Since man first began building and living in urban settlements about five thousand years ago, countless cities have come and gone. Many early cities couldn’t keep pace with others that were better equipped for success due to their locations near resources, while some were the victims of warfare. Cities that were destroyed by warfare were occasionally rebuilt once or twice, but rarely more than that.
But if you go just outside of the modern Turkish town of Hisarlik, you’ll find a large mound that is the final resting place of a city that had nine lives. In ancient times, it was known as Troy. Yes, the legendary Troy that was sieged for ten years by the Greeks. It was discovered and excavated by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1870s, proving that the Troy of the Odyssey, Iliad, and Aeneid really was true, to a certain extent. When news of Schliemann’s discovery spread around the world, many were overjoyed to learn that the seemingly useless classes in Greek history they were forced to take were actually somewhat validated.
But those in academic circles were even more excited.
Schliemann’s excavations illuminated facts about Mycenaean Greece and Hittite Anatolia that were previously only theories, such as the extent of Mycenaean influence in the Aegean. The excavations also helped scholars fill in chronological gaps in the Late Bronze Age, which were at least partially the result of the so-called Sea Peoples invasions around 1200 BC. And as more and more excavations took place at the site in the decades and after Schliemann’s initial discovery, it was learned that the city, also known as Ilion, had begun as early as 3000 BC, when man first began building urban settlements.
Troy was destroyed through warfare and abandoned time after time. Then it was rebuilt by people possibly related to the Hittite Civilization around 1300 BC, which is today known as Troy VIIa. This was the Troy of the Homeric epics.
Even after the Mycenaean Greeks destroyed Troy VIIa, the settlement was rebuilt again and became a favored city of the Romans. Unlike the Greeks, who knew they were descended from the besiegers of Troy, the Romans believed they were descendants of the Trojans. During the reign of Emperor Augustus in the first century BC-AD, Troy was given the Latin name Ilium and continued to have favored status. The Romans installed baths and built an amphitheater in the city, but as Roman power faded so too did Troy’s allure. When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in AD 476, Troy IX, the final Troy, also came to an end.
As Christians, the Byzantine Greeks were much less interested in Troy and simply ignored the site. When the Ottoman Turks—who also had no interest in pagan myths—conquered the region, they built a new settlement, Hisarlik, near the forgotten city.
But thanks to the efforts of Heinrich Schliemann, Troy was once more given new life, confirming its reputation as a city that will not die.