Last Modified: 051119
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Chronology of Troy

I am by no means a classicist, but have tried to assemble some dates that link recent discoveries at the site of Troy to a general outline of early Greek history. This is designed to supplement the reading of the Iliad and associated historical and archaeological background materials.

For a far more learned treatment, visit Dartmouth College Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean and click on "chronology."

Quick and Dirty Dates (All You Need To Know)

The detailed chart that occupies most of this page is for the fussy among you. Ordinary mortals can do fine if you remember (memorize!) four round numbers:

*-1200 is an excellent number to remember. It can ALSO work as a date for the replacement of the Bronze Age by the Iron Age without getting you into too much trouble.

Lots of Dates for People Who Love Dates

3000-1200 BC Bronze Age (Helladic) Greece

3000-2000 Early Helladic Period of Greek Bronze Age
(Virtually no Bronze is in use at the beginning of this period, which continues a Neolithic way of life in most areas.)

• At Troy:
  • 2920-2300 (Troy I, II, III) Maritime Troia Culture
    For most people life seems to have continued "normally" through Troy I, II, and III. The periods are distinguished by cycles of construction and destruction of the citadel portion of the site.
  • 2920-2600 (Troy I) Maritime Troia Culture (1)
    Troy is settled & becomes center for bronze making.
  • 2600-2480/20 (Troy II) Maritime Troia Culture (2)
    Troy II is merely a citadel built late in Troy I and actually largely contemporary with it; it was destroyed between 2480 and 2420.
  • 2480/20-2300 (Troy III) Maritime Troia Culture (3)
    Troy was abruptly destroyed and abandoned in 2300 or so, possibly due to an earthquake.
• Elsewhere:
  • 2500± "Cycladic" Neolithic cultures of the Cyclades islands produce important art.
  • 2300± Bronze comes into broad general use in the Aegean area.

2000-1600 Middle Helladic Period of Greek Bronze Age

• At Troy:
• 2000-1750 (Troy IV, V) Anatolian Troia Culture
  Inland immigrants resettle Troy, but repeated destruction by fire and low densities of animal bones suggest little success to their efforts. The site was abandoned by 1750.
• 1700-1250/30 (Troy VI) Trojan High Culture (1)
  New immigrants, probably Luwian-speaking, plunder old ruins to make new city; Troy becomes major trade center and producer of horses, pottery, and wool. The famed citadel walls were built about 1470, possibly in response to military threats from outside, possibly as beautification or markers of royal prerogative. At the end of this period the citadel suffers extensive destruction, perhaps due to earthquake, fire, or attack, but thereafter the same pottery styles continue to be produced.
• Elsewhere:
  • 1900-1600 Minoan civilization thrives in Crete.
  • 1700± Minoan script developed (still undeciphered —here's your chance!)

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1600/1550-1200 Late Helladic Period of Greek Bronze Age
(a.k.a. Late Mycenaean Age of Greek History)

• At Troy:
• 1250/30-1180 (Troy VIIa) Trojan High Culture (2)
  Troy, apparently still occupied by Luwians continuing their old way of life, is utterly destroyed in 1180 and completely burned.
  It is unclear whether the destruction of 1250/30 or the destruction of 1180 is the one commemorated in Homer's Iliad. Assuming that the Iliad commemorates one of these, it may in fact merge both into a single catastrophe, or the 10 years of war he describes may represent half a century of sporadic struggles.
• 1200 Jordan's magic date to remember for the Trojan War
• 1180-1000/950 (Troy VIIb) Trojan Culture with Balkan Influences
  Troy is not entirely abandoned, and gradually immigrants from the Balkans settle sparsely in the area. Population gradually declines and the site is abandoned by 950.
• Elsewhere:
  • 1450± Knossos, main city of Minoan Crete, destroyed by Mycenaeans.
  • 1450± Mycenaean Linear-B script developed.
  • 1400 Jordan's magic date to remember for the Sack of Knossos
  • 1400± Walls begin to be constructed around Mycenaean cities, suggesting conflict.

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1150-750 Dark Age of Greek History

• 1150± Virtually all Greek cities (except Athens) in ruins
• 1120± Mycenae & nearby Tiryns fall (date subject to revision)
• 1100± "Dorian invasion" spoken of by ancient authors
  (who do not seem to agree on what this actually means)
• 1000± Iron in general use throughout the Aegean

750-500 Archaic Age of Greek History

• 800 Jordan's magic date to remember for Homer & the Iliad
• 700-85 (Troy VIII) Greek Period at Troy
  Gradual resettlement and population growth, especially after Alexander's visit, but mostly not on the citadel hill itself.
• 700 Hesiod writes Works & Days
• 530 Pythagoras, the famed mathematician, establishes religious order in southern Italy

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500-323 Classical Age of Greek History

• 490-479 The Persian Wars
• 480 Persian King Xerxes, conquering the world, sacrifices at site of Troy
• 462-461 Pericles institutes democracy in Athens
• 458 Aeschylus produced Oresteia, the trilogy concerned with Greek events after the fall of Troy
• 432 Sculptor Phidias completes friezes for the Parthenon
• 431-404 Peloponnesian War, recounted by Herodotus (484-425), whose writings include an estimate that Homer lived about 400 years earlier.
• 400 Jordan's magic date to remember for Classical Greece
• 399 Socrates tried and executed
• 356-323 Alexander the Great, conquering the world, sacrifices at site of Troy
• 336-323 Hellenistic Period of Greek History
• 335 Aristotle, a student of Plato, founds school in Athens
• 323 Alexander the Great dies in India

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323- Post-Classical Greece

• At Troy:
  • 85 BC - AD 500 (Troy IX) Roman & Byzantine Periods at Troy
  • AD 930 Small Byzantine bishopric on site of Troy
  • AD 1309 Troy and region conquered by Turks and thereafter abandoned
  • AD 1871 Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) announces that he has found Homer's Troy, based on preliminary digging in what turns out to have been Troy II
  • AD 1938 Excavation at Troy discontinued as World War II moves in
  • AD 1988 Turkish government offers excavation license to University of Tübingen, working in conjunction with University of Cincinnati and an international team.
• Elsewhere:
  • 323- 50± Hellenistic Period
    (Named after the Greeks or "Helenes" whose empire under Alexander the Great spread Greek influence and Greek language over much of the Eastern Mediterranean and southwest Asian world.)
  • 150± - 50± Greece falls under Roman administration.
  • 50 BC± - AD 395 Roman Period
  • 395 - 1453 Byzantine Period ("Eastern Roman Empire")
  • 1453 - 1831 Turkish Empire dominates old Byzantine empire, including Greece.
  • 1831 Greece gains independence from Turkish empire.
  • 1918 Turkish empire collapses at end of First World War and Greeks invade Turkey.
  • 1923 Turkish republic declared after civil war and expulsion of Greek forces.

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