Hisarlık

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Hisarlık, archaeological mound lying on the Küçük Menderes River near the mouth of the Dardanelles in Turkey. Long known to bear the remains of the Hellenistic and Roman town called Ilion or Ilium, in 1822 it was identified by Charles Maclaren on the basis of ancient literature as the site of Homeric Troy, an identification adopted by Frank Calvert, who shared his own excavations and knowledge with the better-funded Heinrich Schliemann. Between 1870 and 1890 Schliemann undertook his own excavations and later took sole credit for the discovery of Troy. Following Schliemann’s death, work at the site continued under his assistant Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1893–94) and later under Carl W. Blegen (1932–38). Some 50 years later, excavations were resumed under a team led by University of Tübingen archaeologist Manfred Korfmann, who led work at the site until his death in 2005.

Although Hisarlık has been largely acknowledged by scholars as the site of historical Troy, intense debate has been generated by questions of Troy’s physical size, population, and stature as a trading entrepôt and regional power. Excavations continued into the 21st century in search of evidence of a greater Troy (a more populous settlement of significant size and prosperity) or a lesser Troy (a less populous settlement of somewhat diminished size and status).