The Trojan War in Homer and History - Recorded Books

LECTURE ELEVEN
Lecture 11:
Carl Blegen and the City of Troy VIIa
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is Michael Wood’s In Search of
the Trojan War.
Carl Blegen, of the University of Cincinnati, did not believe that Troy VIh was
the city that the Mycenaeans captured. According to Blegen, not only had
Schliemann been incorrect in thinking that Troy II was the city of Priam, but
his successor Dörpfeld had also been incorrect in thinking that Troy VI was
the city of Priam. The very next city, known to archaeologists as Troy VIIa,
was not really a new city, Blegen said; it was simply Troy VIh rebuilt—the
walls were patched up and the houses restored. Even the pottery and other
remains left from everyday life remained the same.
In Blegen’s experience—and it was considerable—when the material culture
of a city remained essentially the same, it frequently meant that the population
had also remained essentially the same. In other words, it looked to
Blegen as if the survivors of the earthquake that leveled Troy VIh had simply
picked up the pieces of their lives, rebuilt, and carried on as before. If
Dörpfeld had not already labeled this new city “Troy VIIa,” Blegen may well
have preferred to call it “Troy VIi” instead, for it was simply the next phase of
this long-lived sixth city, which had already been built and rebuilt in a series
of different phases for more than five hundred years by this point. There is
even Mycenaean pottery found in Troy VIIa, which would make no sense if
the Mycenaeans had completely destroyed the city at the end of Troy VI and
left it a smoking ruin, as Homer describes; instead, it looks like the
Mycenaeans were still trading with the Trojans, or at least their pottery was
still reaching the city of Troy VIIa.
However, this city was also a bit unusual. Although there was very little left
still to excavate up on the citadel of Troy, Blegen made the best of what had
been left to him and proceeded to make a series of spectacular discoveries.
Blegen noticed that the large and prosperous houses located within the
citadel of Troy VIh were rebuilt in Troy VIIa with many party walls subdividing
their interiors, as if many families were now living where a single family unit
had lived previously. He also noticed other indications that the population of
this fortified citadel had suddenly expanded to many times its previous size. A
prime indication of this expansion was the many storage jars—pithoi, as they
are known—not only within the houses but also buried beneath the floors, so
that only their tops were visible and accessible. By so burying these jars, the
inhabitants were not only able to keep some perishable items cold, even in
an era that had no refrigeration, but were also able to double or even triple
their capacity for storing grain, wine, olive oil, and other necessities of life.
46