 | James G. Brianas President/Professor Achilles Foundation achillesfoundation.org 
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Abstract: The authenticity and dating of the Trojan War (while some scholars and other individuals question that there ever was a Trojan War) have been of great controversy. This author’s published book, The Landmark Achilles, clearly documents the numerous wars and hostilities occurring in the Late Bronze Age, specifically the 220-year period 1430 to 1210 BC, as identified in The Ahhiyawa Texts. From that and writings of other archaeologists and scholars, there clearly were battles at Troy with the dating of Homer’s war principally narrowed to 1260 to 1180 BC. Greek scientists have through their published works shown 1218 BC as the ending of that war. This is based on eclipses they identified in both THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY and the NASA Catalog. With The Ahhiyawa Texts identifying a war at Troy with the Greeks ca. 1250 BC, initiated by the Hittites, as well as hostilities over some two centuries by Greek and Anatolian kingdoms, analysis of the leadership of these centralized economies and the dynamic conditions of the Eastern Mediterranean at that time lead to the conclusion that the Greeks sought revenge against the warring Hittites and their Trojan allies, revenge targeted during a period of Hittite weakness. This is discussed in The Landmark Achilles. The year 1228 BC as the beginning of the war with 1218 BC as its ending fits well with that timetable.
The Landmark Achilles
Published in English late 2024 and soon to be available in Greek to the Greek speaking world, The Landmark Achilles[1] documents numerous scenarios set principally in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean that are intended to clarify our understanding of Homer’s Trojan War, its leaders, as well as Achilles and his palace site. It includes both historical data as well as knowledge derived from legend and tradition. The chapters capture key information that both authenticate the many wars of that age, and specifically Homer’s, as well as establishing the cultural dynamics occurring among the many personalities and kingdoms of that time. They are briefly summarized below to help reinforce the framework of the war’s historicity and provide context to this writing.
The Bards
The early Greeks of prehistory, the Bronze Age (3000-1150 BC), did not possess a literary writing system. That changed around 750 BC. Until then, it was the bards who were the record-keepers, maintaining an oral history of the past, whether Resident bards, Roving bards, or Competitive bards. They were the principal source of entertainment and education for the people. With lyre in hand and a rhythmic hexameter beat the bards would, with a melodic voice inspired by the Muses, sing about stories of old, stories that would lift the spirits and rouse the emotions of their audiences. The bards who resided in the royal compounds of the kings were there in the banquet halls, at athletic events, or on the front lines of hostilities recording in their minds events as they occurred or were transmitted to them. This form of communication, supplemented with the limited use of Linear B clay tablets prepared by scribes, formed the “History books,” the “Library,” of the Bronze Age Greeks. The tablets, reused yearly, were central to a kingdom’s administrative record-keeping. They principally identified items of inventory such as number of chariots, jars of oil, number of female weavers, names of gods, names of people and their home of origin, etc. Fires that destroyed palace complexes also hardened and preserved the clay tablets providing some kind of written documentation, albeit sparce, for the Late Bronze Age world of the Greeks.
The Ahhiyawa Texts
Were it not for the discovered clay tablets of the Hittities, their “Library,” it would have been virtually impossible to scientifically, through systematic data analysis, compile a sequential historical analysis of the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean. Twenty-six out of 10,000 tablets initially discovered at Hattusa, capital of the Hittites in what is now east-central Turkey, mention the name Ahhiyawa, believed to be the Hittite name for the Achaeans, Homer’s Bronze Age Greeks, whom scholars refer to as Mycenaeans. Of these twenty-six, covered in The Ahhiyawa Texts, six provide information from which a reasonable yet critical understanding of Bronze Age events can be made. From these we are able to derive numerous sequences of events, in chronological order, covering over two centuries (1435 -1210 BC), described next, that are key to the Trojan War controversy.[2]
The arrival of the Minoans on Crete from the east ushered a new era into the Greek Mediterranean. From the formative years of 3000 to 2500 BC, they developed into a very sophisticated, peaceful culture with unwalled palaces on their 100-city island, the brightly colored frescoes on palace walls, their architecture highlighted by huge central courtyards for athletic and religious events, their ingenious drainage systems, and their exquisitely crafted gold jewelry and vases. Through trade routes they extended their influence to mainland Greece, the Aegean, Anatolia, the Levant coastline of the Near East, and down to Egypt. But the volcanic eruption on Santorini/Thera in 1628 BC brought with it their demise.
The Mycenaean civilization that succeeded the Minoan introduced a more militant and hierarchal culture into Greece. It spread to all regions of mainland Greece, the western side of the Aegean, and then entered on the eastern side of that sea, the Anatolian coastline of Troy.
Recent excavators found new cultural features on the Anatolian side at Troy such as the introduction of the horse, grey-minyan ware, plus new architectural styles. The mainlanders on the western side were gradually influenced by the Minoans, eventually assimilating much from their culture. Their palace fortresses were typically characterized by high, cyclopean walls in comparison to the unwalled palaces of the Minoans. The Mycenaeans took the Minoan Linear A and developed their own Linear B system of writing. The volcanic destruction that devastated most Minoan sites was opportunistic for the Mycenaeans allowing them to overtake Minoan cities and their trade routes including routes to Troy.
The Myceneans became the dominant culture, the “New kids on the block,” though it wasn’t until 1350 BC that the Minoans lost their last stronghold, Knossos. With their new-won lands and trade routes, the more militant Myceneans were clearly emboldened to extend their reach into Anatolia, the apparent original homeland of King Agamemnon through his grandfather, Pelops. This feeds into the Achaean hostilities into the western coastlines of Anatolia including their campaigns as far as Cyprus which were cited in The Ahhiyawa Texts.
The militant Hittites, arriving in east central Anatolia around 1800 BC, became the dominant culture in the region overtaking the Hurrians and the Nesites, though adopting much from these cultures. This included the cuneiform script, originally developed by the Sumerians and composed of some 600 wedge-shaped characters, as their writing system. Their warlike behavior led to military campaigns against the Achaeans to their far western borders and the Assyrians and Egyptians to their southeast, also ensuring protection of their borders by creating vassal states between themselves and their foes. Only for the Kaska people to their north on the Black Sea were there no vassal states. The Hittites were often pestered by them as identified in prayers by Hittite kings asking their Storm-God, Tarhunt, to rid “your” land of this enemy.
Greek Scientists Analyze Homer’s War and the Journey of Odysseus
According to Papamarinopoulos et al (2012 and 2014),[4] Homer recorded an eclipse in both THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY. They were ten years apart, fitting precisely the time period of the ending of the Trojan War and Odysseus’ return to Ithaca. The timings of these eclipses were cross-referenced with the databases established by NASA in which they identify eclipses from the ancient past. This database includes the exact time, date, and location of ancient solar and lunar eclipses.
The authors examined solar eclipses from NASA’s database covering the period 1400 to 1130 BC. The only eclipses identified ten years apart in the Late Bronze Age and visible at both Troy and the Ionian Islands, respectively, and satisfying all Homeric descriptions, were those of June 6,1218 BC and October 30,1207 BC. They stated:
“—we examined fully the solar eclipse occurrence (partial, annular, total) based
on NASA catalog within the time span 1400-1130 yr. BC. We did not find another
another pair of solar eclipses, separated by ten years, which would be visible in
Troy and the Ionian Islands, respectively, satisfying fully all the Homeric descrip-
tions--.”[5]
The authors went on to explain:
“—Odysseus departed from Ithaca after the autumn equinox (4th October) of 1227
yr. BC and he returned home after the autumn equinox of 1207 yr. BC marking 20
yr. BC –- we can say that the ILIAD’s events happened at the beginning of the 10th
year, in the spring and summer of 1218 yr. BC. -– we reached a new date for the
Trojan War’s end based on the solar eclipse of the 6th June of 1218 yr. BC visible
in Troy.”[6]
In THE ILIAD, Book 16, Homer describes a darkening sky at noon surrounding the death scene of Patroclos, cousin of Achilles. This is the scene during which the authors found the eclipse on the 6th of June 1218 BC noting 75.2% obstruction of the sun, hence only about 25% partial daylight. In Fagles’ translation of THE ILIAD, Book 16, he states:
“--Achaeans and Trojans clashed, hacking into each other – So till the sun bestrode the sky at high noon – Patroclus charged the enemy – [but] the lord Apollo – the terror – moving across the deadly rout, shrouded in thick mist, slammed his [Patroclus’] broad shoulders – he stood there senseless. [Then] a Darden fighter speared him – and Hector waiting and watching – rammed his spear home --.”[7]
More detail on the eclipse and specific Homeric texts can be found in the authors’ articles. But Patroclus’ death occurred at noon, not long after the death of Trojan ally and commander of the Lycians, Sarpedon, from southwest Anatolia. Homer’s words, “shrouded in thick mist,” referred to the partial eclipse. Just prior to noon, the eclipse description was much clearer, being described as, “— After Sarpedon’s death -- Zeus swept murderous night to make the pitched battle over his own dear son a brutal, blinding struggle.”[8]
To the reader of THE ILIAD, if you were not looking for an eclipse somewhere in Homer’s writings, you clearly would have missed it. The key words are “the sky at high noon; “murderous night;” “blinding struggle;” and “shrouded in thick mist.” An understanding of Greek, particularly ancient Greek, would be critical to translations and the nuances of words. The Greek authors had that plus their extensive knowledge of the universe. Their two articles of 2012 and 2014 provide interesting details and insights into the formulation of their conclusions. Pinpointing NASA-confirmed eclipses and comparing them with scenes from Homer’s texts allowed them to reach what may be called “groundbreaking” results. Their results, scientifically derived with a keen eye for detail in Homer’s writings, are certainly more reasonable than other analyses or opinions on the dating of the Trojan War. Other scientists, scholars, including linguists and bard specialists should give their dating close scrutiny.
We are reminded that Homer lived some 500 years after the events he wrote about. It seems rather impossible that through bardic song memories of such events could still be recalled. Inevitably not only scene settings such as darkened skies at noon, but also a vast amount of other detail, was retained over the centuries, though likely modified as time passed. The power of oral history was no doubt greater than humans today can ever imagine.
Reviews of Two Other Articles Dating the Trojan War
To provide greater insight into the diverse analyses and widespread differences various scholars of today have taken on the dating of Homer’s war, two other writings are provided.
Young and Steinmann (2012)[9] present an interesting and well-documented analysis of their dating of the Trojan War. In a lengthy article of 24 pages, they point to various ancient chronologies, biblical and other historical sources, to support their thesis that the war ended in 1208 BC.
Henriksson (2012)[10], on the other hand, believes June 11, 1312 BC to be the date Troy fell. Similar to Papamarinopoulos’ eclipses, he based that date on a total solar eclipse which he states corresponds to Homer’s text. “If the final battle of Troy took place during the total eclipse in 1312 BC and the Trojan War really lasted for ten years, the war started around 1322 BC, at the end of the reign of the Hittite king Mursili II.” To validate his claim, he identified a second eclipse which occurred 1335 BC, ten years into the reign of King Mursili II (which he says began 1345 BC), father of King Muwatalli II who fought at Troy in 1312 BC (whose reign he says began 1315 BC). His dates of the reigning Hittite kings do not correspond to the accepted dates principally found in the The Ahhiyawa Texts published in 2011. But he goes on to state, “—the ten years duration of the war is just a number used to enhance the magnitude of the struggle and the suffering of the heroes -- where as the war may have lasted just one summer or at most a few years.”
Henriksson further claims that his date of 1312 BC is supported fully by the results from the German-American team excavating at Troy which shows a destruction of Troy of around 1300 BC. There was a destruction of Troy ca. 1300 BC, but the excavating team believed it to be from an earthquake, with the inhabitants rebuilding. The Greek tradition shows that it was Hercules who sacked Troy at that time or slightly later.
We have, then, two further examples of the dating of the Trojan War’s end, one dating it to 1208 BC the other 1312 BC. The first is well-documented, citing biblical and other ancient chronologies, and appears to have merit. The second has questionable timelines, plus a total eclipse in lieu of a partial, with uncertainties as to the existence of a Trojan War, and if it did exist it may have been a one- or two-summer war. And there are many other examples from today for the war’s ending such as the date by Giannakos[11] of 1400 BC, plus two excavating teams at Troy, Blegen[12] citing 1250 BC, and Korfmann/Rose[13] (the German-American team cited above) 1180 BC. This shows not only how Homer’s war has continued to capture the attention of scholars worldwide, but also the divergent analyses, reasonings, opinions, theories, and calculations that continue to emerge in scholarly works. The authors of these works analyze the Trojan War scenario from the perspective of their own profession, their scholarly world, not necessarily collaborating with other scholars. While this adds to the plethora of material on the subject, caution should be exercised as to the validity of such findings. Hopefully the systematic analysis described herein by this author lends credence to his conclusions.
Summary Analysis of Events in the Eastern Mediterranean
Troy, during the early 13th century, although a vassal state to the Hittites, was increasingly concerned for their own security. Blegen’s excavation of Troy in the 1930’s revealed that after the earthquake of around 1300 BC, the Trojans were rebuilding at a heightened pace with people in the Lower City living closer together in smaller spaces, hiding storage vases under the floors presumably in case of emergencies. So also with Korfmann and Rose’s excavation from 1988 to 2012. They found a new watch tower was added plus a new rock-cut ditch built far from the city gates at the southern edge of the Lower City creating greater protection for the citadel.[14] The kingdom was clearly under a “siege mentality” not only due to the Greek insurgency but also from the renegade, Piyamaradu. This increased security lends credence to the Trojans being able to withstand a 10-year war by the Greeks.
During the latter quarter of the 13th century, the marauding Sea Peoples were on the move. Around 2020 or 2019 BC they already joined the Libyan king’s unsuccessful campaign against the Egyptians. From that time, or at least from 1210 BC and for the next 33 years until 1177 BC, the Sea Peoples raided and caused the collapse of many kingdoms in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Greeks mobilizing their twenty-nine kingdoms and thousands of warriors to travel to a distant land during that period would have been unthinkable.
There no doubt was a Trojan War, including many wars at Troy and the lands of western Anatolia. With the Greeks having no literary language, no ability to record spoken words, bards were the key to memorizing events as they occurred. This is important in our understanding of how events could be transmitted over several centuries. The melodic, hexameter rhythm created that ability. The bards were part of a king’s entourage. They were there on the front lines of wars as witnesses to history, seeing events that were taking place. The words they sang where not set in concrete, not “petrified” as written words are, hence flexibility in presentation each time sung. But the theme remained the same with the stories resonating with the people.
Homer lived on the island of Chios near where much of the action occurred in the Late Bronze Age. He would hear stories sung by the bards; he would interact with shipboard sailors docked at Chios; he would see Mycenaean fortresses such as Emporio on Chios; and as a teenager he would likely take day trips to Anatolia a few miles across the strait by boat, as people do today. Like Henrich Schliemann in Germany was thrilled by stories he read in books as a youngster such that one day he would find Troy; or this author excited by stories from childhood in the Greek immigrant milieu of southern New Hampshire in the United States such that he would one day find the palace site of Achilles, hero at Troy; so too Homer was tantalized by tales of the bards, the seamen, and people of the Aegean and Anatolia that one day he would find that Trojan city sacked by the Greeks. This is normal human behavior that stirs a person into action. What is so complicated about that?
Homer not only found Troy, but journeying for several years throughout much of the Greek world, he heard more stories, identifying more people and their landscapes as he traveled. As a bard himself, he made notes, and/or dictated, maybe learning a rudimentary form of Greek writing. (As identified in The Landmark Achilles,[15] the earliest discoveries of Greek writing occurred between 750 and 700 BC in Athens and as far away as Naples, Italy, clearly within Homer’s lifetime.) He methodically pieced together the many stories of armies colliding, battles raging, of death and destruction, but also the human toll on loved ones as kings, commanders, and warriors from different lands confronted one another for glory, revenge, or the spoils of war. The names of those personalities playing their parts may have through recall changed over time, but the overall theme was there.
Homer was very astute. He knew that to create excitement in an audience and interest by students in his works, gods, goddesses, and mythology were also needed. And this he did. The Greeks in 750 BC, coming out of a Dark Age, were on the move, migrating in large numbers throughout the Mediterranean. A cultural revolution was on the horizon and Homer’s book, THE ILIAD, was instrumental to that awakening. It was a very dynamic period of time.
Among the many final conclusions reached by this author in his epic saga, The Landmark Achilles, was, “Homer’s Trojan War is founded on historical precedence from the collective memory of the bardic tradition. Possibly one among the many wars stands out, likely occurring 1250 to 1210 BC. THE ILIAD is not myth. It is based on historical reality.”[16]
The fine tuning of the timing of the Trojan War points to the work of Papamarinopoulos et al. Their findings of timelines from an eclipse in THE ILIAD and one in THE ODYSSEY, ten years apart, and scientifically attested to as occurring in the solar system based on databases by NASA, coincidences with this author’s analysis of events in the Eastern Mediterranean. By 1228 BC, the Hittite kingdom was sufficiently weakened. That year, King Tudhaliya IV of Hatti lost a war with Assyria. He was then dethroned by his cousin, Kurunta, who ruled for one year, 1228 to 1227 BC. You will recall that conspiracies were common in the royal Hittite household. In 1344 BC, King Suppiluliuma I usurped the throne by murdering his older brother. King Tudhaliya’s father, King Hattusili III who as a commander fought the Egyptians at Qadesh in 1274 BC and waged war against the Greeks in 1250 BC, gained the throne in 1267 BC by overthrowing his nephew.
The collapse of the Bronze Age was soon to come. Within roughly one generation, 1210 to 1177 BC, cities of the Eastern Mediterranean were devastated, their former glory gone. This occurred from numerous crises converging within that time: internal strife, drought, famine, earthquakes, burning and pillaging from the notorious Sea Peoples, migrants fleeing, and more. This affected the cities of the Greeks, Anatolia, and Levant of the Near East. With Greek cities such as Mycenae, Pylos, etc. destroyed, it would not have been possible, as stated, for the Greeks to launch an offensive of any kind at that time. Only the Egyptians had the capacity to wage war and survive, which they did.
The Hittite kingdom was clearly on a downward spiral in the late 13th c. BC. There were multi-front wars plus infighting in the royal household as well as famine documented in their land. Central authority of the Hittite throne was eroding. The time was ripe for the Greeks to execute their “Revenge Strategy” to invade once again and finally sack the city of Troy. The late 13th c. BC was that time. Homer’s ILIAD is not myth. It is based on historical reality. Systematic, detailed analysis by this author coinciding with the in-depth and critical analysis by Greek scientists point to Homer’s Trojan War as beginning in 1228 BC and ending in 1218 BC.
Acknowledgements.
I would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Panagiota Preka-Papadema, Department of Astrophysics, University of Athens, for her review and comments, concurred with by Dr. Stavros Papamarinopoulos, Department of Geology, University of Patras, which have been incorporated into this paper.
ENDNOTES:
Published in English late 2024 and soon to be available in Greek to the Greek speaking world, The Landmark Achilles[1] documents numerous scenarios set principally in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean that are intended to clarify our understanding of Homer’s Trojan War, its leaders, as well as Achilles and his palace site. It includes both historical data as well as knowledge derived from legend and tradition. The chapters capture key information that both authenticate the many wars of that age, and specifically Homer’s, as well as establishing the cultural dynamics occurring among the many personalities and kingdoms of that time. They are briefly summarized below to help reinforce the framework of the war’s historicity and provide context to this writing.
- Chapter 1. Here the foundation is set in our understanding of why Homer’s Trojan War has continued for over 2500 years to be in the limelight of the historical record. That is, it is translated, read, written about, debated, castigated, debunked, and yet even cherished as “The Greatest War Story Ever Told.” The Greeks of the Classical and Hellenistic periods who believed in the Trojan War as the early part of their history laid the foundation for that historical record.
- Chapters 2 through 6 legitimize that a man named Achilles ever existed. It covers five generations of his family from his grandfather Aiakos, a recognized law giver and ruler from the island of Aegina, to Achilles’ three grandchildren, Molossos, Pielos and Pergamos born in Thessaly of his son Neoptolemos and concubine wife, Andromache, former wife of Hector, prince of Troy.
- Chapter 7 on Homer, the key player in this entire Trojan War drama, is finally recognized not only as an esteemed poet but also as a geographer, mariner, and a scholar. Exclusive of The Catalogue, seventy-seven data-points are systematically identified that establishes his knowledge of Hellas, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean landscapes. He clearly traveled to those lands and visited the many sites he wrote about.
- Chapter 8 captures the kingdoms and landscapes of Bronze Age Greece. It discusses the evolution of the Greeks into the Mediterranean, the Minoans and Mycenaeans and their palaces, and identifies the mountain fortress of Achilles and his father, Peleus, at Pharsala, Homer’s Phthia.
- In Chapter 9 the thirty-nine years of seasonal, systematic excavations of Troy from Schliemann beginning in 1871, to Blegen in 1932, and Korfmann/Rose in 1988 are described with key findings elaborating on as well as documenting what the historical record has brought to light.
- The critical Ahhiyawa Texts are discussed in Chapter 10, documenting over 200 years of on and off again warfare in western Anatolia between the Greeks and Hittites, the vassal states, and other kingdoms of the Mediterranean, with one war at Troy clearly identified ca. 1250 BC.
- Chapter 11 covers the forces causing the collapse of the Late Bronze Age with Chapter 12 wrapping up this epic saga.
The Bards
The early Greeks of prehistory, the Bronze Age (3000-1150 BC), did not possess a literary writing system. That changed around 750 BC. Until then, it was the bards who were the record-keepers, maintaining an oral history of the past, whether Resident bards, Roving bards, or Competitive bards. They were the principal source of entertainment and education for the people. With lyre in hand and a rhythmic hexameter beat the bards would, with a melodic voice inspired by the Muses, sing about stories of old, stories that would lift the spirits and rouse the emotions of their audiences. The bards who resided in the royal compounds of the kings were there in the banquet halls, at athletic events, or on the front lines of hostilities recording in their minds events as they occurred or were transmitted to them. This form of communication, supplemented with the limited use of Linear B clay tablets prepared by scribes, formed the “History books,” the “Library,” of the Bronze Age Greeks. The tablets, reused yearly, were central to a kingdom’s administrative record-keeping. They principally identified items of inventory such as number of chariots, jars of oil, number of female weavers, names of gods, names of people and their home of origin, etc. Fires that destroyed palace complexes also hardened and preserved the clay tablets providing some kind of written documentation, albeit sparce, for the Late Bronze Age world of the Greeks.
The Ahhiyawa Texts
Were it not for the discovered clay tablets of the Hittities, their “Library,” it would have been virtually impossible to scientifically, through systematic data analysis, compile a sequential historical analysis of the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean. Twenty-six out of 10,000 tablets initially discovered at Hattusa, capital of the Hittites in what is now east-central Turkey, mention the name Ahhiyawa, believed to be the Hittite name for the Achaeans, Homer’s Bronze Age Greeks, whom scholars refer to as Mycenaeans. Of these twenty-six, covered in The Ahhiyawa Texts, six provide information from which a reasonable yet critical understanding of Bronze Age events can be made. From these we are able to derive numerous sequences of events, in chronological order, covering over two centuries (1435 -1210 BC), described next, that are key to the Trojan War controversy.[2]
- In 1435 BC, an Achaean (Greek) king, Kagamuna, married an Anatolian princess and as part of the princess’ dowry the king wrote that he received the islands of Lesbos, Chios, and possibly Lemnos, and Imbros. This was communicated around 1285 BC to King Muwattalli II of Hatti by a distant relative of King Kagamuna who is identified as “Great King of Ahhiyawa,” but whose name is not known.
What is interesting about the above timeline is that gold and other artifacts discovered at the palace in Mycenae have been dated from the 16th to the 14th c. BC fitting into the 1435 BC period above. Also, as this narrative unfolds, it is important to keep in mind that in the northwest region of Anatolia the city of Troy controlled access to the Dardanelles strait and the metal-rich lands of the Black Sea, lands the Achaeans had an interest in. - In 1430 BC, the Achaeans attacked NW Anatolia at or south of Troy, vassal territory of the Hittites. The Achaeans were repulsed by Hittite King Tudhaliya I/II. This was transmitted in the early 14th c. BC to King Madduwata of that vassal territory by King Arnuwanda I of the Hittites. The letter reminded King Madduwata how he was rescued from the Achaean attack by King Tudhaliya I/II, father of King Arnuwanda I (who ruled 1400 to 1360 BC). The Achaean king leading the attack was identified as King Attarissiya. The vassal king was assigned territory to rule east of Lazpa (island of Lesbos) in the Seha River Land (region of Pergamon).
- A few years later vassal King Madduwata attempted to expand his territory into Arzawa land to the south but failed, again necessitating his rescue by Hittite King Tudhaliya I/II. It should be recalled that Hattusa, the high-walled capital of the Hittites, was 465 miles (750 kilometers) east of the Aegean coastline, a great distance for an army with their chariots and supporting entourage to travel. The Hittites wanted to secure their western borders with their vassal states, buffer zones for their homeland, but often necessitated their intervention. The Hittites also had vassal states to their southeast securing their borders from kingdoms such as the Assyrians and Egyptians. This along with their Kaska enemies to their north created multi-front war zones for the Hittites.
- Madduwata’s vassal kingdom along the Aegean was invaded a second time by the Achaeans (the Greeks) again necessitating rescue by King Tudhaliya I/II.
- Madduwata continued to foment unrest. With a former Arzarwa foe (Kapanta-Karunta) he seized towns to the south and incited Hittite vassals to rebel. Twenty-two vassal states did so. Hittite King Tudhaliya I/II not only repulsed the two attacks by the Achaeans but also all the vassal kingdoms that rebelled. To commemorate the victories over the rebellious states, King Tudhaliya had a sword, found at Hattusa and said to be of Achaean design, inscribed as follows: “As Tudhaliya the Great King shattered the Assuwan country, he dedicated these swords to the Storm-God, his lord.”
Numbers 2 through 5 above all relate to tablets prepared by a scribe as dictated to by King Arnuwanda I on behalf of his father King Tudhaliya who ruled in the late 15th c. BC. - The uprisings of the various vassal states along the eastern Aegean coastline of western Anatolia continued for several decades. In the Hittite royal household, squabbles arose. In 1344 BC, Suppiluliuma I usurped the throne from his older brother, Tudhaliya III, who was murdered. He subsequently married a Babylonian princess and banished his wife to Ahhiyawa territory. His attempt to extend Hittite lands into Syria failed, coming up against Egyptian Pharoah, Akhenaten (1353 to 1334 BC). In 1322 he died from a plague brought to Hatti by Egyptian prisoners of war.
The years 1318 to 1317 BC, during the first few years of Hittite King Mursili’s II reign (1321 to 1295 BC), widespread uprisings again arose, no doubt testing the new king. The uprising of King Uhha-zita of Arzawa, territory southeast of Apasa (Ephesus) in southwest Anatolia and supported by the Achaean king, was crushed by King Mursili.
From about 1315 to 1270 BC there appears to be relative peace in western Anatolia. A king by the name of Alaksandu came to power in Troy in 1290 BC and ruled eighteen years until 1272 BC. Linguistically, that king may have been of Greek extraction, possibly an adopted son of the Trojan king or maybe a concubine’s son. King Muwatalli II of Hatti drafted a lengthy treaty assuring that Troy would be a vassal state of the Hittites, a treaty signed by King Alaksandu. - During the 13th c. BC, a renegade named Piyamaradu created havoc for the Hittites raiding and capturing vassal Hittite territory. In the early part of that century, the Achaeans gained control of the city of Milawata (Miletus) along the eastern Aegean coastline in southwest Anatolia. Their ambitions for securing territory to their east was being realized. Further to the northwest of Anatolia, the site of Troy, Hittite King Hattusili III (who ruled 1267 to 1237 BC) initiated hostile action against the Achaeans. The tablet known as the “Tawagalawa Letter” discusses that plus the problem the Hittite king is having with the renegade, Piyamaradu, whose daughter married an Achaean king, or his cohort, and who now rules Milawata. In the letter, the Achaean king (most likely from Mycenae) expressed his concern to the Hittite king over Troy saying, “You have used force against me.” The Hittite king replied saying, “But I was still young.
The “Tawagalawa Letter” was written by King Hattusili III to the Achaean king (unfortunately name unknown). Tawagalawa (very possibly Menelaos) was a brother of the Achaean king and used as an envoy as he is identified in the letter. Elaborating in more detail on the correspondence, though many tablets were often broken but pieced together, the Hittite king stated, “And concerning the matter [of Wilusa/Troy] about which we were hostile -- because we have made peace, what then? -- Because I have confessed my offence before my brother, -- And let it [go] no further to my brother.” Hattusili continues, “But my brother [the Achaean king] already wrote to me as follows: ‘You have used force against me.’ But I was still young [Hattusili says].”
Clearly around 1250 BC, or possibly 1260 BC, there were hostilities and likely outright war between the Achaeans and Hittites at Troy along with the Hittite’s Trojan allies. Clearly the Hittite king wanted to minimize how critical his actions were by saying, “But I was still young.” On the other hand, the Achaean king showed his consternation saying, “You have used force against me.” Here we are able to read transactions, leadership dynamics, as they occurred between leaders of two powerful kingdoms, superpowers, of the Late Bronze Age of over 3200 years ago. They are rewriting our understanding of Homer’s Trojan War and the events of that time.
A major part of the “Tawagalawa Letter” dealt with the activities of Piyamaradu, that ally of the Achaeans who pestered three Hittite kings over a 60-year period. Hattusili wanted the Achaean king to persuade him to come to Hattusa, the Hittite capital. Piyamaradu refused for fear of reprisal or assassination.
Hattusili was no doubt an astute king. His life was tempered by his own experiences. As a child he was not expected to survive his illness. He did and later as an adult fought with his brother, King Muwatalli II, against the Egyptians in 1274 BC at the Battle of Qadesh. He became king in 1267 BC, seizing the Hittite throne by overthrowing his nephew (another translation says half-brother), Urhi-Tesuh, in a royal coup. In 1259 BC he signed a peace treaty with Egypt (over Qadesh), securing some sense of co-existence with a former foe in his far southern flank, while continuing to deal with Assyria to his far southeast. The Kaska people to the north of Hattusa were also a constant threat to his kingdom. With many strategic decisions facing the Hittite kingdom, the king took a more tempered approach with the Achaeans, the Greeks, to his far western frontier. - Famine also hit the land of Hatti. Around the mid-13th c. BC, the Hittites requested grain from Egypt. Later they sent an urgent message to the king of Ugarit (on the northern Syrian coastline) on the need of shipments of barley stating, “It is a matter of life and death.”
- Piyamaradu, the Achaean ally, continued his aggressive tactics against the Hittites. Around 1235 BC, after the reign of King Hattusili III, he dethroned Walmu, king of Troy. The new Hittite king, Tudhaliya IV, who began his rule in 1237 BC, wants Walmu reinstated. In military action north of Milawata, likely around Apasa (Ephesus), Tudhaliya appointed a king to that area, Tarkasnawa. But in lieu of a vassal state, Tudhaliya has formed a partnership with him and hopes he will have Walmu reinstated which he may have been. This partnership, in lieu of firm control over vassal states, reveals the weakened position the Hittite kingdom was in. In 1228 BC, Tudhaliya IV lost a war with Assyria, the two kingdoms battling over the kingdom of Mittani which lay between them. A cousin, Kurunta, then temporarily dethroned Tudhaliya but his throne was regained in 1227 BC, and he ruled until 1209 BC. In that year of 1209 BC, he fought the Assyrians a second time and again lost. From 1209 BC to about 1190 BC, two other kings assumed the throne of a very weakened Hittite kingdom. Before 1209 BC, King Tudhaliya had already ceased communication with the Achaeans, erasing any recognition of them as “brothers” or “Great Kings.” The 220 years of military confrontation with periods of peace and friendship had come to end.
The arrival of the Minoans on Crete from the east ushered a new era into the Greek Mediterranean. From the formative years of 3000 to 2500 BC, they developed into a very sophisticated, peaceful culture with unwalled palaces on their 100-city island, the brightly colored frescoes on palace walls, their architecture highlighted by huge central courtyards for athletic and religious events, their ingenious drainage systems, and their exquisitely crafted gold jewelry and vases. Through trade routes they extended their influence to mainland Greece, the Aegean, Anatolia, the Levant coastline of the Near East, and down to Egypt. But the volcanic eruption on Santorini/Thera in 1628 BC brought with it their demise.
The Mycenaean civilization that succeeded the Minoan introduced a more militant and hierarchal culture into Greece. It spread to all regions of mainland Greece, the western side of the Aegean, and then entered on the eastern side of that sea, the Anatolian coastline of Troy.
Recent excavators found new cultural features on the Anatolian side at Troy such as the introduction of the horse, grey-minyan ware, plus new architectural styles. The mainlanders on the western side were gradually influenced by the Minoans, eventually assimilating much from their culture. Their palace fortresses were typically characterized by high, cyclopean walls in comparison to the unwalled palaces of the Minoans. The Mycenaeans took the Minoan Linear A and developed their own Linear B system of writing. The volcanic destruction that devastated most Minoan sites was opportunistic for the Mycenaeans allowing them to overtake Minoan cities and their trade routes including routes to Troy.
The Myceneans became the dominant culture, the “New kids on the block,” though it wasn’t until 1350 BC that the Minoans lost their last stronghold, Knossos. With their new-won lands and trade routes, the more militant Myceneans were clearly emboldened to extend their reach into Anatolia, the apparent original homeland of King Agamemnon through his grandfather, Pelops. This feeds into the Achaean hostilities into the western coastlines of Anatolia including their campaigns as far as Cyprus which were cited in The Ahhiyawa Texts.
The militant Hittites, arriving in east central Anatolia around 1800 BC, became the dominant culture in the region overtaking the Hurrians and the Nesites, though adopting much from these cultures. This included the cuneiform script, originally developed by the Sumerians and composed of some 600 wedge-shaped characters, as their writing system. Their warlike behavior led to military campaigns against the Achaeans to their far western borders and the Assyrians and Egyptians to their southeast, also ensuring protection of their borders by creating vassal states between themselves and their foes. Only for the Kaska people to their north on the Black Sea were there no vassal states. The Hittites were often pestered by them as identified in prayers by Hittite kings asking their Storm-God, Tarhunt, to rid “your” land of this enemy.
Greek Scientists Analyze Homer’s War and the Journey of Odysseus
According to Papamarinopoulos et al (2012 and 2014),[4] Homer recorded an eclipse in both THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY. They were ten years apart, fitting precisely the time period of the ending of the Trojan War and Odysseus’ return to Ithaca. The timings of these eclipses were cross-referenced with the databases established by NASA in which they identify eclipses from the ancient past. This database includes the exact time, date, and location of ancient solar and lunar eclipses.
The authors examined solar eclipses from NASA’s database covering the period 1400 to 1130 BC. The only eclipses identified ten years apart in the Late Bronze Age and visible at both Troy and the Ionian Islands, respectively, and satisfying all Homeric descriptions, were those of June 6,1218 BC and October 30,1207 BC. They stated:
“—we examined fully the solar eclipse occurrence (partial, annular, total) based
on NASA catalog within the time span 1400-1130 yr. BC. We did not find another
another pair of solar eclipses, separated by ten years, which would be visible in
Troy and the Ionian Islands, respectively, satisfying fully all the Homeric descrip-
tions--.”[5]
The authors went on to explain:
“—Odysseus departed from Ithaca after the autumn equinox (4th October) of 1227
yr. BC and he returned home after the autumn equinox of 1207 yr. BC marking 20
yr. BC –- we can say that the ILIAD’s events happened at the beginning of the 10th
year, in the spring and summer of 1218 yr. BC. -– we reached a new date for the
Trojan War’s end based on the solar eclipse of the 6th June of 1218 yr. BC visible
in Troy.”[6]
In THE ILIAD, Book 16, Homer describes a darkening sky at noon surrounding the death scene of Patroclos, cousin of Achilles. This is the scene during which the authors found the eclipse on the 6th of June 1218 BC noting 75.2% obstruction of the sun, hence only about 25% partial daylight. In Fagles’ translation of THE ILIAD, Book 16, he states:
“--Achaeans and Trojans clashed, hacking into each other – So till the sun bestrode the sky at high noon – Patroclus charged the enemy – [but] the lord Apollo – the terror – moving across the deadly rout, shrouded in thick mist, slammed his [Patroclus’] broad shoulders – he stood there senseless. [Then] a Darden fighter speared him – and Hector waiting and watching – rammed his spear home --.”[7]
More detail on the eclipse and specific Homeric texts can be found in the authors’ articles. But Patroclus’ death occurred at noon, not long after the death of Trojan ally and commander of the Lycians, Sarpedon, from southwest Anatolia. Homer’s words, “shrouded in thick mist,” referred to the partial eclipse. Just prior to noon, the eclipse description was much clearer, being described as, “— After Sarpedon’s death -- Zeus swept murderous night to make the pitched battle over his own dear son a brutal, blinding struggle.”[8]
To the reader of THE ILIAD, if you were not looking for an eclipse somewhere in Homer’s writings, you clearly would have missed it. The key words are “the sky at high noon; “murderous night;” “blinding struggle;” and “shrouded in thick mist.” An understanding of Greek, particularly ancient Greek, would be critical to translations and the nuances of words. The Greek authors had that plus their extensive knowledge of the universe. Their two articles of 2012 and 2014 provide interesting details and insights into the formulation of their conclusions. Pinpointing NASA-confirmed eclipses and comparing them with scenes from Homer’s texts allowed them to reach what may be called “groundbreaking” results. Their results, scientifically derived with a keen eye for detail in Homer’s writings, are certainly more reasonable than other analyses or opinions on the dating of the Trojan War. Other scientists, scholars, including linguists and bard specialists should give their dating close scrutiny.
We are reminded that Homer lived some 500 years after the events he wrote about. It seems rather impossible that through bardic song memories of such events could still be recalled. Inevitably not only scene settings such as darkened skies at noon, but also a vast amount of other detail, was retained over the centuries, though likely modified as time passed. The power of oral history was no doubt greater than humans today can ever imagine.
Reviews of Two Other Articles Dating the Trojan War
To provide greater insight into the diverse analyses and widespread differences various scholars of today have taken on the dating of Homer’s war, two other writings are provided.
Young and Steinmann (2012)[9] present an interesting and well-documented analysis of their dating of the Trojan War. In a lengthy article of 24 pages, they point to various ancient chronologies, biblical and other historical sources, to support their thesis that the war ended in 1208 BC.
- They cite what they call the traditionally accepted date of the Trojan War’s ending as being 1183 BC based on the Canons of Eusebius of Caesarea (260-340 AD) as derived from Eratosthenes of Alexandria (275-194 BC).
- They also point to the Parian Marble which starts from a base of 264/63 BC and works backward to 1582/81 BC to a Greek king named Cecrops. The Marble identifies the Trojan War ending 945 years before the base date, dating the fall of Troy to 1208 BC.
- That date of 1208 BC agrees with the founding of the Phoenician city of Trye which was 1209 BC, with Troy falling one year earlier. Correlating this to biblical sources, they show that Hiram of Tyre sent material that aided in the building of Solomon’s Temple 240 years later (likely 969 or 968 BC), hence 1208 for the war’s ending.
- They also identify an Assyrian entry in Eusebius’ Canons dating the fall of Troy to 1206 BC, based on “Under Tautanus, king of Assyria, Troy is captured.”
Henriksson (2012)[10], on the other hand, believes June 11, 1312 BC to be the date Troy fell. Similar to Papamarinopoulos’ eclipses, he based that date on a total solar eclipse which he states corresponds to Homer’s text. “If the final battle of Troy took place during the total eclipse in 1312 BC and the Trojan War really lasted for ten years, the war started around 1322 BC, at the end of the reign of the Hittite king Mursili II.” To validate his claim, he identified a second eclipse which occurred 1335 BC, ten years into the reign of King Mursili II (which he says began 1345 BC), father of King Muwatalli II who fought at Troy in 1312 BC (whose reign he says began 1315 BC). His dates of the reigning Hittite kings do not correspond to the accepted dates principally found in the The Ahhiyawa Texts published in 2011. But he goes on to state, “—the ten years duration of the war is just a number used to enhance the magnitude of the struggle and the suffering of the heroes -- where as the war may have lasted just one summer or at most a few years.”
Henriksson further claims that his date of 1312 BC is supported fully by the results from the German-American team excavating at Troy which shows a destruction of Troy of around 1300 BC. There was a destruction of Troy ca. 1300 BC, but the excavating team believed it to be from an earthquake, with the inhabitants rebuilding. The Greek tradition shows that it was Hercules who sacked Troy at that time or slightly later.
We have, then, two further examples of the dating of the Trojan War’s end, one dating it to 1208 BC the other 1312 BC. The first is well-documented, citing biblical and other ancient chronologies, and appears to have merit. The second has questionable timelines, plus a total eclipse in lieu of a partial, with uncertainties as to the existence of a Trojan War, and if it did exist it may have been a one- or two-summer war. And there are many other examples from today for the war’s ending such as the date by Giannakos[11] of 1400 BC, plus two excavating teams at Troy, Blegen[12] citing 1250 BC, and Korfmann/Rose[13] (the German-American team cited above) 1180 BC. This shows not only how Homer’s war has continued to capture the attention of scholars worldwide, but also the divergent analyses, reasonings, opinions, theories, and calculations that continue to emerge in scholarly works. The authors of these works analyze the Trojan War scenario from the perspective of their own profession, their scholarly world, not necessarily collaborating with other scholars. While this adds to the plethora of material on the subject, caution should be exercised as to the validity of such findings. Hopefully the systematic analysis described herein by this author lends credence to his conclusions.
Summary Analysis of Events in the Eastern Mediterranean
- The Hittite tablets, and specifically The Ahhiyawa Texts, document numerous hostilities and wars in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age. These occurred during the 220-year period 1430 BC to 1210 BC.
- The volcanic eruption of Santorini/Thera in 1628 BC led to the demise of the Minoan civilization based on Crete. The Mycenaeans on mainland Greece seized the opportunity and acquired the cities, lands, and trade routes of the Minoans. Being a militaristic society and emboldened by their new acquisitions, they looked to their east and the coveted land of Anatolia along the eastern coastline of the Aegean, the northwest section said to have been the original homeland of Pelops, father of King Agamemnon. The reach of the Greeks also extended to Cyprus.
- The Hittites, developing as a powerful kingdom in east central Anatolia at the same time as the Greeks on the mainland, created vassal states to their west which provided buffer zones against any potential enemy. The first recorded battle between the Hittites and the Greeks occurred around 1430 BC in an area at or south of Troy, a battle the Greeks lost.
- The Greeks incited vassal states to rebel against the Hittites. The vassal states subsequently were defeated by the Hittites. Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites, was located 465 miles (750 km.) from the Aegean coastline, requiring several days journey for their army. It was no small logistical feat.
- Piyamarudu, a rebel supported by the Greeks, during a 60-year period in the 13th c. BC, created havoc among the vassal kingdoms of the Hittites. Miletus, a city along the Aegean coast in southwest Anatolia was in Greek hands with its new ruler married to a daughter of Piyamarudu.
- 1250 BC, Hittite King Hattusili III who ruled 30 years (1267 to 1237 BC), initiated military against the Greeks at Troy. Peace ensued. But the Greeks apparently did not look lightly upon the Hittite action, the Greek king writing to King Hattusili, “You have used force against me.” Hattusili replied, “But I was still young,” adding “- we have made peace – I have confessed my offense against my brother -- let it [go] no further.” But it has been some two centuries that the Greeks sought the lands of Anatolia. Engaging in intrigues with a rebel, and now controlling the city of Miletus, they likely were waiting for an opportune time of Hittite weakness to strike Troy. Troy was also in a strategic position, controlling the entrance to the Dardanelles strait with access to the metal-rich lands of the Black Sea.
- Around 1235 BC, Piyamaradu, the Greek ally, dethroned Walmu, king of Troy. King Tudhaliya IV, who reigned from 1237 to 1228 BC, created a partnership with a local king and wanted Walmu reinstated which he may have been. But this partnership in lieu of strong control through vassalage was unprecedented.
- In 1228 and 1209 BC, the Hittites lost two wars against the Assyrians on their far southeastern frontier. Those wars, royal squabbles, famine in the kingdom, plus hostilities along multiple fronts including the Kaska people to the north, all clearly indicate that by the late 13th c. BC the Hittite kingdom was severely weakened. Opportunities were there for the Greeks to strike.
Troy, during the early 13th century, although a vassal state to the Hittites, was increasingly concerned for their own security. Blegen’s excavation of Troy in the 1930’s revealed that after the earthquake of around 1300 BC, the Trojans were rebuilding at a heightened pace with people in the Lower City living closer together in smaller spaces, hiding storage vases under the floors presumably in case of emergencies. So also with Korfmann and Rose’s excavation from 1988 to 2012. They found a new watch tower was added plus a new rock-cut ditch built far from the city gates at the southern edge of the Lower City creating greater protection for the citadel.[14] The kingdom was clearly under a “siege mentality” not only due to the Greek insurgency but also from the renegade, Piyamaradu. This increased security lends credence to the Trojans being able to withstand a 10-year war by the Greeks.
During the latter quarter of the 13th century, the marauding Sea Peoples were on the move. Around 2020 or 2019 BC they already joined the Libyan king’s unsuccessful campaign against the Egyptians. From that time, or at least from 1210 BC and for the next 33 years until 1177 BC, the Sea Peoples raided and caused the collapse of many kingdoms in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Greeks mobilizing their twenty-nine kingdoms and thousands of warriors to travel to a distant land during that period would have been unthinkable.
There no doubt was a Trojan War, including many wars at Troy and the lands of western Anatolia. With the Greeks having no literary language, no ability to record spoken words, bards were the key to memorizing events as they occurred. This is important in our understanding of how events could be transmitted over several centuries. The melodic, hexameter rhythm created that ability. The bards were part of a king’s entourage. They were there on the front lines of wars as witnesses to history, seeing events that were taking place. The words they sang where not set in concrete, not “petrified” as written words are, hence flexibility in presentation each time sung. But the theme remained the same with the stories resonating with the people.
Homer lived on the island of Chios near where much of the action occurred in the Late Bronze Age. He would hear stories sung by the bards; he would interact with shipboard sailors docked at Chios; he would see Mycenaean fortresses such as Emporio on Chios; and as a teenager he would likely take day trips to Anatolia a few miles across the strait by boat, as people do today. Like Henrich Schliemann in Germany was thrilled by stories he read in books as a youngster such that one day he would find Troy; or this author excited by stories from childhood in the Greek immigrant milieu of southern New Hampshire in the United States such that he would one day find the palace site of Achilles, hero at Troy; so too Homer was tantalized by tales of the bards, the seamen, and people of the Aegean and Anatolia that one day he would find that Trojan city sacked by the Greeks. This is normal human behavior that stirs a person into action. What is so complicated about that?
Homer not only found Troy, but journeying for several years throughout much of the Greek world, he heard more stories, identifying more people and their landscapes as he traveled. As a bard himself, he made notes, and/or dictated, maybe learning a rudimentary form of Greek writing. (As identified in The Landmark Achilles,[15] the earliest discoveries of Greek writing occurred between 750 and 700 BC in Athens and as far away as Naples, Italy, clearly within Homer’s lifetime.) He methodically pieced together the many stories of armies colliding, battles raging, of death and destruction, but also the human toll on loved ones as kings, commanders, and warriors from different lands confronted one another for glory, revenge, or the spoils of war. The names of those personalities playing their parts may have through recall changed over time, but the overall theme was there.
Homer was very astute. He knew that to create excitement in an audience and interest by students in his works, gods, goddesses, and mythology were also needed. And this he did. The Greeks in 750 BC, coming out of a Dark Age, were on the move, migrating in large numbers throughout the Mediterranean. A cultural revolution was on the horizon and Homer’s book, THE ILIAD, was instrumental to that awakening. It was a very dynamic period of time.
Among the many final conclusions reached by this author in his epic saga, The Landmark Achilles, was, “Homer’s Trojan War is founded on historical precedence from the collective memory of the bardic tradition. Possibly one among the many wars stands out, likely occurring 1250 to 1210 BC. THE ILIAD is not myth. It is based on historical reality.”[16]
The fine tuning of the timing of the Trojan War points to the work of Papamarinopoulos et al. Their findings of timelines from an eclipse in THE ILIAD and one in THE ODYSSEY, ten years apart, and scientifically attested to as occurring in the solar system based on databases by NASA, coincidences with this author’s analysis of events in the Eastern Mediterranean. By 1228 BC, the Hittite kingdom was sufficiently weakened. That year, King Tudhaliya IV of Hatti lost a war with Assyria. He was then dethroned by his cousin, Kurunta, who ruled for one year, 1228 to 1227 BC. You will recall that conspiracies were common in the royal Hittite household. In 1344 BC, King Suppiluliuma I usurped the throne by murdering his older brother. King Tudhaliya’s father, King Hattusili III who as a commander fought the Egyptians at Qadesh in 1274 BC and waged war against the Greeks in 1250 BC, gained the throne in 1267 BC by overthrowing his nephew.
The collapse of the Bronze Age was soon to come. Within roughly one generation, 1210 to 1177 BC, cities of the Eastern Mediterranean were devastated, their former glory gone. This occurred from numerous crises converging within that time: internal strife, drought, famine, earthquakes, burning and pillaging from the notorious Sea Peoples, migrants fleeing, and more. This affected the cities of the Greeks, Anatolia, and Levant of the Near East. With Greek cities such as Mycenae, Pylos, etc. destroyed, it would not have been possible, as stated, for the Greeks to launch an offensive of any kind at that time. Only the Egyptians had the capacity to wage war and survive, which they did.
The Hittite kingdom was clearly on a downward spiral in the late 13th c. BC. There were multi-front wars plus infighting in the royal household as well as famine documented in their land. Central authority of the Hittite throne was eroding. The time was ripe for the Greeks to execute their “Revenge Strategy” to invade once again and finally sack the city of Troy. The late 13th c. BC was that time. Homer’s ILIAD is not myth. It is based on historical reality. Systematic, detailed analysis by this author coinciding with the in-depth and critical analysis by Greek scientists point to Homer’s Trojan War as beginning in 1228 BC and ending in 1218 BC.
Acknowledgements.
I would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Panagiota Preka-Papadema, Department of Astrophysics, University of Athens, for her review and comments, concurred with by Dr. Stavros Papamarinopoulos, Department of Geology, University of Patras, which have been incorporated into this paper.
ENDNOTES:
- James George Brianas. The Landmark Achilles, Portsmouth, NH: Seacoast Press, 2024.
- G. Beckman, T. Bryce, and E.H. Cline. The Ahhiyawa Texts, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011. For a sequential listing of the six Ahhiyawa texts, see Exihibit 6 on p. 361 of The Landmark Achilles, and pp. 349-64 for their detailed analysis and discussion. For the Greek publication, see Exhibit 6 in Chapter 10 and read from the section labeled “The Ahhiyawa Texts” to the end of that chapter.
- See pp. 257-71 of The Landmark Achilles for a discussion of the Minoans plus the Mycenaeans and their interactions with the Hittites. For the Greek publication, read from the beginning of Chapter 8 to the beginning of the section labeled “The Achilles Project.”
- S. Papamarinopoulos, et al. “A New Astronomical Dating of Odysseus’ Return to Ithaca,” Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol 12, No. 1, 2012, pp. 117-28.
_____________, “A New Astronomical Dating of the Trojan War’s End,” Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2014, pp. 93-102. - _____________, 2014, p. 95.
- _____________, 2014, p. 95.
- Homer, The Iliad, Robert Fagles (trans.), New York: Penguin Books, 1990, Book 16, lines 891-1001.
- ______, Book 16, lines 659-664.
- R. C. Young and A.E. Steinmann. Correlation of Select Classical Sources Related to the Trojan War with Assyrian and Biblical Chronologies, Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament, 1.2, 2012, pp. 223-48.
- G. Henriksson. The Trojan War Dated by Two Solar Eclipses, Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 12, 1, pp. 63-76.
- K. Giannakos. Evidence from the Aegean, Cyprus, Egypt, Levant, Asia Minor, and Possible Dating of the Trojan War (Part II), Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society, Talanta L1, 2019, pp. 9-75.
- C. Blegen. Troy and the Trojan War, New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1995.
- C. B. Rose. The Archaeology of Greek and Roman Troy, 2014; Reprinted, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
- See The Landmark Achilles pp. 325-26 and p. 332. For the Greek publication, read Chapter 9, sections ”Blegen’s Troy VIIa” and “Korfmann’s Troy VII.”
- See p. 11 of The Landmark Achilles for identification of early Greek writing on “Nestor’s Cup” discovered near Naples, Italy dated 750 to 700 BC, and pottery discovered in the Dipylon cemetery of Athens, Greece dated to 740 BC. For the Greek publication, read the section in Chapter 1 labeled “Nestor’s Cup from the Island of Ischia off Naples.”
- See the entire list of key conclusions on pp. 387-88 of The Landmark Achilles. For the Greek publication, read the last two pages of the last chapter, Chapter 12.
