Travel: Troy

 Troy lies in the north-west of modern Turkey, close to the Dardanelles straits leading through to the Black Sea. In ancient times this strategic position was even more important, because it used to stand on the shores of a large bay opening onto the straits, which has now silted up. On a clear day you can stand on the ramparts of Troy and see the memorials of the First World War Gallipoli campaign on the far side of the Dardanelles.

      Troy was famously excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in the early 1870s. His methods were very crude by modern standards, but he amazed the world by announcing that he had discovered Homer's city, including the "jewels of Helen" which he photgraphed being worn by his wife.

    Much more careful and detailed excavation has been undertaken since then. Because of the vital strategic position of the site, it was discovered that there were no fewer than nine Troys, one on top of the other, dating from the early Bronze Age through to late Roman times. It was only from the end of the 5th century A.D., as the sea retreated, that the place was finally deserted.

The impressive ramparts shown below are part of the grandest of all the Troys, which florished in the 13the century B.C., and which the archaeologists have dubbed "Troy VI". They are part of the citadel, below which there was a walled town. Altogether there may have been up to 10,000 inhabitants, making it a very substantial city by Bronze Age standards.

Troy VI appears to have been destroyed in a massive earthquake around 1250 B.C., following which a much more ramshackle town, known as "Troy VIIA" was cobbled together in the ruins. There are clear signs that this looted and burnt about half a century later; a time of great chaos and destruction throughout the eastern Meditarranean in the later Bronze Age. It is possible that the story of the fall of Troy in Homer's "Iliad" is a combination of the memory of these two events. 

The famous wooden horse of Troy is not mentioned in the Iliad, and the full details of the story only appear in much later accounts of the Trojan War. Scholars contiue to debate on whether these reflect anything that actually happened.

This is the earliest known representation of the wooden horse, dating from about 670 B.C. It was discovered on the island of Mykonos, depicted on a vase.

 The object below is, of course, a modern construction, built outside the walls of Troy in the later 20th century for the sole purpose of being photographed by tourists! 

The "jewels of Helen" were sent to a museum in Berlin, from which they vanished at the end of the Second World War. It was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union after 1990 that it was discovered that they had been plundered by the Red Army and taken to Moscow. They have now been returned to Berlin. It is now accepted that the jewels have nothing to do with the Homeric era, but date from a much earlier period.

England: Ancient trackways around Grinshill

 Grinshill is a ridge, a mile or so in length, running east to west across the flat plain of north Shropshire. The southern slope is steeper than the northern one. 

It is composed of Triassic limestone, varying in colour between grey and red, which was laid down in vast deserts some more than two hundred million years ago. This is an excellent building stone, and was quarried extensively from the thirteenth century for use in Shrewsbury, about eight miles away, but is also found in use as far away as London. 

   There are many abandoned quarries scattered around the hill.

The village of Grinshill lies to the south of the hill, and Clive to the north. Clive is much the older settlement, with aspects of its parish church showing that it dates back to Norman times.

Modern roads run around Grinshill at some distance from the slopes. Closer in, there are ancient trackways, hollowed out by many generations of travellers.