May 04, 2005
May 4 Photos: Peter
Just your typical “No Carts This Street” road sign. While most of the vehicles we’ve seen are modern tractors and cars, we have seen a number of small one horse carts driving along the side of the road.
Caleb posing with some Hellenistic stone artillery balls outside the archaeology museum in Çanakkale. These balls would have either been thrown by a ballista at a fortification wall or rolled down on attacking troops from atop the walls. We unfortunately could not take pictures inside the museum.
A view of the stratigraphy of Troy, showing the heights of the many different settlements built on the same site starting around 3000 BC and continuing up until the Roman period.
A shepherd leads his flock across the fields north of the acropolis at Troy. These fields, extending a few miles to the sea, formed a good natural harbor in Troy’s earliest days. At this time, Troy was probably a place where trade ships stopped to restock food and water and wait out bad weather before going through the Bosporus and Dardanelles to the Black Sea. The profits made from these trade ships would have allowed Troy to grow rich.
Neha standing in front of a mud brick wall from Troy II, a Bronze Age phase of the city. Most mud brick would have melted when it came into contact with water, but this mudbrick was baked in the fire that destroyed Troy II, preserving it for posterity.
An impressive ramp leading up to a large gateway into the high citadel of Troy II. These are the remains of what is probably the most impressive entrance gate constructed at this time anywhere in the Aegean world.
Professor Rutter provides human scale for the massive walls of Troy VI. He stands in the corner between the wall and a large tower which would have provided cover for the gate shown in the next image.
Ben stands against the wall near the gate into Troy VI. While the stone remains of these walls are significant, they would not have constituted the entire height of the wall. Above the stone part visible, the wall would have extended several more meters in mud brick.
Laura poses with a ceiling tile from the Hellenistic temple to Athena that was built atop the Troy mound. Troy continued to be inhabited into the Roman period.
Everybody chilling in a fanciful reconstruction of the Trojan horse. Inside, we met lots of charming Turkish children who greeted us in very good English. They readily introduced themselves and wanted to know our names, especially one very enthusiastic little boy named Dennis.
A few of the many animals we saw today as we wandered through Troy and Assos. Clockwise from top left, we have a pretty black and yellow butterfly I saw at Assos, one of several Turkish red squirrels who were running all over the walls of Troy VI, a green frog leaning on some submerged wood in a tiny pond near a spring we visited, and two turtles we saw in a wheat field as we went in search of the outer walls of the lower settlement.
The inside of a simple mosque near the top of the Assos acropolis. The building had first been a Christian church and was later converted into a mosque during the Ottoman period.
The amazing view from the Athena temple atop the acropolis at Assos. Off to the left across a fairly narrow strait lay the island of Lesbos.
Everyone examining the temple platform and the few remaining columns. This temple was the only temple built in the Doric order in East Greece during the Archaic Period.
Another view of the Athena Temple at Assos. The arrangement of the few standing Doric columns was impressive considering the unintentional nature of the composition.
Everyone exploring the ruins of the bouleterion near the forum of Assos.
Looking down the line of the well preserved walls of Assos toward the sea. Very few sites on the Greek mainland have walls preserved to the height of the walls at Assos.
A few goats were perched on top of the fortification walls at the border of Assos. They looked at us and somewhat rapidly departed to graze in a different field.
This little lamb stuck his head up over the walls and baaed at us as we were approaching. He seemed to be hanging around with the goats but looking for his fellow sheep
Laura tried to pet our friend the lamb, but her affections were rebuffed. She then returned sheepishly to the group.