wunder beta🏺 The Search for Troy
Follow Schliemann's dig at Hisarlik and weigh whether Homer's Trojan War really happened. You'll see how archaeology and ancient stories can back each other up — or clash.
What you’ll learn
- A Story Turned to StoneDescribe Schliemann's excavation at Hisarlik and what he claimed to have found.Homer's Iliad describes the Trojan War, long thought to be pure legend. In the 1870s Heinrich Schliemann excavated the mound of Hisarlik in modern Turkey and uncovered many stacked cities, Troy I to IX. He announced 'Priam's Treasure', but had dug into a layer far older than Homer's war, and his crude methods damaged the site.
- Myth or History?Explain how the evidence at Troy both supports and complicates Homer's story.Archaeology shows a real, fortified city at Hisarlik, destroyed around the time of Homer's war. That supports the story's setting but cannot prove its heroes or the wooden horse. The search for Troy shows how archaeology and literature can overlap, and how blurry the line between myth and history can be.
Questions this course answers
Where did Heinrich Schliemann dig in his search for Troy?
Schliemann excavated the mound of Hisarlik in modern Turkey, believing it was Homer's Troy.
What did Schliemann get wrong about the 'treasure' he found?
He dug into a layer over a thousand years older than Homer's Troy, so his 'Priam's Treasure' could not belong to the legendary king.
What does the archaeology at Troy actually show?
The dig proves a wealthy, fortified city existed and was destroyed near the era of Homer's war — but not that its heroes were real.
Which of these appears in BOTH Homer's poem and the archaeology?
Both the poem and the dig agree on a real, walled city that suffered destruction — the overlap between legend and evidence.
Why are there several 'cities of Troy' at Hisarlik?
Over thousands of years, people rebuilt on the same spot, leaving layers labelled Troy I to Troy IX.
Grounded in trusted sources
- The British Museum
- Britannica
- National Geographic
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.
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