
James P. Holoka |
Troy and the Trojan War: A Select, Annotated
Bibliography |
General Works
- Boedeker, Deborah, ed. (1997). The World of Troy: Homer, Schliemann,
and the Treasure of Priam. Washington: Society for the Preservation
of Greek Heritage.
- Latacz, Joachim (2004). Troy and Homer : Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery. Oxford: Oxford U Pr. [Orig. Troia und Homer: Der Weg zur
Lösung eines alten Rätsels. Munich/Berlin: Koehler & Amelang, 2001.]
- Wood, Michael (1996). In Search of the Trojan War. 2nd ed. Berkeley:
U California Pr.
Latacz (2004), one of Europe’s leading Homerists and a staunch
champion of Manfred Korfmann’s work at Troy, has written the
best-informed study of the current state of scholarship on the
Trojan question <see review>. Michael Wood (1996) is an English
journalist and historian, author of several high-quality popular
works of the “In Search of ...” genre. His Trojan War installment,
the basis for a BBC-TV program, is an excellent general treatment
not only of Troy but of Bronze Age archaeology as a whole (Mycenae,
Knossos, the Hittite Empire). The book is a well-written and
lavishly illustrated page-turner; the second edition takes account
of the recent Tübingen/Cincinnati excavations at Troy by Manfred
Korfmann and others. The volume edited by Boedeker (1997) contains
papers by six specialists (including Korfmann) delivered at a
Smithsonian seminar “inspired by the reappearance of a remarkable
group of objects some forty centuries old, ‘Priam’s Treasures’” (p.
1).
Troy before Schliemann
- Cobet, Justus, et al. (1991). “From Saewulf to Schliemann: A
Preliminary Bibliography of Travel Books about Troy and the Troad.”
Studia Troica 1: 101-9.
- Easton, Donald F. (1991). “Troy before Schliemann.” Studia Troica
1:
111-29.
- Erskine, Andrew (2001). Troy between Greece and Rome. Oxford: Oxford
U. Pr.
- Rose, Charles Brian (1997). “Troy and the Historical Imagination.”
In Boedeker (1997) 98-109.
- Vermeule III, Cornelius C. (1995). “Neon Ilion and Ilium Novum:
Kings, Soldiers, Citizens, and Tourists at Classical Troy.” In The
Ages of Homer. Ed. Jane B. Carter and Sarah P. Morris. Austin: U.
Texas Pr. Pp. 467-82.
Troy survived as a tourist destination throughout Greco-Roman
antiquity. The site was refurbished by the clearing away of Bronze
Age rubble and the building of walls, a temple to Athena Ilias, a
theater, and other facilities for pilgrim lovers of Homer. It was
also the venue of grand theatrical gestures and pensive reflections
by a parade of important visitors (and benefactors) through the
centuries: Xerxes, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Hadrian,
Julian, Mehmet II, to name only a few. A sometimes quite prosperous
little town of perhaps 5-10,000 grew up below the citadel, perhaps
in part to accommodate tourism. As Rose (1997), Vermeule (1995),
and, in great detail, Erskine (2001) show, the symbolic significance
of Troy as a flash-point for relations between East and West was
fully exploited in both Greek and Roman artistic, literary,
historical, and political traditions. The 150-item bibliography of
travel writings dating from A.D. 1103 to 1873 by Cobet et al. (1991)
is nicely contextualized by Easton (1991), who outlines the
evolution of knowledge about the site of ancient Troy from Justinian
up to Frank Calvert.
Heinrich Schliemann
- Dörpfeld, Wilhelm (1894). Troja 1893. Leipzig.
- ―――, ed. (1902). Troja und Ilion. Athens.
- Schliemann, Heinrich (1869). Ithaque, le Péloponnèse, et Troie.
Paris [German ed. Leipzig 1869; rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1984].
- ―――. (1875). Troy and Its Remains. London.
- ―――. (1878). Mycenae. London.
- ―――. (1881). Ilios: The City and Country of the Trojans. London.
Rpt. Salem, NH: Ayer, 1989.
- ―――. (1884). Troja. London. Rpt. New York: Arno, 1976.
- ―――. (1885). Tiryns. London.
- Schuchhardt, Carl (1891). Schliemann's Excavations: An
Archaeological and Historical Study. Trans. Eugenie Sellars. London.
Rpt. New York: Avenel Books, 1979, as Schliemann’s Discoveries of
the Ancient World.
Schliemann's first book, Ithaque ..., was the fruit of a few days of
sightseeing and (on Ithaca) a little exploratory digging; though
laced with naive speculation, the book gained its author the grant
of a doctoral degree from the University of Rostock. Of Dr.
Schliemann's subsequent major publications, Ilios, which supersedes
the 1875 volume, is an 800-page report on the results of the
excavation campaigns of 1871-72-73-78-79; included are nine
appendices contributed by experts on various special topics. Troja
is devoted to the findings of the 1882 season. The volumes by
Dörpfeld (“Schliemann's greatest discovery”) report on the results
of his excavations (with Schliemann) in 1890 and (after Schliemann's
death) in 1893 and 1894. Schuchhardt (1891) surveys Schliemann's
life work for a more general audience.
“Schliemannology”
- Allen, Susan Heuck (1999). Finding the Walls of Troy: Frank Calvert
and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik. Berkeley: U. California Pr.
- Bloedow, Edmund F. (1996). Review of Traill (1995). Bryn Mawr
Classical Review 96.03.09 <link>.
- Calder, William M. III (1972). “Schliemann on Schliemann: A Study in
the Use of Sources.” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 13: 335-53.
- ―――, and David A. Traill, edd. (1986).
Myth, Scandal, and History:
The Heinrich Schliemann Controversy. Detroit: Wayne State U. Pr.
- Easton, Donald F. (1984). “Schliemann's Mendacity—A False Trail?”
Antiquity 58: 197-204.
- ―――. (1997a). “The Excavation of the Trojan Treasures, and Their
History up to the Death of Schliemann in 1890.” In Simpson (1997)
194-99.
- ―――. (1997b). “Heinrich Schliemann: Hero or Fraud?” In Boedeker
(1997) 5-17.
- Goldmann, Klaus (1997). “The Trojan Treasures in Berlin: The
Disappearance and Search for the Objects after World War II.” In
Simpson (1997) 200-203.
- Ludwig, Emil (1932). Schliemann of Troy: The Story of a Goldseeker.
Trans. D.F. Tait. New York: Putnam.
- Moorehead, Caroline (1994). Lost and Found, The 9000 Treasures of
Troy: Heinrich Schliemann and the Gold That Got Away. New York:
Viking.
- Simpson, Elizabeth, ed. (1997). The Spoils of War. New York: Abrams.
- Traill, David A. (1995). Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit.
New York: St. Martin's.
- ―――. (1999). “Priam’s Treasure.” Archaeology Odyssey 2.3: 15-27, 59.
- ―――, and Igor Bogdanov (1999). “Heinrich Schliemann: Improbable
Archaeologist.” Archaeology Odyssey 2.3: 30-39.
- Turner, David (1990). “Heinrich Schliemann: The Man behind the
Masks.” Archaeology 43: 36-42
- ―――. (1996). Review of Traill (1995) in
Journal of Hellenic Studies
116: 235-37 <link>.
- Urice, Stephen K. “Claims to Ownership of the Trojan Treasures.” In
Simpson (1997) 203-6.
Heinrich Schliemann has been the subject of some forty biographies,
none definitive. Those published in the first eighty years after his
death tend to be uncritical and heroizing. Ludwig’s (1932) is a
readable exception. Beginning with Calder (1972), scholars have dug
beneath the veneer of self-promotion, sensationalism, and
romanticism to reveal a very complex, elusive, often devious
personality. Traill’s book (1995), which might have been entitled
Lies and the Lying Liar Who Told Them, marks the culmination of the
debunking trend in Schliemann biographies. Traill and Calder have
used Schliemann’s own voluminous writings, published and
unpublished, including, besides his books and articles, letters,
journals, excavation notes, newspaper articles, etc. to convict him
of inconsistencies, misleading accounts, and outright falsehoods in
matters large and (sometimes very) small. The tone of their
prosecutorial work has been harsh, even vicious: “He was ill, like
an alcoholic, a child-molester or a dope-fiend” (Calder 1986.37).
Much of the controversy has centered on the Schliemann-dubbed
“Treasures of Priam” excavated from Level II of Troy in 1873.
Schliemann concealed the find from Turkish authorities and smuggled
it out of Turkey to Athens, had published a now-famous photograph of
his young Greek wife, Sophia, modeling the “Jewels of Helen,”
exhibited the treasure in London for three years, and then, after
flogging it to European museums, finally donated it to the
Ethnological Museum in Berlin. Moved to a flak tower for
safe-keeping during World War II, in May 1945 it was spirited away
by the Soviets, to languish in the storerooms of the Pushkin Museum
in Moscow. Russian possession of the treasure was only acknowledged
in 1993. Following an exhibition in 1996, authorities in Russia,
Germany, and Turkey have been wrangling over rightful ownership
(Urice [1997]). Moorehead's book (1994) is an entertaining
journalistic account of Schliemann's career and the fate of the Troy
treasures.
Essays and reviews by Bloedow (1996), Easton (1984), and Turner
(1990, 1996) are a welcome correction to the over-enthusiasm of
Schliemann vilifiers. For them, Schliemann was “a flawed human
being, sometimes confused, sometimes mistaken, dishonest,
inadequately equipped, who [set] all his energies to one great end
and who, despite his faults, [changed] the picture in a whole
subject and [left] behind a lasting legacy of information and
enthusiasm” (Easton [1997b] 15).
In the thick of these disputes about Schliemann’s place in the
history of archaeology, Susan Allen (1999) has produced a fine book
that rehabilitates the claim of Frank Calvert to credit for
identifying Hisarlik as ancient Troy and for facilitating the
excavations there by Schliemann, who consistently dissembled
Calvert’s importance to his own achievements. Despite her (entirely
justified) championing of Calvert, Allen gives Schliemann his due in
a balanced account.
Carl Blegen
- Blegen, Carl (1963). Troy and the Trojans. New York: Praeger.
- ―――, et al. (1950-58). Troy: Excavations Conducted by the University
of Cincinnati, 1932-1938. 4 vols. Princeton: Princeton U. Pr.
- Finley, M.I. (1978). “Schliemann’s Troy—One Hundred Years After.”
Appendix II in The World of Odysseus. 2nd ed. New York: Penguin. Pp.
159-77.
Blegen (1963) offers a valuable, often entertaining synopsis of the
material presented in thorough detail in the four-volume official
report of his excavation campaigns at Troy; it is still the best
single introduction to archaeological Troy, one that has not been
made entirely obsolete by Korfmann’s campaigns at the site fifty
years on. Finley (1978) is a trenchantly skeptical reaction to
Blegen’s conclusions about the historicity of the Trojan War and a
needed reminder that Homer was a poet, not a historian.
Troy and the Hittites
- Bryce, Trevor (1998). The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Clarendon
Pr.
- Güterbock, Hans G. (1983). “The Hittites and the Aegean World: Part
1. The Ahhiyawa Problem Reconsidered.” American Journal of
Archaeology 87: 133-38; with responses by Machteld J. Mellink
(138-41) and Emily T. Vermeule (141-43).
- Latacz, Joachim (2001). “Wilusa (Wilios/Troia): Centre of a Hittite
Confederate in North-West Asia Minor.”
- MacQueen, J.G. (1996). The Hittites and Their Contemporaries in Asia
Minor. Rev. ed. New York: Thames & Hudson.
- Niemeier, Wolf-Dietrich, and Hershel Shanks (2002). “Greeks vs.
Hittites: Why Troy Is Troy and the Trojan War Is Real.” Archaeology
Odyssey 5.4: 24-35, 53.
- Page, Denys L. (1959). History and the Homeric Iliad. Berkeley: U.
California Pr.
Page (1959) is an early attempt by a classical philologist (Regius
Professor of Greek at Cambridge) to sort out the relevance of
Hittite documents regarding the Ahhiyawa (=Achaeans?) for the
reconstruction of the Mycenaean world. Bryce (1998) and MacQueen
(1996) offer valuable current discussions of the Hittites, the
former scholarly, the latter shorter, more popularizing, and very
well illustrated. Shanks’ interview (2002) with Niemeier, the head
of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, addresses more
specifically the Korfmann vs. Kolb conflict (Niemeier favors
Korfmann). Latacz’s paper (2001) defending the Greek Wilios = Luwian
Wilusa equation was written to accompany a Hittite exhibition in
Bonn in 2002.
Manfred Korfmann
- Easton, D.F., et al. (2002). “Troy in Recent Perspective.”
Anatolian
Studies 52: 75-109.
- Korfmann, Manfred (1991). “Troia—Reinigungs- und
Dokumentationsarbeiten 1987, Ausgrabungen 1988 und 1989.” Studia
Troica 1: 1-34.
- ―――. (1997). “Troia, an Ancient Anatolian Palatial and Trading
Center: Archaeological Evidence for the Period of Troy VI/VII.” In
Boedeker (1997) 51–73.
- Latacz, Joachim, “Manfred Korfmann [obit.],” Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung (12 Aug 2005), Eng. trans. J.P. Holoka. <link>.
- Project Troia: Troia and the Troad—Archaeology of a Region. <link>
- Raaflaub, Kurt (1997). “Homer, the Trojan War, and History.” In
Boedeker (1997) 74-97.
- Siebler, Michael (1990). Troia—Homer—Schliemann: Mythos und
Wahrheit. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag P. von Zabern.
- ―――. (1994). Troia: Geschichte, Grabungen, Kontroversen. Mainz am
Rhein: Verlag P. von Zabern.
- Studia Troica. 1 (1991)–14 (2004).
The evidence gathered during the Tübingen-Cincinnati excavations
begun in 1988 is being published in the yearbook Studia Troica. Each
volume contains reports and articles on the significance of new
finds both in specific details and in general conclusions. In the
thirteen installments published thus far, scores of archaeologists,
including specialists in soil analysis and cesium magnetometry, as
well as botanists, geologists, ceramics experts, ancient historians,
including Hittitologists, linguists, and philologists have
contributed reports and studies relevant to Troy. Siebler’s books
(1990, 1994), produced to summarize the new excavations for a wider
audience, are excellent short accounts of the present state of
knowledge and feature superb maps, plans, and color illustrations.
The paper by Easton et al. (2002) is a systematic (and convincing)
response to critics of the methods and results of Korfmann (1991,
1997) and others on the Troia Project team. Raaflaub’s essay (1997)
is, like Finley’s (1978) vis-à-vis Blegen (1963), a cautionary
reminder that, in our excitement over the new finds, we should
nonetheless recognize that Homer’s Iliad is in fact distinctively a
product of its time of composition in the late eighth or early
seventh century and has not been historically “authenticated” by the
recent archaeological work: “neither the archaeological evidence nor
the contemporary documents tell us who destroyed Troy and why” (p.
84). “Project Troia” is the official website of the new excavations
at Troy. Besides up-to-the-minute news about the project and
information about team members, sponsorship, and publications, there
are links to illustrations of and other materials on the German
Troia Exhibition of 2001-2002 and to “virtual reconstructions” of
Bronze Age Troy.
Eastern Michigan University
jholoka@emich.edu
—updated 9 Sep 2005
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