en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy
2 corrections found
The current site was excavated by Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann from 1871.
This date is too late. Calvert had already begun excavating Hisarlık years earlier, and Schliemann himself says he made initial excavations there in April 1870.
Full reasoning
The statement is incorrect because neither excavator's work at Hisarlık began in 1871.
- The British Museum's Troy exhibition guide states that "In 1863 Calvert began excavating at Hisarlık".
- A scholarly summary in the American Journal of Archaeology says Frank Calvert had begun trial excavations "at least seven years before Schliemann initiated his probe on the mound in 1870".
- Most directly, Schliemann's own 1875 paper says: "I therefore made there in April 1870 small excavations ... having obtained the necessary permission, I made there in 1871 larger excavations".
So 1871 was the start of Schliemann's larger excavation campaign, not the beginning of excavation at the site by Calvert and Schliemann together.
3 sources
- Schliemann, Heinrich: On the site of the Homeric Troy: read june 24th, 1875 (London, 1877)
"I therefore made there in April 1870 small excavations ... having obtained the necessary permission, I made there in 1871 larger excavations".
- Part 1 Large print exhibition text: Troy
"In 1863 Calvert began excavating at Hisarlık".
- "Finding the Walls of Troy": Frank Calvert, Excavator
"At least seven years before Schliemann initiated his probe on the mound in 1870, Frank Calvert ... had begun to clean the area of the theater and make promising trial excavations."
A new city called Ilium (from Greek Ilion) was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus.
Ilium long predated Augustus. Greek Ilion already existed at Hisarlık centuries earlier, and Augustus renovated and favored the city rather than founding it from scratch.
Full reasoning
This is incorrect because Ilion/Ilium existed at the site long before Augustus' reign.
- The Oxford Classical Dictionary explains that Ilion is the name for the settlement at Troy following the end of the Bronze Age, and says the city's fortunes rose again in the late 9th and early 8th centuries BCE.
- The British Museum's Troy exhibition guide notes that a traveler at Hisarlık in 1801 found Greek coins inscribed "of Ilion", including a coin of Ilion dated about 95–87 BC. That alone shows the city called Ilion existed decades before Augustus came to power.
- A Cambridge overview of Roman reception states that "In the Hellenistic period Ilion greatly gained in political importance" and that Augustus' era merely brought the city into a new level of public attention.
So Augustus did not found Ilium on an empty site; he supported and rebuilt an already existing city.
3 sources
- Ilion | Oxford Classical Dictionary | Oxford Academic
"The name of Ilion is generally applied to the site of Troy to designate the settlement in existence there following the end of the Bronze Age... The fortunes of the city began to rise again during the late 9th and early 8th centuries bce".
- Part 1 Large print exhibition text: Troy
"The search for Troy Greek Ilion at Hisarlık... Coin (tetradrachm) of Ilion, about 95–87 BC".
- Roman Reception of the Trojan War (Chapter 5) - Rome: An Empire of Many Nations
"In the Hellenistic period Ilion greatly gained in political importance... Yet it was not before 27 BCE, the year of Augustus’ rise to power, that Ilion was placed in the focus of public attention."