III.
During the collapse of the Bronze Age society the flow of migrating populations in different Mediterranean areas (see also the page dedicated to the Sea People) in which also the Achaeans were involved, was the cause of the destruction of the Luwian city of Wilusa which was attacked, destroyed and burned around 1180 BC. (If we consider the latest possible date for the destruction of Troy VIi, formerly Troy VIIa). The memories of the previous Achaeans sieges on the Wilusa land and the surrounding Anatolian areas plus its final destruction, also caused by the Achaean Sea People, take form in a poem which starts to be orally composed by the bards in this very late bronze Age sub-Mycenaean period as a memory of the eroic past time.

THE TROJAN HORSE

Several theories have been made about the famous Trojan horse, for some scholars it could have been a kind of war siege machine even if no evidences exist that large and elaborate siege machine were used by the Greeks of the Bronze Age. Indeed documentary evidence from Syria and Hattusa does indicate that such machines were in use as early as the 18th century BC and that they were named after animals (the wild ass or the wooden one-horned animal). An interesting and plausible theory is the one about the Trojan horse as a metaphor and a symbol of the God Poseidon (*14) who damaged Troy VIh by an earthquake. For other people the Trojan horse could be just a symbol on a city gate left unlocked by pro-Achaeans Antenor or a huge gift to some Deity left on the beach by the Achaeans for a safe home return. Many of these theories sound convincing nevertheless we can not completely exclude that a real object existed and that it played a role in tricking the Trojans into leaving their city without defences. Thus was a real example of unconventional warfare, Bronze Age style. Probably we will never know if this object was actually a huge horse with warriors hidden inside it or just an empty statue carried inside the city as a trophy at the end of the siege. It was in fact a trick to relax the Trojans and allow one or more disguised Achaeans inside the city to light a signal fire to bring the Greeks back.

Huge horse on a cetula from Konossos dated around 1200 BC

In Archaeology there is an interesting seal from Knossos dated more likely in the final phase of LM III (about 1200 BC). This seal, probably used as a warranty mark for the traded goods, shows a huge Achaean style horse placed over a single mast ship with oarsmen (*15). Furthermore in a late Achaean pottery exhibit in the Nauplion museum a huge horse surrounded by men is also depicted, but of course the interpretation of these elements as a genuine Achaean representation of the Trojan horse, without any other evidences, is just speculative.

TOP

(1) Michael Ventris-John Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek ( II edition);* Cambridge University Press (1973).

(*2) Joachim Latacz, Troy and Homer, Towards a solution of an old mystery; Oxford University Press (2004).

(*3) Iliad, II 494-759.

(*4) Taruwisa only occurs once, in the damaged annals of Tudhalija I (about 1420-1400 BC), the first Hittite King to visit this region, in a list of towns of the land of Assuwa on the west coast of Anatolia. These towns are apparently listed in geographical order starting from the border with Lukka land, and this puts Taruwisa, the last i the list, in a northery location in the Troad, in fact.

(*5) Piyama-radu (Piyama means gift and Radu was a good deity) is mentioned in several Hittite tables dated from 1290 to 1215 BC. He was probably a Luwian price belong to the "Apta" population. He seems to be a dangerous mercenary alied with the Ahhiyawa (The Achaeans).

(*6) It is know by other documents that this region correspond to the modern Mysia.

(*7) The mainland Greeks referred to the Cretan as "Kretes" (Bennet 1999 11-30).

(*8) Hagenbuchner 1989: I. 45f - Kings of equal status usually address on another as ..."My brother"-.

(*9) In some place the name is Milawata suggesting an early Greek form Milwatos.

(*10) As for the traditional Epigons mith Thebes was destroyed by a coalition of Achaean reigns some decades before the Trojan war. For this reason it was not mentioned between the kingdoms involved in the expetion lead by Mycenae King Agamemnon against Troy.

(*11) The Greeks have always held Kadmos to be the founder of Thebes, and the royal city of Thebes was and is still caled Kadmeia.

(*12) If, as seems plausible, the relations of the Hittite empire were maintained with the High King of Ahhiyawa from Thebes this Achaean city just loose his power in that period.

(*13) Iliad XX, 193. It is also a remarkable fact that Homer names a number of islands in the eastern Aegean as homes of women taken on Achaian raids, including Lesbos, Skyros and Tenedos (Iliad: IX, 128-130, 270-272, 664-665; XI, 625-627)

(*14) For the Greek mythology Poseidon, also personified as a horse controlled, from his sea-domain, the devastating force of the earthquake. This ability to summon earthquakes earned Poseidon the epithet of "Earth Shaker".

(*15) Based on Homer also the Cretan king Idomeneus was one of the warriors hidden inside the wooden horse.