Google Satellite view has revealed many historically and archeologically compelling facts over the years.[i] Last December it revealed a new fact that will need to be interpreted by history, literature, classics and archeology for many years to come. The story of ancient Troy needs major revisions for the following reasons.
1 There is a large mound in front of Hisarlik. Anyone can see it on Google Earth. The mound is a mile wide and over a mile long. It lays between the Kalafatli Asmak and the Mendere River, north of the village of Kalafat and south of the village of Kum Koi.
2 There are three other mounds and two declivities to the west and southwest of the village of Kalafat, all of which appear to be manmade. One of these mounds is a berm over a half mile long. I believe these interventions in the landscape may have worked together as a flood control system that protected a city in the plain. These gigantic earthworks testify to an enormous investment of organized human labor. There are other unexplained declivities and one unexplained structure in the plain.
The plain of Troy, one of the most famous and talked about pieces of land on earth, has been mostly neglected by archeology. After excavations began on the hill above the plain in the 1870s, a city in the plain was discussed and anticipated. Eventually, however, those expectations died out.
The story of Hisarlik and the story told by Homer do not mesh at all well. It never made sense that an isolated fortress on a windy hill could be as important as ancient Troy was supposed to be. How could sacking a stone and mudbrick enclosure only 220 yards across require 1200 ships and a hundred-thousand soldiers? How could it take ten years to do it? Oh, but that is not the whole story of Hisarlik, we are told. More than two decades ago a little town on one side of the tiny fortress was discovered by archeologists, complete with a ditch enclosure. But this did not really relieve the problem by much, because that little town and its fortress taken together were still much too small for the legend of Troy. How could such a small, isolated settlement become so important? Why would such a town have the numerous allies Homer talks about (rather than numerous predators)? How could it house an army of fifty-thousand mercenaries? How could it have enough booty to satisfy an army the size of Agamemnon’s?
On the assumption that there is a city buried in that huge mound in front of Hissarlik, some of the ancient stories about Troy take on new colors. It would have been the largest city in the Aegean, many magnitudes larger than Mycenae or Knossos. It may have been a counter force to them both. The mound is around twice the size of the Hittite capitol of Hattusa. It may have been a counter force to Hittite power as well. Indeed, a city that large could have hosted a superpower of its time. If there is a great city there, then we should no longer be surprised to see all of the allies of Troy that Homer mentions, because it makes sense for the largest city in the Aegean to have allies far and wide. Perhaps it will eventually make sense that Troy was called the richest city in Asia. Successfully besieging a city as big as that mound in front of Hisarlik would in fact require a sizable army. It would have been a city large enough to accommodate a mercenary army of 50 thousand, possibly with the space to assemble horse regiments within its walls. Maybe it would be worth a long commitment to besiege a city that large. And the destruction of a city that size would have been variously traumatic and liberating over a large area – perhaps all around both the Aegean and the Black Sea.
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Below is a picture of the plain before Troy. The famous fortress is marked with a blue castle at right of center. To the left of that is a canal, and between that canal and the river at left of center there is a rising and falling of the land.
We have spent 150 years in the west trying to make sense of something that never was going to make sense. We were trying to tell ourselves that the small settlement on a hilltop was the full story of Troy. Now we know that the old narrative has run its course. What looks more likely is that ancient Troy was a large, thriving bronze age metropolis.
It is possible that the city in the plain disappeared under flood debris long before the bronze age collapse. Perhaps it was destroyed by Greeks around the time of the bronze age collapse.
Only professional study of the mound will tell us the story. My purpose in writing this report is to compel serious scientific study of the entire plain of Troy, especially the large mound in front of Hisarlik.
(fixed typos)