Troy’s ancient agora uncovered in recent excavations

ÇANAKKALE

Works continue at the southern gate area of the ancient city of Troy, where remains linked to an Early Iron Age settlement have been uncovered. (AA Photo)

An agora (marketplace) dating back 2,800 years is being unearthed during ongoing excavations at the ancient city of Troy in Çanakkale, shedding new light on the 5,000-year-old settlement that was destroyed and rebuilt many times by wars, fires and earthquakes and was immortalized in Homer’s “Iliad.”

Archaeologists have been working since 2014 to better understand the connection between Bronze Age Troy and the Archaic and Classical-period settlement of Ilion, said Reyhan Körpe, deputy head of the Troy excavations. “We can say that the place we are excavating is Troy’s oldest agora,” she said.

The archaeological site, which was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1998, has attracted thousands of visitors from around the world, particularly from Far Eastern countries.

Excavations at the site are being conducted under the direction of Rüstem Aslan, head of the Troy Excavations Committee. Körpe, a faculty member at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University’s Department of History, said the excavation area is located in front of the southern gate dating to Troy VI.

“This is the area in front of the southern gate of Troy VI. Since 2014, we have been trying to understand the connection between Bronze Age Troy and Archaic and Classical-period Ilion,” Körpe said.

“We believe there was a marketplace, an agora, here in the Late Bronze Age. This agora was revived by settlers who came here about 80 to 90 years after Bronze Age Troy was abandoned. So we can say that the place we are excavating is Troy’s oldest agora.”

The remains uncovered at the site show that parts of the walls of Troy VI were reused during the Early Archaic period, with houses built on top of them, she said.

“In other words, the marketplace of Bronze Age Troy continued to be used as an agora by the people who settled here. Excavations here will continue in the coming years, and we will try to understand this connection much better,” Körpe said.

Körpe noted that many areas of Troy were damaged during excavations launched by Heinrich Schliemann.

“However, since 2014, we have been conducting excavations in a much more limited area and in much greater detail,” she said. “During these excavations, we uncovered a pavement and an entrance leading from the lower city toward the southern gate. At the same time, we also discovered the agora here,” she added.

She said excavations have revealed some of the remains of structures belonging to the agora. “Amphorae and other pottery fragments found together with these architectural remains have been dated to the Early Iron Age. This means that Troy was not abandoned for a long period after the Bronze Age,” Körpe said.

“It appears that about 80 to 90 years later, newly arriving migrants came here and built their own houses over the old remains, perhaps even on the old walls,” she said. “They named the new settlement they established at this place, which they knew in the past as ‘Wilusa,’ Ilios or Ilion. In a sense, they ensured that the name of the old city continued in this way,” she added.