Ancient Troy- a three way look.

This month we were entertained by Ray Aspden delving into the @ 1200 BC Trojan Wars , describing through legend, archaeology and history the links between the Trojans, Greeks and Hittites, and greatly assisted by wonderful maps drawn by him.

Homer’s Iliad describing the Trojan Wars was substantially based on the history of the Greeks repeated attacks across the Aegean on Troy located south of the Gallipoli peninsular, opposite the Dardanelles. Archaeology has revealed nine cities on the site, much damaged by the Greek’s temple building and the amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. The city was finally abandoned by the Romans in AD 500.

The Hittite kingdom { east of Ankara} had defence treaties with Troy { then known as Wilusa} and came to its aid.

The famous horse was probably a leather clad siege machine used to finally end this 40 year series of wars.

We were left with the question whether our sources revealed the same thing – tentatively, yes!

Next meeting : December 15th 7 30pm “ The Way We Were “, 20th Century Bidford, at The Crawford Hall Bidford B50 4EZ

CHRIS SMITH