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Osprey Fortress #17
Troy c. 1700-1250 BC
Hisarlik is a small place, a sandy stone strewn hillock cut up into gullies and hummocks. Yet its historical significance is immense, for this is the site of Troy - the legendary city whose story sprawls across cultures, time and geography. The tale of the siege of Troy is the greatest secular story ever told, and has captured the imagination of the Western World for some 3,000 years. Although there are many difficulties in using Greek myths, oral traditions and the Homeric epics to reconstruct the Trojan War, this title uses the latest archaeological evidence to reconstruct in detail the fortifications of Troy as well as making more general observations about the possible historical events behind the epics of Homer.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 22, 2004
3 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Nic Fields
71 books22 followersDr Nic Fields started his career as a biochemist before joining the Royal Marines. Having left the Navy, he went back to University and completed a BA and PhD in Ancient History at the University of Newcastle. He was Assistant Director at the British School of Archaeology, Athens, and is now a lecturer in Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 18, 2021
Like Schliemann, one of the first to excavate the ruins of Troy, I have been fascinated about the story of the city and the wooden horse since childhood. This book "Troy c. 1700-1250 BC" explains a lot about that city of legend.
First off, let me say that maps are included as well as pictures of the sites and nice color artwork of how the city may have appeared back then. Nic presented an interesting text that held my attention. Museum sites are included.
Our Troy of interest was actually just one of several rebuilt over the same site. As a matter of fact, there may have been about 45 different building phases there. Back then, in that part of the world, people constructed buildings out of mud bricks. They still do. What was preferred was a foundation of cut stone on which the brick walls were built up. A whitewash with lime protected it from the elements. If the foundation was on solid stone it was stronger, but if on soil it could withstand earthquakes better.
In those early days the current farm fields outside of Troy were once a bay on Hellespont. Both river and land traffic passed by there. Taxes and the sale of supplies to those passing increased the wealth of Troy. Sheep were raised as well as horses. Troy became wealthy, even when burnt and leveled to the ground over and over again by those jealous or fearful of it. The Mycenaeans were often either the enemy or trading partners. Back then, it seemed that the acceptable practice was to raid and pillage another's town for women, material goods, and animals. Of course one just put the men to the sword. One didn't capture men and put the women to the sword. That was crazy!
So according to Nic, Troy VI was probably the one from Homer's tale. But was there a wooden horse? There are pros and cons to this. How big was the horse? Tearing down a wall is no easy matter. But horses were a valuable commodity, and they worshiped all kinds of things made by human hands. Or could it have been one of those siege machines that was called a horse that bored through walls? Was Homer's tale fact or was he using literary license as many still do today when they write about that piece of dreamy antiquity?
First off, let me say that maps are included as well as pictures of the sites and nice color artwork of how the city may have appeared back then. Nic presented an interesting text that held my attention. Museum sites are included.
Our Troy of interest was actually just one of several rebuilt over the same site. As a matter of fact, there may have been about 45 different building phases there. Back then, in that part of the world, people constructed buildings out of mud bricks. They still do. What was preferred was a foundation of cut stone on which the brick walls were built up. A whitewash with lime protected it from the elements. If the foundation was on solid stone it was stronger, but if on soil it could withstand earthquakes better.
In those early days the current farm fields outside of Troy were once a bay on Hellespont. Both river and land traffic passed by there. Taxes and the sale of supplies to those passing increased the wealth of Troy. Sheep were raised as well as horses. Troy became wealthy, even when burnt and leveled to the ground over and over again by those jealous or fearful of it. The Mycenaeans were often either the enemy or trading partners. Back then, it seemed that the acceptable practice was to raid and pillage another's town for women, material goods, and animals. Of course one just put the men to the sword. One didn't capture men and put the women to the sword. That was crazy!
So according to Nic, Troy VI was probably the one from Homer's tale. But was there a wooden horse? There are pros and cons to this. How big was the horse? Tearing down a wall is no easy matter. But horses were a valuable commodity, and they worshiped all kinds of things made by human hands. Or could it have been one of those siege machines that was called a horse that bored through walls? Was Homer's tale fact or was he using literary license as many still do today when they write about that piece of dreamy antiquity?
March 4, 2016
Osprey's Fortress book on ancient Troy is not a bad guide to the history of the site as known to archaeology as a whole, but the bulk of the book concentrates (understandably) on Troy VIh, which is one of the contenders to be the Troy of the Illiad (there are arguments for VIIa). It also has the most well-developed defenses.
Beyond a few pages introducing archaeological periods, and the history of excavations of the site, there is a nice color diagram of the major features of each level of the city showing how it grew over time, and a 12-page history of the city from 2900 BC to 550 AD. I should say in the previous sentence, how the central fortress of Troy grew, since it has now been established that there was a walled lower town, at least during the Troy VI period, typical of major fortresses.
After a five-page digression on techniques of mud-brick building (the stone lower walls of Troy had mud-brick upper sections), book gets into its main focus on the walls of Troy IV, with an emphasis on the later portions of the period. Various towers and gates have technical names for archaeologists to identify them by (such as Gate VIT), but no diagram of these elements is provided, and would have made things much clearer. As usual with Osprey, there are some very good photos of various elements, that also show some of the unusual features of Troy's fortifications. The color illustrations also do a great job with reconstructions of the city, and cut away views, but are curiously washed out with low contrast (the cover has much higher contrast than the full illustration when shown on page 39, and is much easier to read because of it).
The last parts of the book deal with evidence that the Myceneans were indeed involved in plundering the shores of Anatolia (as well as other places), and spends a few pages pondering interpretations of the Trojan Horse, including possibly as an actual siege engine. While the discussion was interesting, there just is too little known for it to be more than speculation.
In general, this is a typical interesting Osprey look at an interesting subject, but I think the color illustrations desperately need another pass through the art department to get the color balance and contrast fixed, and some of the subsidiary material could have been dropped for a detailed layout of Troy VI, both of which leave the book a little lacking.
Beyond a few pages introducing archaeological periods, and the history of excavations of the site, there is a nice color diagram of the major features of each level of the city showing how it grew over time, and a 12-page history of the city from 2900 BC to 550 AD. I should say in the previous sentence, how the central fortress of Troy grew, since it has now been established that there was a walled lower town, at least during the Troy VI period, typical of major fortresses.
After a five-page digression on techniques of mud-brick building (the stone lower walls of Troy had mud-brick upper sections), book gets into its main focus on the walls of Troy IV, with an emphasis on the later portions of the period. Various towers and gates have technical names for archaeologists to identify them by (such as Gate VIT), but no diagram of these elements is provided, and would have made things much clearer. As usual with Osprey, there are some very good photos of various elements, that also show some of the unusual features of Troy's fortifications. The color illustrations also do a great job with reconstructions of the city, and cut away views, but are curiously washed out with low contrast (the cover has much higher contrast than the full illustration when shown on page 39, and is much easier to read because of it).
The last parts of the book deal with evidence that the Myceneans were indeed involved in plundering the shores of Anatolia (as well as other places), and spends a few pages pondering interpretations of the Trojan Horse, including possibly as an actual siege engine. While the discussion was interesting, there just is too little known for it to be more than speculation.
In general, this is a typical interesting Osprey look at an interesting subject, but I think the color illustrations desperately need another pass through the art department to get the color balance and contrast fixed, and some of the subsidiary material could have been dropped for a detailed layout of Troy VI, both of which leave the book a little lacking.
December 30, 2023
Здесь скорее не о Трое , как об оборонительном сооружении, а вообще об археологии этих мест и вообще археологии бронзового века, так что даже можно забыть о заголовке книги.
Интересная мысть о том, что история про деревяннго коня и греков, была каким-то восспоминанием об осадных орудиях, как у ассирийцев, но до тёмновековых греков дошедшая только в таком изменнном виде. Всё остальное мало относится к троянской войне, так что здесь кажется книга о чём-то другом.
Интересная мысть о том, что история про деревяннго коня и греков, была каким-то восспоминанием об осадных орудиях, как у ассирийцев, но до тёмновековых греков дошедшая только в таком изменнном виде. Всё остальное мало относится к троянской войне, так что здесь кажется книга о чём-то другом.
March 3, 2020
History of Troy with an overview of the 9 cities and fortifications built in that location.
Read
February 4, 2021Great for what it is--an outline of archeological digs at Troy with some background information. Not overly entertaining, but that's not why you would read this book in the first place.
March 13, 2023
Used for a research project on The Iliad, it's very useful to give an outline of Schliemann's excavations, the different levels of Troy and the building of the city.
February 22, 2009
The book presents a good, all around history of the site of Troy. Fields is heavy on fact, not Homer, and takes more in terms of digs than anything else. Fields also gives a detailed account of how mud bricks were created as well as the pluses and minuses of using such material. Artwork is good.
December 30, 2012
Another fine Nic Fields work. Good emphasis on the archaeological complexity. Nice explanation of how the actual construction processes worked out, and on the separate building campaigns. As always with Osprey, too few pages.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews