Troy

Troy and the events on the Trojan plain described in Homer’s Iliad have held a prominent place in history as a focus of human fascination for 3,000 years. Since the time of Strabo, 2,000 years ago, the geomorphic features of the Trojan plain (where the battles were fought) have been of scholarly interest. Strabo (1960:13.1.31) recognized that the Simoeis (Dümrek) and Scamander (Küçük Menderes) rivers merged on the plain near Troy, and “since they carry down a great quantity of silt they advance the coastline and create a blind mouth, and saltwater lagoons, and marshes” (Luce, 2003). Much modern debate has centered on the location and geomorphology of the coastline of the Trojan plain at the time of the Trojan War. In the 90 years from 1822 to 1912, Maclaren, Spratt, and Leaf published geographic information about the Trojan plain (Kraft et al., 2003). This also is the period when Schliemann excavated, on and off, at Troy between 1871 and 1890. Maclaren (1822) suggested that in Homeric...