Myth, History, and the Archaeology of the Trojan War

(ARC 162)

Was there a Trojan war? Did Troy actually exist? This course will use archaeological data and literary and artistic sources to examine the historical authenticity of the Trojan legend. The world of heroes that Homer describes in the Iliad draws on aspects of life recognizable from archaeological evidence of the Greek Iron Age, and it also displays knowledge of Bronze Age (Mycenaean) Greece, whose palace society flourished centuries earlier. The course will examine the archaeology of the hill of Hissarlik in modern Turkey, from the excavations of Schliemann in the late 19th century to those of the present day. But it will also consider the enduring popular image of the Trojan Cycle through its representation in ancient and modern literature (Homer, Virgil, Christopher Logue, and Seamus Heaney), in painted scenes on Greek vases and, most recently, in blockbuster films.

Camilla Briault, Lecturer in Archaeology, Stanford Archaeology Center

Camilla Briault received a PhD from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, before completing postdoctoral work at the University of Cambridge. Her work focuses on the archaeology of ritual and religion in the Bronze Age Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. She has worked on many archaeological projects throughout Greece, and is currently participating in the Knossos Urban Landscape Project on Crete, and the Cambridge Keros Project, excavating an extensively looted Early Bronze Age site in the Cyclades.