Where is the City of Troy?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: Where is the City of Troy?
Position1 of 3›: The ruins of Troy are in Hisarlik, Turkey
Argument‹3 of 3: Schliemann found Priam's Treasure

Heinrich Schliemann used The Iliad as a reference to look for objects and treasures from Troy. He found a cache of gold and other artifacts that he said belonged to King Priam.

The argument

Schliemann thought that Priam must have hidden his valuable treasure somewhere in the city. The King wouldn't have wanted Trojan treasures to fall into Greek hands if the city was captured. Finding this hidden treasure was of great importance to Schliemann, not only for its value but also as evidence that Hisarlik was, indeed, the site of Troy. On 31st May 1873, at Troy II, Schliemann found what he was looking for. The artefacts were all closely packed together, probably having been initially buried in a chest. These 270 items included gold jewellery, headdresses, silver ingots, bronze weapons, a copper cauldron and many other treasures. Schliemann actually published a photo of his wife Sophia wearing the gold jewellery and diadem found in this treasure cache, to show off his findings to the public. The treasure was certainly extensive enough and valuable enough to have belonged to royalty. Schliemann got into trouble with the Ottoman authorities by smuggling the treasure out of Ottoman territory. Some say that his wife, Sophia, hid some of the treasure in her underwear. Eventually, Schliemann was sued by the Ottoman authorities, but the artefacts were later displayed in various museums.

Context

During Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Hisarlik, he discovered 270 artefacts buried where Priam's palace supposedly stood. He called these artefacts 'Priam's Treasure'. If Priam's belongings are at Hisarlik then this is evidence for Troy being at this location.

Premises

[P1]Schliemann reasoned that King Priam would have hidden his treasure to keep it from the Greeks if Troy fell. [P2] In 1873 at Hisarlik's Troy II he found a cache of 270 royal items — gold jewellery, silver ingots, bronze weapons — extensive enough to have belonged to royalty. [P3] This treasure served as evidence that the site was indeed Troy. [C] Therefore, because Schliemann found Priam's Treasure there, the ruins of Troy are in Hisarlik, Turkey.

Counter-arguments

Priam's Treasure was found in the layer Troy II, but Priam would have been alive during the time of Troy VI or VIIa, which was occupied hundreds of years later. Frank Calvert, the man who first thought Troy was at Hisarlik, told Schliemann that the treasure was too old to have belonged to Priam, but Schliemann refused to listen to any critics. Schliemann showed a complete lack of respect for the treasure by smuggling it out of Ottoman territories illegally, and it is likely that he cared more about achieving fame and wealth than uncovering history. He had much to gain from lying about the origin and value of the treasure.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise reasons from what a legendary king would plausibly have done, which cannot support a conclusion about a real site; it assumes the Iliad's Priam existed and acted as described. [Rejecting P2] The dating defeats the identification. The cache came from Troy II, roughly a thousand years earlier than the Troy VI/VIIa levels that correspond to any Trojan War — as Frank Calvert told Schliemann at the time — so a rich deposit there cannot have been Priam's, whatever its value. [Rejecting P3] The premise is not needed for the position it supports. Hisarlik's identification rests on the site's stratigraphy, its command of the approach to the Dardanelles, and the Hittite records of Wilusa, rather than on a misdated hoard whose finder had strong reasons to overstate what he had and who removed it from Ottoman territory unlawfully.