Troy VII

Hikayemiz

Troy VII, in the mound at Hisarlik, is an archaeological layer of Troy that chronologically spans from c. 1300 to c. 950 BC. It coincides with the collapse of the Bronze Age. It was a walled city with fortified towers reaching a height of 9m; the foundations of one of its towers measured 18 metres by 18m. Manfred Korfmann, who excavated the site in the 1980s, estimated the area of Troy VII at 200,000 square metres (50 acres) or more and put its population at five to ten thousand inhabitants, which makes it "by the standards of its day a large and important city".The city was built following the destruction of Troy VIh, probably by an earthquake c. 1300 BC. A number of layers are distinguished: Troy VIIa: ca. 13th century BC Troy VIIb1: 12th century BC Troy VIIb2: 11th century BC Troy VIIb3: until c. 950 BC Troy VII was contemporary with the late period of Mycenaean culture and the Greek Dark Ages, as well as with the late Hittite Empire to Neo-Hittite times.VIIaThe city of the archaeological layer known as Troy VIIa, which has been dated on the basis of pottery styles to the mid- to late-13th century BC, lasted for about a century, with a destruction layer at c. 1190 BC. It is the most often-cited candidate for the Troy of Homer and is believed to correspond to Wilusa, known from Hittite sources dating to the period of roughly 1300–1250 BC.