Evening star. [volume], December 28, 1936, Page A-18, Image 18

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
Evidence Unearthed to Back
Homer’s Story of Fall of Troy
Excavations Indicate Seventh, Not Sixth,
City Fell Before Greeks—No Trace
of Famed “Horse99 Located.
By the Associated Press.
CINCINNATI, December 28.—Picks
and shovels of archaeologists have
unearthed secrets more than 3,000
years old, indicating that the poet
Homer’s story of the lall of the an
cient city of Troy in Asia Minor was
founded on fact.
Dr. Carl W. Blegen, reporting yes
terday on the 1936 diggings of the
University of Cincinnati archaeolo
gists at the site of the famous Trojan
city, disclosed that the fifth annual
excavations provided data further to
Justify the belief that the true Hom
eric ilium was the seventh city and
not the sixth in a series of nine on the
site of ancient Troy.
Before the Cincinnati investigations
started in 1932, it was believed that
the sixth Troy was the one that fell
before the Greeks.
Dr. Blegen, professor of classical
archaeology and fellow in the Gradu
ate School of Arts and Sciences at the
University of Cincinnati, was field di
rector of the Cincinnati work at Troy.
Evidence Is Unearthed.
While archaeologically nothing has
been found to support Homer’s drama
tization of the fall of Troy, evidence
to indicate that the story had a basis
In historical fact was unearthed.
The discovery of huge storage jars
beneath the floors of most of the
houses of the seventh settlement of
Troy lent support to Homer's song of
a 10-vear siege of the city by the
Greeks.
Evidence also was unearthed to in
dicate conclusively that the sixth Troy
was destroyed by a devastating earth
quake while the seventh was burned,
probably by the attacking Greeks.
Dr. Blegen set the dates for the
sixth settlement as about 1700 to 1300
B.C. The fire that destroyed the
seventh city that rose on the ruins of
the earthquake that occurred about
1200 B.C.
Dr. Blegen said he had found noth
ing to justify either belief or dis
belief In the popular version it the
fall of Troy which attributes the 10
year siege by the Greeks to anger over
the abduction of Helen by Paris.
No Trace of Horse. ,
Neither is there archaeological sup
port for the Homer and Greek tradi
tion that the victorious Greek attack
ers sacked the settlement and nut It
to the torch through the ruse of the
famous wgoden horse. It a horse ac
tually was used, all trace of It was
destroyed in the lire »hat leveled the
city.
The sixth and seventh Troys have
intrigued historians and archaeolo
gists through the ages since Homer
first sang the famous story of Helen’s
abduction and the wooden horse.
Prof. Wilhelm Doerpfeld, German
archeologist, discovered the remains
of the sixth settlement in 1493 and
1894 and interpreted data unearthed
then as ruins left when the Greeks
destroyed the city. Prof. Heinrich
Schliemann had uncovered remains
of earlier settlements in many expe
ditions to the site of the famous
ancient city between 1870 and 1890.
"There can be no doubt that the
wreckage (of the sixth Troy) was
caused by a severe earthquake which
hurled down the upper part of the
city wall and the superstructure of
houses,” Dr. Blegen said.
Date of Catastrophe.
“The date of the catastrophe can
be definitely ascribed to the close of
the sixth Troy during the early years
of the thirteenth century B.C.”
He told, of sections of a great wall
that showed wide cracks and disloca
tions of stone. Since the wall was
built on hardpan, the cracks could
not have been due to natural settling.
In places, Dr. Blegen said, the wall
reaches a height of 30 feet.
In similar manner, practically all
of the buildings uncovered from the
early seventh Troy show Just as clearly
evidence of a destructive fire.
The Cincinnati Investigators inter
preted as another Indication that it
was the seventh Troy that fell before
the Greeks the finding beneath the
floors of most of the houses of num
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erous pithol or large storage jars.
They found as many as 22 such jars
In a single house and even a small
dwelling had 11 pithol.
Those Jars could have held the
enormous stores of food which must
have been available to permit the
Trojan defenders to withstand the
long siege chronicled In "The Clad."
Traces of wheat and other cereals
were found In some of the jars, each
nearly • feet talL Others undoubtedly
contained water and oil.
Remains of a large building of the
sixth Troy were exposed in part dur
ing the 1938 expedition. They give
promise of revealing next year the
largest and most Impressive structure
of that era yet discovered.
Dr. Blegen told of still another
•‘first" discovery by the 1B36 expedi
tion. The ground plan of an Impor
tant house of the original settlement
of about 3000 B.C. was uncovered.
Floor deposits yielded pottery and
miscellaneous objects of bone, stone
and copper.
Two Infant burials beneath the
floor and four outside the house con
tained skeletons of new-born babes
and Infants that lived perhaps a year.
All Indicated a heavy Infant mortality
rate In the early phase of the first
Troy.
Remains of the second Troy present
a complex problem with seven defi
nite subperiods indicated by the
various strata. Like the seventh Troy
of some ten centuries later, the sec
and settlement was destroyed by fire
before 2000 B.C.
YULE “CURSE” LIGHTED
Death Wish Sign Replaces Bright
Bulbs Stolen Prom Tree.
HAWTHORNE. N. J., December 28
UP).—A blue and white illuminated
sign replaced last night the lights
that were stolen from a large spruce
tree on the lawn of William Kievlt.
The sign reads:
‘‘Happy New Year, everybody, but
may the one, or more, who stole the
lights off this tree drop dead.”
FOUR DIE IN CANAL
Trip to Aid Motorist Is Fatal to
Family.
WEST PALM BEACH. Fla., Decem
ber 28 (^.—Returning from assisting
a distressed motorist, Ray Strickland,
his wife and their two children
drowned yesterday when their auto
mobile skidded into a canal 20 miles
west of here.
The submerged car, with the im
prisoned bodies of Strickland, Ida
Mae Strickland and their children,
Gene, 2 years, and Oscar, 34 days,
was discovered by a passing Negro
several hours after the tragedy.
Strickland, State road department
bridge tender at Twenty Mile Bend,
had taken his family with him so they
might enjoy the ride. 1
KM
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