In 1998, unesco's World Heritage Committee inscribed the ruins of the city of Troy on the World Heritage List. One of the comments of the World Heritage Committee reads:
"The fact that Troy was besieged by Spartans and Acaeans from Greece in the 13th or 12th centuries BC has been passed down through the ages by Homer in epic poems."
The ancient city of Troy in Homer's Epic, located in northwestern Asia Minor, centered on the Trojan War, took place about 3,200 years ago, about the same era as the Shang Dynasty Wuding. So, how do Western scholars confirm that "the archaeologically discovered site of Troy is the ancient city of Troy in Homer's Epic", so that the World Heritage Committee made the assessment that "this historical fact was written by Homer into the epic and passed down through the ages"?
During the Mycenaean civilization, the Trojan prince came to the Spartan palace as a guest and was warmly welcomed, but the Trojan prince abducted the Spartan princess, so the Spartan king Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon decided to attack Troy, the book said that Sparta gathered "100,000 troops, 1186 ships", and the Trojan War broke out.
Due to the solidity of the Trojan city, easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Spartan army failed to achieve its wish for 10 years. At this time, the hero Odysseus devised a clever plan to have the Spartan soldiers pretend to burn the tent and retreat, but deliberately left a huge wooden horse. The Trojans then dragged the Trojan horse into the city as a trophy, and the Spartans, who were hiding in the Trojan horses that night, opened the gates of the city and put in the Spartan army that had long been ambushed outside the city, and the Spartans destroyed Troy.
The deeds narrated in Homer's Epic have become a well-known passage in the literature and art of Western countries. Due to the great influence of Homer's Epic in Europe and the United States, many scholars are convinced that it records real history, so as early as the beginning of the 19th century, Western scholars began to look for the ancient city of Troy.
In 1822, mcLaren, a British topographer known as "staying at home", based on the description of Troy's topographical description of The Epic of Homer, "located on the highlands, surrounded by plains", etc., roughly circled the area of Hisharik Mounds on the western coastline of Turkey through a map, pointing out that "the ancient acropolis that stands on the highlands and surrounded by plains is obviously the site of the new Ilion".
In 1871, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated here and excavated the ruins of an ancient city, which was claimed to be the ancient city of Troy in Homer's Epic, and the site has been considered a Trojan site ever since. Schliemann claimed to have found treasures, including bronzes, gold, jewelry, etc., but the whereabouts of these artifacts are unknown and have not been seen by later generations. The British historian Michael said in The Search for Troy: "Unfortunately, the answer to the question of where the treasure itself went is a matter of opinion. ”
The Trojan site has a total of nine ancient cities, spanning 3000 BC to 400 AD, 1-5 floors corresponding to the early Bronze Age, 6-7 layers belonging to the middle and late Bronze Age, and 8-9 layers belonging to the early Iron Age. Schliemann believes that the "ancient city of Troy", located on the second floor, more than 4200 years ago, unearthed a large number of legendary treasures, the scale is only slightly larger than the village, probably equivalent to some Western scholars on the Erlitou site evaluation - "pottery village".
Since the second level of the Trojan ruins predates the Trojan War in Homer' epics by more than 1,000 years, even if the excavated artifacts are true, they cannot prove that the site is the ancient city of Troy in Homer's epic. Apparently, Schliemann's judgment was seriously wrong. (Below, bird's eye view)
In fact, the time of the Trojan War is really close to the sixth floor, where many Greek clay pots and Mycenaean arrows have been unearthed, as well as a seal engraved with two characters. However, the destruction of the sixth layer of the city is inconsistent with the Trojan War, because the foundation of the city wall has obviously shifted and tilted, and the superstructure of all the houses excavated has been collapsed, so the destruction of the sixth floor is not a war, but an earthquake.
More importantly, no proof text has been found in the Trojan site, and the two words on the seal are Rubian hieroglyphs, which should be the name of the owner, which has not been deciphered today.
That is to say, the so-called Trojan site, not only is there no rigorous written proof, but even the excavations are seriously inconsistent with the Trojan War in Homer's Epic. According to the Western doubt that the Erlitou site in China is the capital of Xiadu, there should be insufficient evidence to prove that the Trojan site is "the Trojan of Homer's epic". However, since its discovery, this site has been named the "Troy Ruins" for more than 150 years.
In the 1950s, archaeologists discovered the Erlitou site, which was initially thought to be the Capital of Xia, which confirmed the existence of the Xia Dynasty, but was soon widely questioned by Western scholars.
The Erlitou site dates back to about 3800 to 3500 years, the time is comparable to the Xia Dynasty; located in the Heluo area, the geographical space is consistent with the Activity Area of the Xia Dynasty described in the "Records of History"; the site area is not less than 3 square kilometers, including palaces, residential areas, pottery workshops, copper casting workshops, cellars, tombs and other relics, is a well-planned, large and orderly, unprecedented dynastic capital; there are countless cultural relics unearthed, but the cultural relics style is very different from the Shang Dynasty, indicating that it is different from other regimes of the Shang Dynasty ....... Although all kinds of evidence point to the Xia Dynasty and the Xia Capital, because the Erlitou site has not unearthed any written iron evidence, so under the doubts of all parties, the most scientific and rigorous statement today can only be said that Erlitou is the "earliest China" - the earliest wide-area monarchy state in the East Asian continent, and it cannot be conclusively confirmed that this is the Xia capital, let alone the existence of the Xia Dynasty.
Objectively speaking, both Western scholars and some domestic scholars have justified their doubts about whether the Erlitou site is the capital of Xia, but the problem is that if measured by the criteria for identifying the ancient city of Troy, the site of Erlitou should be the capital of the Xia Dynasty; if measured by the criteria for the identification of the Erlitou site, the Trojan site may not be named "Troy" at all.
In fact, the Trojan ruins are only some of the characteristics of the literary work Homer," which is now widely regarded as Troy in Homer's Epic, and is also inscribed on the World Heritage List by the World Heritage Committee, and even because of the existence of the Trojan ruins, Homer's Epic has become a history book containing endless ancient secrets. The Erlitou site, although it conforms to many descriptions of the canonical history, cannot prove that it is the capital of Xia, let alone the existence of the Xia Dynasty.
References: World Heritage Site - Archaeological Site of Troy, etc