Troy 1987-2012: Excavations and Investigations III: Troy VI and VII: the end of Middle and the Late Bronze Age
Abstract
The present volume is part of the final publication series, dedicated to Middle and Late Bronze Age. Apart from the fact that Troy is mentioned in the earliest literary tradition in Europe it is also an important site that was more or less continuously inhabited for almost four millennia, which naturally made it a reference site for Bronze Age chronology of the Aegean area, western Anatolia, the Balkans and beyond.
This second volume in the series of four planned so far on the Bronze Age remains of Troy presents results of the new excavations and investigations directed by Manfred Korfmann and Ernst Pernicka between 1987 and 2012 and provides much new evidence on the development of Troy in the second millennium BCE. It describes in great detail its ups and downs during this period, targeting especially its heydays in the second half of the millennium.
With the results of the more recent excavations in western Anatolia at hand, Troy is no longer seen as a unique phenomenon but rather as one of several major fortified settlements in this area. It was certainly the largest and dominant site in the Troad and may have drawn its prosperity from the fertile agricultural land in its surrounding and from flourishing local industries.
Nevertheless, the material culture shows wide-ranging contacts and demonstrates that Troy was an important participant in the exchange networks ranging from the eastern Mediterranean to the northern Aegean and probably also the Balkans.