1 00:00:03,020 --> 00:00:09,129 In May this year Hollywood releases its latest epic. 2 00:00:09,224 --> 00:00:13,683 It’s the story of the Trojan war. 3 00:00:13,884 --> 00:00:20,096 There’s a great will to believe that there was a Trojan war and it was for the love of a beautiful woman. 4 00:00:20,141 --> 00:00:24,241 But is any of it more than just a myth? 5 00:00:24,338 --> 00:00:31,129 You have science on the one hand and you have the imagination gone wild on the other. 6 00:00:31,149 --> 00:00:37,137 Tonight Horizon can reveal the latest scientific evidence about the real Troy. 7 00:00:37,138 --> 00:00:39,140 There are skeletons. 8 00:00:39,651 --> 00:00:44,841 We found for example a girl, I think sixteen, seventeen years old. 9 00:00:45,155 --> 00:00:52,444 It was a city which was besieged and they were defeated. 10 00:00:52,758 --> 00:00:59,349 The evidence comes from the written tablets of a lost civilisation. 11 00:00:59,963 --> 00:01:02,351 An extraordinary shipwreck, 12 00:01:03,352 --> 00:01:07,452 and treasure uncovered at Troy itself. 13 00:01:07,665 --> 00:01:12,156 The scientist collides with the romantic. 14 00:01:12,157 --> 00:01:21,657 We show how science is taking us closer than ever to the truth behind one of the greatest stories of them all. 15 00:01:43,158 --> 00:01:48,558 For thousands of years these tunnels have held a secret, 16 00:01:49,259 --> 00:01:51,459 until now. 17 00:01:51,769 --> 00:01:57,958 They are carved in to the bedrock of an ancient city in North West Turkey. 18 00:01:59,972 --> 00:02:04,464 The marks of the workman who made them still visible. 19 00:02:04,677 --> 00:02:15,266 You see the burning still of the lamps up here, and the chisels which went in to, to make this cavity. 20 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:25,371 Archaeologist Manfred Korfmann has come here with a new scientific technique that he hopes will uncover a truth about these tunnels. 21 00:02:25,384 --> 00:02:31,074 It may reveal something that many have suspected but no one has been able to prove. 22 00:02:31,187 --> 00:02:39,078 His technique may take us closer than ever to the hard facts behind an ancient myth. 23 00:02:39,179 --> 00:02:42,979 The story of the Trojan war. 24 00:02:47,895 --> 00:02:52,585 It’s one of the greatest love stories ever. 25 00:02:52,999 --> 00:02:57,988 Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world, 26 00:02:58,089 --> 00:03:10,889 she’s married to a Greek king but she is spirited away to the magnificent city of Troy after she’s seduced by the Trojan Prince, Paris. 27 00:03:16,502 --> 00:03:20,192 For the Greeks this means war. 28 00:03:20,506 --> 00:03:25,596 Their most powerful King Agamemnon assembles an army. 29 00:03:29,310 --> 00:03:35,799 A thousand ships from all across Greece set sail to lay siege to Troy 30 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:38,800 and bring back Helen. 31 00:03:44,013 --> 00:03:47,603 The siege drags on for ten years. 32 00:03:48,118 --> 00:03:56,406 The Greeks can not break Troy’s great walls so they resort to trickery. 33 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:03,510 They leave a great wooden horse outside the city and the Trojans pull it inside. 34 00:04:06,224 --> 00:04:14,224 Greek soldiers hidden in the horse jump out and open the city gates. 35 00:04:14,328 --> 00:04:20,019 Troy is then razed to the ground. 36 00:04:23,833 --> 00:04:32,122 The story was composed by the Greek poet Homer almost three thousand years ago. 37 00:04:33,136 --> 00:04:39,426 It’s so compelling that for centuries people wondered if any of it was true. 38 00:04:40,140 --> 00:04:46,029 Was there a war fought for love? Did a coalition of Greek set sail? 39 00:04:46,130 --> 00:04:50,230 Did Troy even exist? 40 00:04:52,743 --> 00:04:58,534 Eric Cline is an archaeologist who has tried to answer these questions. 41 00:04:58,848 --> 00:05:06,048 Is there any truth in the story? Is there a nugget, a kernel of truth at the base of the story around which everything else is wrapped? 42 00:05:06,150 --> 00:05:18,640 Is there some historical war which took place which Homer wrapped in layer after layer after layer so it became much more than just a single battle, a single conflict, 43 00:05:18,641 --> 00:05:23,541 much more than just a war, it became a story, an epic, a saga? 44 00:05:23,542 --> 00:05:32,942 What we have to try and do is peel away the layers and get at the truth, if there is any there to find. 45 00:05:33,242 --> 00:05:38,342 The first task was to find out when in history the legend was set. 46 00:05:42,453 --> 00:05:50,143 Most scholars accept that Homer composed the story in the eighth century before Christ. 47 00:05:50,157 --> 00:05:55,248 But it’s thought that he was writing about a time hundreds of years earlier, 48 00:05:55,249 --> 00:05:59,749 some time in the age of Bronze. 49 00:06:01,261 --> 00:06:07,051 At the beginning of this era the pyramids of Egypt were being built. 50 00:06:13,265 --> 00:06:17,055 Writing came to Greece. 51 00:06:20,168 --> 00:06:26,657 And the invention of bronze weapons revolutionised the face of warfare. 52 00:06:27,671 --> 00:06:36,463 It was in the late Bronze Age, around twelve hundred years before Christ, that it is believed the story of the Trojan war is set. 53 00:06:37,977 --> 00:06:47,266 Having determined the time the task now facing archaeologists was to find out if Troy ever existed. 54 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:55,069 The first breakthrough was made by Heinrich Schliemann in 1870. 55 00:06:56,083 --> 00:07:00,873 He was something of an amateur, but he had other qualities. 56 00:07:00,986 --> 00:07:05,776 To be an archaeologist you have to be both good and lucky. 57 00:07:05,889 --> 00:07:15,280 Schliemann was not necessarily that good but he was luckier than almost anybody else that has ever put trowel or spade into the ground. 58 00:07:15,681 --> 00:07:21,481 Schliemann looked for geographical clues in Homer to follow up. 59 00:07:22,994 --> 00:07:28,284 They placed Troy in the north west corner of what is now Turkey. 60 00:07:28,298 --> 00:07:33,088 Schliemann believed they fitted the site of an ancient mound by the coast. 61 00:07:33,089 --> 00:07:35,089 He didn’t hang around. 62 00:07:34,102 --> 00:07:48,591 Schliemann shows up at the site, hires a couple of hundred workers, and puts a whacking great trench right through the middle of the mound, and that was archaeology. 63 00:07:50,205 --> 00:07:57,296 Fifteen metres down he found a walled palace, with a paved ramp leading to the gate. 64 00:07:59,510 --> 00:08:10,198 He found a great gate in stone, with a great road leading through the gateway, wide enough so that two chariots could have driven through it side by side. 65 00:08:10,312 --> 00:08:14,303 And that is one of the clues that Homer gives. 66 00:08:17,917 --> 00:08:22,105 Schliemann thought he’d found Homer’s Troy. 67 00:08:22,119 --> 00:08:26,410 The rest of the world wasn’t so sure. 68 00:08:26,825 --> 00:08:33,514 But in this trench he answered the doubters with a breathtaking discovery. 69 00:08:37,115 --> 00:08:39,415 Treasure, 70 00:08:39,628 --> 00:08:45,518 gold diadems, jewels fit for the most beautiful woman in the world. 71 00:08:45,532 --> 00:08:52,321 Here was evidence of a rich and advanced culture. 72 00:08:53,335 --> 00:08:59,625 He had found the very jewels that are in necklaces, bracelets, earrings, that Helen had worn. 73 00:08:59,626 --> 00:09:01,626 Or so he claimed. 74 00:09:02,138 --> 00:09:11,928 And so the world was absolutely entranced, especially when Schliemann put these necklaces, these jewels on his wife, when he bedecked Sophie. 75 00:09:14,929 --> 00:09:20,929 Schliemann had brought the myth dramatically to life. 76 00:09:21,942 --> 00:09:25,733 He was certain he’d found the mythical city of Troy. 77 00:09:25,746 --> 00:09:29,535 And the world wanted to believe him. 78 00:09:31,549 --> 00:09:36,339 But in fact he’d got something completely wrong. 79 00:09:45,152 --> 00:09:53,143 A site that has been inhabited for centuries poses a particular problem for archaeologists. 80 00:09:55,157 --> 00:10:03,447 Because each generation builds on the remains of its predecessors, forming a sequence of layers. 81 00:10:03,460 --> 00:10:08,960 So the deeper you dig the farther back in time you travel. 82 00:10:10,764 --> 00:10:17,553 At Troy there are nine layers representing four thousand years of inhabitation. 83 00:10:17,567 --> 00:10:21,956 Each layer a different era in human history. 84 00:10:22,071 --> 00:10:27,162 Here we have a cake, a period, a sequence of layers. 85 00:10:27,176 --> 00:10:33,965 Down there two thousand five hundred BC, which means the pyramids in Egypt. 86 00:10:35,979 --> 00:10:42,768 Up there, layer six, the exodus of Egypt. 87 00:10:46,082 --> 00:10:51,973 The blue sign, the period of Jesus Christ. 88 00:10:53,487 --> 00:11:01,576 So we have a history of humanity and a wonderful sequence which we can control as archaeologists. 89 00:11:02,777 --> 00:11:07,177 But Schliemann didn’t know how to date his layers. 90 00:11:07,390 --> 00:11:15,681 And as the science of archaeology evolved it became clear that these jewels could never have been worn by Helen, 91 00:11:15,982 --> 00:11:20,182 they were more than a thousand years too old. 92 00:11:21,195 --> 00:11:30,483 Schliemann had dug down too deep, the late Bronze Age, the time of the legend, was four layers higher up. 93 00:11:31,497 --> 00:11:40,687 Now if there was a Trojan war we would look to the layer six, which is the fortification wall which you can see over there. 94 00:11:45,801 --> 00:11:49,590 A very different Troy emerged from that layer, 95 00:11:49,591 --> 00:11:55,791 with physical features that seemed to match some of Homer’s descriptions. 96 00:11:59,604 --> 00:12:04,895 Here seemed to be his fine towers. 97 00:12:09,696 --> 00:12:13,996 His wide streets and lofty gates. 98 00:12:18,609 --> 00:12:24,702 The city was indeed well walled as the myth described. 99 00:12:30,503 --> 00:12:36,003 The city that emerged seemed to be drawn from the pages of Homer. 100 00:12:48,716 --> 00:12:54,304 Here was a royal citadel, robustly defended. 101 00:12:57,319 --> 00:13:04,411 With imposing watchtowers dominating the land as Homer described. 102 00:13:09,124 --> 00:13:15,213 But there was one feature that just didn’t fit the myth. 103 00:13:15,927 --> 00:13:22,617 The city of legend had been mighty enough to withstand a siege for ten years. 104 00:13:22,830 --> 00:13:27,520 The city is probably too small, it doesn’t fit what Homer describes. 105 00:13:27,534 --> 00:13:36,224 Yes it’s wealthy, yes maybe powerful, maybe some trade, but there aren’t enough people there, it’s simply too small. 106 00:13:36,337 --> 00:13:43,227 Once again doubters suggested that there might be nothing to the myth at all. 107 00:13:43,228 --> 00:13:47,428 That perhaps Homer’s Troy never existed. 108 00:13:54,028 --> 00:14:01,528 But even if this was not Homer’s Troy it was a fascinating archaeological site in its own right. 109 00:14:01,529 --> 00:14:08,429 And in 1988 it drew a large international team to begin work again. 110 00:14:08,430 --> 00:14:12,728 In charge was the leading German archaeologist Manfred Korfmann. 111 00:14:14,129 --> 00:14:16,929 He was interested in science, not the myth. 112 00:14:18,530 --> 00:14:25,030 But his work was to lead to extraordinary new insights in to the legend. 113 00:14:25,831 --> 00:14:31,031 It began when Korfmann started to re-examine the citadel defences. 114 00:14:32,932 --> 00:14:39,432 We have here a fortification wall, in some places eight metres high still standing. 115 00:14:43,433 --> 00:14:53,733 Now the purpose of this tower is actually I would say to show power and to make sure that this was a powerful residence. 116 00:14:56,141 --> 00:15:03,032 You see the greatness of this tower, you see the powerful thickness of these walls. 117 00:15:06,533 --> 00:15:12,933 But then it appeared to him that whoever had constructed the defences had made an elementary mistake. 118 00:15:17,234 --> 00:15:20,934 It seemed there was no way of closing off the gateways. 119 00:15:22,235 --> 00:15:25,835 Any invading army could have just walked in. 120 00:15:25,845 --> 00:15:39,834 Now this gate is open and it is inviting everybody to come in and so we went a hundred times through it and thought how this was closed, how this was blocked, how could they defend themselves? 121 00:15:39,848 --> 00:15:43,938 Obviously they did not defend themselves here on the gate. 122 00:15:44,539 --> 00:15:47,039 It just didn’t make sense to him. 123 00:15:46,552 --> 00:15:50,942 No one would have built a city that was not defensible. 124 00:15:52,393 --> 00:15:58,693 So he began to wonder, perhaps these weren’t the outside walls. 125 00:15:58,794 --> 00:16:04,794 Perhaps there was more to Troy than had so far been uncovered. 126 00:16:08,345 --> 00:16:14,345 Outside the city walls Korfmann’s team began to excavate. 127 00:16:17,946 --> 00:16:21,246 They began to unearth remains from the late Bronze Age. 128 00:16:23,147 --> 00:16:34,247 You have pithoi which means storage jars, quite a number of it. We have found here a hearth in the middle, so it was warm. 129 00:16:34,356 --> 00:16:42,645 We, the back rooms were two storeyed, and we found in the corner something which we can interpret as a kind of toilet. 130 00:16:46,759 --> 00:16:56,549 Korfmann began to speculate whether this was evidence that the city extended beyond the citadel walls, into the fields below. 131 00:16:56,663 --> 00:17:06,253 The big question is, is there a lower city? Now is this the lower city, from the topographical point of view this should be the lower city. 132 00:17:07,054 --> 00:17:11,254 But the area was too big to excavate with spades. 133 00:17:11,467 --> 00:17:18,557 So Korfmann had to try a different technique, magnetic imaging to look beneath the surface. 134 00:17:20,058 --> 00:17:25,158 What was revealed was a city hidden beneath the fields. 135 00:17:27,671 --> 00:17:31,861 A grid of wide streets and long avenues. 136 00:17:32,462 --> 00:17:37,862 It was immediately obvious that this belonged to a much later period, 137 00:17:37,863 --> 00:17:40,363 classical Greek and Roman times. 138 00:17:40,875 --> 00:17:47,465 We find the Greek and Roman layout of the city with streets, with channels and so on. 139 00:17:47,466 --> 00:17:54,466 Wonderful to have such a city plan but we were looking for the lower city of the Bronze Age and the end of the lower city. 140 00:17:54,779 --> 00:18:05,967 At first it seemed there was nothing here from the late Bronze Age, that later buildings had obliterated any remains. 141 00:18:06,881 --> 00:18:14,772 But then Korfmann spotted one feature, so faint it could easily have been overlooked. 142 00:18:15,373 --> 00:18:32,773 Then we got alerted by a fine line which alerted us, I just draw it here, it goes up and down, it goes inward and outwards, and there was a gate interruption, and it continued like this. 143 00:18:32,787 --> 00:18:38,575 So by this we had the idea we should excavate what is this. 144 00:18:40,576 --> 00:18:44,576 The excavation revealed a section of a deep ditch. 145 00:18:46,089 --> 00:18:54,380 This magnificent ditch is cut in to the rock and we can follow it up seven hundred metres just around this hill crop. 146 00:18:57,194 --> 00:19:05,782 Korfmann believes it was designed to stop enemy chariots, and so marked the outer limit of the lower city. 147 00:19:06,196 --> 00:19:11,996 He dated remains in the ditch, and it was from the late Bronze Age. 148 00:19:11,997 --> 00:19:23,197 And this means that we have now the southern limit and we know that it was quite a substantial place here, all over here, and in the back over here. 149 00:19:23,300 --> 00:19:34,395 So I think we are speaking of a considerable lower city and a lot of effort to fortify it with this ditch. 150 00:19:39,496 --> 00:19:44,496 A city of the late Bronze Age was now revealed. 151 00:19:45,308 --> 00:19:52,543 Korfmann believes that it was a sizeablecity, with a population of between four and eight thousand. 152 00:19:53,856 --> 00:19:59,356 For the scientist not interested in the myth it was an amazing breakthrough. 153 00:20:00,267 --> 00:20:04,067 Now the people will believe that there was a Homeric Troy, 154 00:20:04,068 --> 00:20:11,068 that means a city of substantial size and population, will be happy with this result. 155 00:20:10,757 --> 00:20:23,557 The discovery of such a lower city is crucial, and the fact that Korfmann has apparently discovered just such a lower town is wonderful. 156 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:32,281 It maybe what was necessary to put the finishing touches on the identification of this site as Troy. 157 00:20:32,882 --> 00:20:40,282 After three thousand years the legendary city of Troy seemed to have become a reality. 158 00:20:40,295 --> 00:20:46,243 It seemed there was some historical truth in the myth. 159 00:20:46,344 --> 00:20:54,244 But there was still no evidence that Troy had been destroyed as Homer said by an enemy army. 160 00:21:06,455 --> 00:21:13,866 Then Korfmann’s team began to look for clues about the fate of Troy in the late Bronze Age. 161 00:21:15,167 --> 00:21:19,667 Soon they began to find evidence of violence. 162 00:21:24,681 --> 00:21:28,190 They began to uncover arrowheads in the lower city. 163 00:21:29,791 --> 00:21:33,291 It suggested close quarter fighting. 164 00:21:34,792 --> 00:21:38,992 Korfmann began to build up a picture of what had happened. 165 00:21:39,793 --> 00:21:44,793 Now the evidence is burning and catastrophe with fire. 166 00:21:47,804 --> 00:22:00,594 Then there are skeletons, we found for example a girl, I think sixteen, seventeen years old, half buried, the feet were burned by fire. 167 00:22:01,007 --> 00:22:03,397 Half of the corpse was underground. 168 00:22:03,398 --> 00:22:15,398 This is strange so a rapid burial was in public space, inside the city, and we found sling pellets in heaps. 169 00:22:15,410 --> 00:22:23,203 He believes these pellets had been assembled by the defenders of Troy and then abandoned after they lost the battle. 170 00:22:23,915 --> 00:22:26,304 It pointed to a clear conclusion. 171 00:22:26,305 --> 00:22:36,005 It was a city which was besieged. It was a city which was defended, which protected itself. 172 00:22:36,006 --> 00:22:43,006 They lost the war and obviously they were defeated. 173 00:22:43,018 --> 00:22:53,310 Korfmann had shown that Troy had been destroyed in a battle at the end of the Bronze Age, just as the legend had said it was. 174 00:22:55,123 --> 00:23:01,612 But there was one thing Korfmann couldn’t determine, who the attackers had been, 175 00:23:02,113 --> 00:23:07,013 that evidence would have to come from elsewhere. 176 00:23:11,613 --> 00:23:16,113 Homer said that the army that sacked Troy came from Greece. 177 00:23:17,626 --> 00:23:27,616 That it was led by the King of Mycenae, Agamemnon, and this whole era in Greek history has become known as Mycenaean. 178 00:23:29,729 --> 00:23:39,219 In the legend a thousand Mycenaean ships sailed to Troy to bring Helen home. 179 00:23:44,120 --> 00:23:48,720 Their army besieges Troy for ten years. 180 00:23:48,733 --> 00:23:55,127 But were the Greeks capable of mounting such an expedition together? 181 00:23:56,128 --> 00:24:00,628 And could it have been led by a king of Mycenae like Agamemnon? 182 00:24:09,642 --> 00:24:16,223 These magnificent lions have guarded the palace at Mycenae for three thousand years. 183 00:24:22,037 --> 00:24:28,826 In the late Bronze Age Greece was carved up in to independent kingdoms. 184 00:24:28,827 --> 00:24:31,827 Each ruler had his own palace. 185 00:24:33,340 --> 00:24:39,630 The mighty wall suggested this was the palace of an important king. 186 00:24:39,631 --> 00:24:45,631 But for the myth to have substance this one had to be the most important of all, 187 00:24:46,132 --> 00:24:50,432 home to the Greek king of kings. 188 00:24:54,644 --> 00:25:00,433 Professor Spyros Iakovidis has spent most of his career excavating Mycenae. 189 00:25:00,448 --> 00:25:13,837 He’s part of a team that have just completed a ground breaking study, an atlas that shows what Mycenae looked like during the Bronze Age, including the road system that linked it to the rest of the country. 190 00:25:13,951 --> 00:25:20,042 We have a citadel of Mycenae here. 191 00:25:21,543 --> 00:25:32,043 This is a modern road which goes up the black one, and these are the remains of ancient, of Mycenaean roads. 192 00:25:32,056 --> 00:25:34,444 These red things here. 193 00:25:38,845 --> 00:25:45,145 We have another road there, goes across the river bed. 194 00:25:49,846 --> 00:25:55,546 This one it makes a curve and goes east. 195 00:25:58,558 --> 00:26:02,850 The roads lead to all directions. 196 00:26:04,651 --> 00:26:14,651 He believes that the road network that radiates out from the citadel suggests that Mycenae could have been at the political centre of the Greek world. 197 00:26:15,464 --> 00:26:28,052 It was the centre of Mycenaean civilisation, therefore we assume that it was also the political centre of, of Mycenaean, of the Mycenaean states. 198 00:26:28,166 --> 00:26:32,546 And it was certainly one of the most powerful states. 199 00:26:33,060 --> 00:26:47,550 So it could very well have been in the middle of things, in the centre of whatever expedition was mounted against the coast of Asia minor and therefore also against Troy. 200 00:26:47,864 --> 00:26:56,953 His work implies that Homer may have been right when he said Mycenae was at the centre of Greek power. 201 00:26:58,467 --> 00:27:05,157 But was there evidence that these were the mighty warriors described in the legend? 202 00:27:14,271 --> 00:27:24,960 Evidence that the Mycenaeans were indeed great warriors came when these graves within the citadel walls were excavated many years ago. 203 00:27:25,361 --> 00:27:37,061 It was on this very spot here in this circle of graves within the citadel walls of Mycenae that the discovery of the lost civilisation of the Mycenaeans was first made. 204 00:27:37,274 --> 00:27:49,565 We’re standing here in a great circle of graves surrounded by massive slabs of stone with the retaining wall of the great ramp that leads up to the Mycenaean palace behind us. 205 00:27:50,566 --> 00:27:55,166 Here were uncovered the rulers of this lost civilisation. 206 00:27:55,179 --> 00:28:04,867 The men were found lying wearing massive gold death masks and wonderful ceremonial armour. 207 00:28:09,368 --> 00:28:13,568 It was a sensational discovery. 208 00:28:13,881 --> 00:28:20,671 For the first time the world looked at the face of Mycenaean warrior chief. 209 00:28:24,172 --> 00:28:29,472 This is a face from the late Bronze Age. 210 00:28:31,673 --> 00:28:35,973 Buried alongside it weapons of war. 211 00:28:39,685 --> 00:28:48,275 We find Mycenaean warriors sometimes buried with up to as many forty or fifty swords that they probably collected and used during their lifetime. 212 00:28:48,289 --> 00:28:56,979 There’s a whole sort of military strength and a military feeling to the civilisation of the Mycenaeans. 213 00:28:57,994 --> 00:29:04,283 So from the artefacts we can see it’s very much a warrior culture. 214 00:29:04,784 --> 00:29:14,084 This warrior culture that archaeology had revealed did seem to fit the warrior culture that Homer described in his story. 215 00:29:16,098 --> 00:29:22,987 But even so there was nothing to link these great warriors to Troy. 216 00:29:27,888 --> 00:29:32,388 The myth says the Greeks sailed to Troy to win Helen back. 217 00:29:33,902 --> 00:29:38,089 That it was a war of love and vengeance. 218 00:29:38,190 --> 00:29:43,590 It makes a wonderful story, but it has never seemed very likely. 219 00:29:44,891 --> 00:29:50,391 Another possible motivation for a war began to emerge, 220 00:29:50,392 --> 00:29:54,392 from the stones of Mycenae. 221 00:30:02,704 --> 00:30:07,195 That motivation was greed. 222 00:30:10,296 --> 00:30:17,496 Archaeologists have discovered that the rulers of Mycenae had undertaken an epic task. 223 00:30:19,508 --> 00:30:23,297 To build mighty new walls. 224 00:30:24,298 --> 00:30:27,298 To transform their citadel. 225 00:30:28,299 --> 00:30:40,299 There's a massive rebuilding program, a whole new section of the citadel is added, almost doubling the size of the fortified area. 226 00:30:41,811 --> 00:30:48,601 To complete the work Louise Schofield believes they would have needed great wealth. 227 00:30:48,602 --> 00:30:53,102 Supplies and food for an army of workers, 228 00:30:54,603 --> 00:31:00,503 and the latest technology to work with, bronze. 229 00:31:01,014 --> 00:31:10,805 The sophisticated, heroic palace civilisation that you, that you see spread across the mainland of Greece would have demanded huge resources. 230 00:31:10,919 --> 00:31:21,710 You had a palace here with your dependants, you’d have your army to feed, these civilisations here really depended on wealth. 231 00:31:25,722 --> 00:31:33,514 But the problem the Mycenaeans faced was that they didn’t have the natural resources that mattered. 232 00:31:34,115 --> 00:31:38,515 They had no tin to make bronze weapons and tools. 233 00:31:35,527 --> 00:31:42,317 Nor did they have gold. 234 00:31:42,318 --> 00:31:49,918 Their civilisation was greedy for this wealth. And they had to get it somehow. 235 00:31:50,429 --> 00:32:01,819 If these independent Mycenaean kingdoms were to band together to undertake an expedition like that to Troy they're not going to be doing it for honour or for the love of a beautiful woman. 236 00:32:01,833 --> 00:32:11,023 They’re going to be doing it because they want something, and what they’re going to want over there really is access to, is access to wealth. 237 00:32:14,724 --> 00:32:21,724 So the archaeological record at Mycenae does find evidence of a rich warrior culture. 238 00:32:24,137 --> 00:32:30,727 And it suggests a likely motive for these warriors to join battle, 239 00:32:30,728 --> 00:32:34,728 the search for wealth and loot. 240 00:32:36,341 --> 00:32:45,730 So was there something about Troy that would have attracted a people like the Mycenaean’s in their quest for riches? 241 00:32:57,531 --> 00:33:03,531 A discovery on the seabed further down the coast from Troy hints at an answer. 242 00:33:05,544 --> 00:33:10,335 In fifty metres of water, a shipwreck. 243 00:33:11,036 --> 00:33:15,336 Archaeologist Cemal Pulak was called to investigate. 244 00:33:15,336 --> 00:33:22,736 Going down there and seeing rows and rows of these copper lingots was just absolutely unbelievable. 245 00:33:24,549 --> 00:33:36,937 We were extremely excited and the more we looked around the more was available and, and it was quite apparent that we were dealing with a very, very large major wreck of the Bronze Age. 246 00:33:39,151 --> 00:33:44,143 There were enough metal lingots to make eleven tonnes of bronze. 247 00:33:47,444 --> 00:33:53,944 The cargo that the ship was carrying is by the far the largest assemblage of Bronze Age goods found anywhere. 248 00:33:59,957 --> 00:34:05,745 Onboard the ship a dazzling cargo from the late Bronze Age. 249 00:34:06,746 --> 00:34:10,446 Beautifully shaped gold, 250 00:34:11,547 --> 00:34:15,747 ostrich eggs from Africa or Asia, 251 00:34:15,748 --> 00:34:20,748 goods from all over the known world on this single ship. 252 00:34:20,759 --> 00:34:30,449 This gives us a clear idea of how intricate and how far reaching the ancient trade network is, it’s much, much more sophisticated than we originally thought. 253 00:34:31,563 --> 00:34:42,152 Pulack’s discovery suggested the late Bronze Age was a time of rich trade, of great wealth being moved across the high seas. 254 00:34:42,366 --> 00:34:49,757 Laden with bronze and treasure ships like this could easily have called in at Troy. 255 00:34:49,971 --> 00:35:00,059 These ships were obviously sturdy enough and capable enough to be able to sail northward in to the Aegean and on to Troy. 256 00:35:00,173 --> 00:35:14,064 Discoveries like these begged the question, was there something special about Troy’s position in these trade routes that might have attracted the attention of the Mycenaeans? 257 00:35:18,765 --> 00:35:23,865 Manfred Korfmann believes that Troy was a very special trading port indeed. 258 00:35:24,278 --> 00:35:29,166 That it occupied a vital strategic position. 259 00:35:33,167 --> 00:35:40,567 It sits at the edge of the Dardanelles, a narrow channel that separates Europe and Asia. 260 00:35:42,768 --> 00:35:46,168 Today it’s a vital trade route. 261 00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:54,370 And Korfmann believes it was important three thousand years ago. 262 00:35:54,871 --> 00:36:05,371 Now it’s, the straits which are so narrow here that everything you could expect of contact between Asia and Europe should have passed here. 263 00:36:08,184 --> 00:36:23,174 So Troy could have benefited from this special geographic situation, and I think that’s why it is so big in comparison to other sites. In this area there is no site as important as Troy. 264 00:36:23,388 --> 00:36:31,979 Korfmann believes that Troy became a wealthy city because of the strategic position of the gateway between two continents. 265 00:36:36,993 --> 00:36:45,782 So it seems Troy was a very desirable city, desirable to the Mycenaeans because of its wealth. 266 00:36:46,283 --> 00:36:57,783 But its position also made it desirable to someone else, because Troy stood at the edge of another great civilisation of the day. 267 00:37:01,797 --> 00:37:10,586 They were called the Hittites, their empire covered much of the territory of modern day Turkey. 268 00:37:11,587 --> 00:37:15,587 The Hittites were a super power of the late Bronze Age. 269 00:37:18,100 --> 00:37:27,090 They’d sacked the ancient city of Babylon and fought the mighty army of the pharaohs to a standstill. 270 00:37:27,191 --> 00:37:34,591 But the Hittites have also left behind clues about what really might have happened at Troy. 271 00:37:38,405 --> 00:37:44,694 It is all contained in a vast collection of written tablets. 272 00:37:45,695 --> 00:37:48,695 Trevor Bryce has studied this astonishing collection. 273 00:37:51,107 --> 00:37:58,897 Remarkable accounts of what was happening to cities across the Hittite empire more than three thousand years ago. 274 00:38:00,498 --> 00:38:07,498 They have really unlocked the key to an understanding of the whole history and civilisation of the Hittite world. 275 00:38:07,911 --> 00:38:18,300 They give us pictures of conflicts and tensions in that region, and that really provides us with an actual historical written record. 276 00:38:21,701 --> 00:38:26,301 So scholars began to look for references to Troy in the texts. 277 00:38:27,813 --> 00:38:33,605 It appeared to be a hopeless task because no one knew what the Hittites had called the place. 278 00:38:35,606 --> 00:38:41,606 Then they started to discover references to battles over an important city. 279 00:38:44,618 --> 00:38:54,408 Its name was Wilusha, a name very similar to another ancient Greek name for Troy, 280 00:38:55,409 --> 00:38:57,509 Wileos. 281 00:38:58,309 --> 00:39:06,009 Many scholars believe that a country called Wilusha in Hittite text was in fact the name of Troy. 282 00:39:06,421 --> 00:39:18,213 The tablets described festering conflicts involving the Mycenaeans, all along the coast by Wilusha, conflict spread over two hundred years. 283 00:39:19,226 --> 00:39:27,015 The tablets stated Mycenaean warriors had once fought at the gates of Wilusha. 284 00:39:31,816 --> 00:39:41,216 If scholars could show that Troy and Wilusha were the same place they could then compare the legend against historical records. 285 00:39:41,528 --> 00:39:47,719 The tablets might at last reveal the real truth of Troy. 286 00:39:47,820 --> 00:39:49,920 But it wasn’t to be a simple task. 287 00:39:49,921 --> 00:39:55,321 The problem was we couldn’t really prove it because we didn’t know exactly where Wilusha lay. 288 00:39:56,332 --> 00:40:05,122 This was the task for archaeology, to discover if Troy and Wilusha were the same city. 289 00:40:06,123 --> 00:40:09,523 A recent breakthrough has given us the answer. 290 00:40:09,136 --> 00:40:21,227 It involved a mysterious message on a mountain, inspired detective work, and following an army on the move. 291 00:40:24,941 --> 00:40:33,929 The first clue came from a tablet that recorded that the military might of the Hittites was being unleashed in the late Bronze age. 292 00:40:34,043 --> 00:40:43,834 The Hittite army is on the move from its homeland, we know it’s moving westwards and we know that its final destination is the kingdom of Wilusha. 293 00:40:44,048 --> 00:40:50,736 But we didn’t know precisely where Wilusha lay. In fact it could have been anywhere along this coastline. 294 00:40:50,850 --> 00:41:02,142 But all events we know that the Hittite army continued to move westwards. But then did they go north or did they go south? 295 00:41:02,156 --> 00:41:04,644 Troy is situated in the north. 296 00:41:04,645 --> 00:41:11,945 So if Troy and Wilusha are the same place then the Hittite army should have headed north. 297 00:41:13,946 --> 00:41:17,246 But the tablet offered no clue. 298 00:41:17,658 --> 00:41:25,748 The direction the army must have taken was finally revealed when the inscription on this mountain pass was deciphered. 299 00:41:26,962 --> 00:41:37,051 It marked the boundary between two kingdoms, and indicated the Hittite army had headed north. 300 00:41:37,165 --> 00:41:50,356 Once they reached close to the western coast they then turned northwards, bringing them right up in to the region of where Troy was located. 301 00:41:50,670 --> 00:41:53,758 So really the conclusion now seems inescapable. 302 00:41:54,159 --> 00:41:59,859 The kingdoms of Wilusha and Troy/Ilion are one and the same. 303 00:41:59,860 --> 00:42:02,760 The scholarly evidence was compelling. 304 00:42:02,872 --> 00:42:10,863 The mythical city of Troy and the Hittite city of Wilusha may well be the same. 305 00:42:10,864 --> 00:42:16,364 But what was missing now was supporting archaeological evidence. 306 00:42:21,576 --> 00:42:29,765 That evidence was to come from the water tunnel that Manfred Korfmann had excavated at Troy. 307 00:42:29,966 --> 00:42:34,766 And the breakthrough was to do with dating the tunnel. 308 00:42:37,779 --> 00:42:46,571 Most people believed this tunnel had been built a thousand years after the late Bronze Age, but Korfmann was less sure. 309 00:42:47,884 --> 00:42:55,075 Outside there are basins of Roman period, so it is a Roman structure, a Roman tunnel system. 310 00:42:55,076 --> 00:42:59,376 But then we were suspicious that it is older. 311 00:43:01,289 --> 00:43:07,178 The reason the date of the tunnel mattered so much was because of this tablet. 312 00:43:07,579 --> 00:43:12,679 It contains a reference to a water tunnel at Wilusha. 313 00:43:13,592 --> 00:43:18,982 So if this tunnel at Troy was from the same time as the tablet 314 00:43:18,983 --> 00:43:25,983 here would be archaeological evidence that Troy and Wilusha were the same place. 315 00:43:26,197 --> 00:43:31,785 Everything now depended on the date of the tunnel. 316 00:43:31,786 --> 00:43:34,786 But was there anything in it to date? 317 00:43:37,299 --> 00:43:47,589 Then Korfmann noticed that over the centuries water had seeped in to the cave walls and left behind it layers of limestone. 318 00:43:50,990 --> 00:43:55,590 It’s the same process that furs up your kettle. 319 00:43:57,004 --> 00:44:02,092 Here it has left slabs on the side of the cave. 320 00:44:02,193 --> 00:44:19,393 So here is the outer surface, that means the last time that water is, was coming pouring through it, it’s like a teapot this calcareous matter, pouring through the rocks and accumulating here. 321 00:44:19,406 --> 00:44:22,396 This is the inside when it started. 322 00:44:22,697 --> 00:44:34,197 Korfmann then realised that the limestone layers contain something he could use to date the tunnel, tiny quantities of uranium. 323 00:44:36,310 --> 00:44:46,000 Back in the lab Korfmann’s team analysed the minute amounts of naturally occurring uranium in the cave limestone. 324 00:44:48,001 --> 00:44:53,001 The uranium undergoes radioactive decay at a predictable rate. 325 00:44:56,013 --> 00:45:04,805 They used a mass spectrometer to measure the decay, and so determine how old the tunnel was. 326 00:45:10,806 --> 00:45:15,806 When the result came back it was astonishing. 327 00:45:17,818 --> 00:45:23,607 The tunnel had been started in 2600 BC. 328 00:45:24,608 --> 00:45:30,608 And it had been in use when the Hittite tablet was written. 329 00:45:32,909 --> 00:45:37,009 Science had delivered the supporting evidence. 330 00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:45,412 Troy and Wilusha were the same city. 331 00:45:50,713 --> 00:45:56,913 We can now build up a likely scenario of what might have happened to Troy. 332 00:46:01,314 --> 00:46:09,514 The tablet show that the Mycenaeans had fought at Troy in the late Bronze Age. 333 00:46:14,425 --> 00:46:18,214 The Hittite text mention battles that took place. 334 00:46:18,215 --> 00:46:30,415 The Hittite records indicate through the war that the Mycenaeans were not only interested in this region but had been actively fighting on and off for more than two centuries. 335 00:46:30,827 --> 00:46:36,018 The tablets show that Troy was an ally of the Hittites. 336 00:46:37,919 --> 00:46:44,419 If Troy was attacked the Hittites were likely to come and fight alongside them. 337 00:46:46,431 --> 00:46:57,422 So Homer’s legend appears to have been based on a real conflict between two super powers of the late Bronze Age, the Mycenaeans and the Hittites. 338 00:46:57,536 --> 00:47:08,126 I believe that these conflicts were distilled into a tradition of a single war lasting ten years. 339 00:47:08,640 --> 00:47:20,229 It seems the war occurred because Troy was a wealthy city in a vital strategic location, and that both super powers wanted to control it. 340 00:47:20,330 --> 00:47:23,430 Was the Trojan war fought for love? No. 341 00:47:23,443 --> 00:47:30,233 Was it fought because of greed, for money, for territory, for ambition? Of course; it’s what most wars are fought for. 342 00:47:30,234 --> 00:47:35,134 Troy was caught between two mighty empires, the Mycenaeans and the Hittites. 343 00:47:35,235 --> 00:47:40,835 It was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it was crushed. 344 00:47:41,050 --> 00:47:46,241 So there was no face that launched a thousand ships. 345 00:47:46,442 --> 00:47:53,842 War or wars were not fought for love but more likely for gold and loot. 346 00:47:55,655 --> 00:47:58,543 And what of the Trojan horse? 347 00:47:58,544 --> 00:48:03,644 There are no clues in the texts, nor in the archaeological records. 348 00:48:03,787 --> 00:48:11,793 Perhaps it just shows that Homer really was above all an amazing storyteller.