Results of the Amsterdam Troy Project 2018
It has been some time since we have reported on the Amsterdam Troy Project 2018, but this is not because nothing was happening. We have been studying the results of this summer’s excavations and the students’ reports of the notebooks and publications. In addition, we have been giving lectures and presentations on the project. Even though we are already preparing for next year’s fieldwork campaign, we like to share with you some results of the 2018 campaign.
The Bump
You may recall from one of the previous newsletters that Vita Gerritsen supervised the excavation of a curious little mound in the center of the citadel at Troy. We hoped that this would be a fill or dump from Heinrich Schliemann who dug in the area in 1873. On the first day of our excavations, however, it turned out that this bump was a remaining piece of original, unexcavated tell that has been left untouched by Schliemann and other excavators, probably because it served as a ramp to be able to move around the hill with wheelbarrows .
Even though this excavation did not yield a filled-in trench, it did deliver very important information about what was and was not documented by Heinrich Schliemann and his collaborators. Vita’s excavations very clearly showed several rectangular mud-brick blocks neatly fitted together. These were part of the superstructure of a wall, of which the stone fundaments are visible around the mound, revealed by previous excavations. This indicates that none of the previous excavators was interested in the mud-brick parts of walling, even though the blocks may often have been as clearly visible as ours. Schliemann and his successors looked for stone walls exclusively.
The Dump
In the summer of 2018 Nina Magdelijns supervised the excavation excavated a huge trench in the north-eastern part of the site, in an area of W. Dörpfeld’s excavations in 1894. A sketch in his notebooks indicates the area of his dump, which is roughly the area of excavations. Our trench yielded large quantities of ancient materials, mostly pottery and animal bone, that obviously had not been collected during excavation, but had been thrown away. Among this material, all periods of Troy were represented. There were various pieces of nicely decorated material.
Much of the dump material in the trench can be related to architecture. For example, there were some nicely dressed stone blocks, which must have been part of walls, but had been thrown away by the excavators. Secondly, there was very much mud-brick, albeit not so much in recognizable blocks but in large chunks. Just as Schliemann, Dörpfeld, obviously, did also not collect mud-brick.
Most interestingly was the fact that some of the mud-brick chunks contained wall plaster, which, in some cases, showed traces of colouring. Also, the soil of the dump contained many small plaster fragments. All these are indications that remains of a fairly monumental building, probably belonging to Hellenistic or Roman times, are present in the dump. In his notebooks of May 1894, W. Dörpfeld notes that he removed some walls in order to be able to get to the layers below. It is very possible that these were more monumental than suggested by his text.
The test trench
The excavations of Fleur van der Sande in a narrow test trench of C.W. Blegen’s excavations in 1936 took place under great public attention: House VIE in which she excavated was situated immediately next to the main tourist route Fleur’s excavations had two aims: Firstly, we wanted to check on the fill material in the test trench, to see what had not been collected by Blegen’s team. Secondly, we wanted to check on the remarks by Blegen in his publication and his notebooks about a wall, which he encountered near the bottom of the trench. This wall is not visible on any of the available photographs or plans. We discovered the wall at the depth indicated by Blegen. However, its stratigraphic correlation with the walls of House VIE, appear to have been more complex than indicated by him: there are several layers visible in the profile, which he does not discuss.
Most strikingly, we noted during excavation that the fill of the test trench contained a great many animal bones. Blegen himself, actually, comments on the presence of these bones, which he considered remarkable. That he did not collect them in 1936, is evidence of the fact that zoo-archaeology, now a vibrant branch of our discipline, became a serious discipline only from the 1960’s onwards.
The 2019 campaign
Research continues on the information that has been collected at Troy in 2018. In addition to the first results that we now can show, we have also have been able to refine our methods of excavation and, especially, the way we do find processing. We hope to be able to apply these in 2019, which promises to be an even more successful year, in the focus will be on a dump of Schliemann, a fill of Dörpfeld, a dump of Blegen and a fill of the Korfmann campaigns in the 1990’s. Naturally, we will do these researches in close cooperation with our Turkish colleagues and friends.
.jpg&width=650&height=)
Preparations for the 2019 campaign of the Amsterdam Troy Project are well under way. We have selected a new group of excellent students, who are as eager to come to Troy as those who will return. The new students have selected a Trojan topic for a tutorial and will begin to study, so they will be prepared in the summer. As in the previous year, we hope that you will help us to realize this special project. Indications for the ways in which we will conduct the crowdfunding for the 2019 campaign can be found on the website of the project: www.uva.nl/archaeology-troy
We thank you very much for your generous contribution during 2018.
We wish you Happy Holidays and a good 2019
The Amsterdam Troy Team 2018: Vita Gerritsen, Nina Magdelijns, Bart Rendering, Ailbhe Turley, Fleur van der Sande, Gert Jan van Wijngaarden
0 comment