The site reveals a complex stratigraphy of at least nine major occupation layers, spanning from the Early Bronze Age to the Roman Imperial period, and has played a central role in both archaeological research and cultural memory since the nineteenth century CE.

Troy occupies a strategic location near the entrance to the Dardanelles strait, a key maritime passage between the Aegean and the Black Sea. This positioning contributed to its long-term habitation, economic relevance, and possibly its involvement in regional conflicts. While the Homeric epics frame Troy as a powerful city assaulted by a confederation of Achaean (Mycenaean) kings, the archaeological and historical record suggests a more nuanced reality. The identification of Troy with Wilusa in Hittite diplomatic texts, along with architectural and material finds at Hisarlık, supports the theory that Troy was a fortified urban center with international political entanglements during the Late Bronze Age.

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The settlement history of Troy begins with Troy I (or pre-Bronze Age Troy zero), founded circa 3000 BCE, a small fortified citadel with rectangular megaron houses and a surrounding wall. This phase developed through Troy II, which saw a major expansion in both architectural complexity and material wealth. This is the level where Heinrich Schliemann uncovered a hoard of gold and silver artifacts, misnamed "Priam’s Treasure", though it predates the traditional setting of the Trojan War by nearly a millennium. Following a series of destructive events and rebuilds, Troy VI emerged in the Middle Bronze Age, exhibiting large-scale defensive architecture including sloped stone walls with bastions and towers. This phase was destroyed around 1300 BCE, likely by an earthquake. It was succeeded by Troy VIIa, a denser reoccupation of the site with signs of stress, emergency storage, and evidence of violent destruction—this is the phase most commonly associated by modern scholars with the potential historical kernel behind the Trojan War.

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Hittite Archives
Troy appears in several non-Greek written sources, most significantly the Hittite archives from Hattusa, which refer to a polity named Wilusa. Treaties, notably the Alaksandu Treaty, mention a ruler of Wilusa entering into diplomatic relations with the Hittite king Muwatalli II circa 1280 BCE. The Manapa-Tarhunta Letter and the Tawagalawa Letter further refer to western Anatolian conflicts and entities, including Ahhiyawa, a term widely interpreted as referring to the Mycenaean Greeks. These records strongly suggest that Wilusa was an Anatolian kingdom involved in the wider geopolitical landscape of the Late Bronze Age, possibly as a Hittite vassal and certainly as a neighbor to both Anatolian and Aegean powers.

Hittite Sources
Greek sources begin with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, traditionally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE, which mythologize a ten-year siege of Troy by Achaean forces due to the abduction of Helen by Paris. While literary and not historical texts, these epics formed the backbone of Greek identity and their retellings influenced later accounts. Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BCE, refers to the Trojan War as a historical event with consequences extending into the geopolitical order of his time. Thucydides uses the Trojan War to reflect on Greek interstate alliances and the projection of naval power. By the Roman period, Troy was reimagined as the ancestral city of ancient Rome through the Aeneid of Virgil, which traces the origins of the Roman people to Aeneas, a Trojan survivor. Roman emperors, especially Augustus, invested in rebuilding and monumentalizing the city, now called Ilium, as part of imperial ideology.

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The site's occupational history is divided into a stratigraphic sequence known as Troy I through Troy IX, each representing a distinct phase of settlement. Archaeological excavations at Troy began with Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s, who, in his zeal to prove the historicity of Homer, cut a deep trench through the mound, damaging valuable stratigraphy. His work was continued by Wilhelm Dörpfeld and later Carl Blegen, who refined the sequence of the city’s phases and reattributed many architectural features and structures. More modern excavations under the direction of Manfred Korfmann from the 1980s to early 2000s expanded understanding of the lower city, showing that Troy VI/VIIa was not merely a small citadel but likely a sizable settlement with extensive outer defenses and possible harbor facilities. Archaeological evidence includes complex fortification systems, domestic architecture, storage infrastructure, imported Mycenaean pottery, and human remains indicating destruction and possible warfare. This data, while not confirming Homer’s narrative, does support the idea that Troy was a significant node in Bronze Age networks and experienced a catastrophic end during a period of regional collapse.

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Priam's Treasure
Priam’s Treasure is the name given by Heinrich Schliemann to a cache of Early Bronze Age artefacts he uncovered in 1873 within the ruins of Troy II, near the southwestern portion of the citadel wall exposed in the southern stretch of his trench. The assemblage included gold diadems, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, copper and bronze weapons, silver vessels, and other items, totalling several thousand individual pieces. Schliemann incorrectly attributed the hoard to the Homeric King Priam, though it is now dated to circa 2500–2300 BCE—over a millennium earlier than the traditional dating of the Trojan War. Removal of the treasure from the Ottoman Empire was conducted without official permission, and the find’s original archaeological context was poorly recorded, further limiting its scholarly value.

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Anatolian Grey Ware
Grey Ware at Troy refers primarily to the wheel-made Anatolian Grey Ware pottery that appears in the Late Bronze Age and continues into the Early Iron Age, particularly in layers Troy VIIa and VIIb1. Characterized by its fine, hard-fired clay and burnished grey surface, this ware is typically wheel-thrown and displays a high level of craftsmanship. Common vessel forms include bowls, jars, and kraters with simple, functional profiles. In Troy VIIb1, Grey Ware is found alongside handmade “barbarian ware,” suggesting both continuity of local traditions and the presence of new cultural influences. Its distribution in domestic contexts—often in association with storage pithoi—indicates everyday use, while its technological consistency over time points to a stable local ceramic industry. The presence of Grey Ware at Troy also links the site to wider Anatolian ceramic traditions, distinguishing it from the Aegean-oriented Mycenaean imports found in earlier periods.