The Trojan War Dated by Two Solar Eclipses

Home , Alaksandu, Arzawa, Cyme (Aeolis), Wilusa

THE TROJAN WAR DATED BY TWO SOLAR ECLIPSES

Göran Henriksson

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University S-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden

Received: 17/11/2011 Accepted: 4/12/2011 Corresponding author:[email protected]

ABSTRACT The Trojan War was very significant for the ancient Greeks and they dated historical events according to the number of years after the fall of Troy. However, there was already in antiquity no consensus as to the exact date of the war when compared with different epochs. Even after the modern discovery of the ancient city, there has been disagreement among different excavators as to which layer corresponds to the city mentioned in the Iliad attributed to Homer. In this paper an attempt is made to identify the strange obscuration of the sun that oc- curred during the final battle of the Iliad as a total solar eclipse close to the southern border of the zone of totality. There exists only one solar eclipse that corresponds to the description in the text and this is the total solar eclipse of June 11, in 1312 BC. When I first presented this date in 1986, there was a difference of about 60 years compared with the most common archaeological dating at that time. My date is now fully supported by the latest results from the German-American excavation that identifies the fall of Homer’s Troy with the destruction of the archaeological layer Troy VIh, dated to about 1300 BC. Further independent support is provided by another solar eclipse that dates the reign of the Hittite king Muwatalli II. This king wrote a letter to king Alaksandu in Wilusa, identified as the Hittite name for Ilios, the most frequently used name for Troy in the Iliad. Alexander was another name for Paris who abducted Helen, the crime that resulted in the war. Muwatalli II was king 1315-1297 BC, according to the chronology for the Hittite King- dom based on a solar eclipse in 1335 BC, during the tenth year of King Mursili II (1345- 1315 BC), the father of Muwatalli II.

KEYWORDS: Iliad, Homer, Trojan War, Total Solar Eclipse, Achilles, Patroclus, Troy VI, Wilusa, Muwatalli II and Mursili II. 64 GÖRAN HENRIKSSON

INTRODUCTION tioned in the Hittite texts written before 1200 BC (Starke 2001). New progress has been made in the research on Troy by the German-American ex- THE BACKGROUND TO THIS PAPER cavations that began in 1988. The important new results from the first ten years of this in- In November 1985, a private person con- vestigation have been presented by the dif- tacted the Astronomical Observatory in Up- ferent specialists in Troia, Traum und psala and said that he had heard a popular Wirklichkeit written in 2001 for an exhibition lecture on Troy given during the 1940s by the in Berlin, with the director of the excavation, Swedish astronomy professor Knut Lund- Manfred Korfmann as the main editor. After mark, an early cosmologist with a great his investigation of the site's many buried knowledge of the history of astronomy. In his lecture Lundmark had dated the Trojan War layers of occupation from about 3000 BC to by a total solar eclipse that, according to his AD 1200, Korfmann concluded that Troy was interpretation, had taken place during a bat- a prosperous and powerful centre of com- tle. He identified this eclipse as the total solar merce in the late Bronze Age, the centuries eclipse that took place in the middle of the around the time of the legendary Trojan War. day in May, 1145 BC. The interested listener Its geographical position made it possible to to this lecture visited Troy during the sum- control shipping and collect duties on all mer of 1985 and promised the guide there goods passing through the Dardanelles. The that he would find out and let him know the most important new discovery is the lower exact date for this solar eclipse, which he had city, where the ordinary citizens lived. forgotten. He called the Astronomical Obser- The Iliad, according to ancient Greek tra- vatory in Uppsala and was referred to me, as dition, was used as a history book in ancient I had recently finished a computer program Greece. Most modern scholars place the au- for the calculation of ancient solar eclipses. thor Homer in the 8th century BC and his At first I was sceptical because Lundmark birthplace in either Chios or Smyrna, both in used Canon der Finsternisse (Oppolzer 1887), Ionia on the western coast of Asia Minor. It which is no longer considered reliable. On may be possible that he actually visited the the other hand, I was interested in this op- impressive ruins of Troy and it is certain that portunity to test my new computer program he had heard of its glorious history. There are and asked him to tell me how the solar many indications that Homer’s work is a eclipse was described in the text. However, compilation of an old oral tradition (Parry he never called me again and after a week I 1971), which dates back to the Bronze Age decided to read the Iliad myself and look for and is a mixture of fact and fantasy. The fact a description of an unusual darkness in con- that the Iliad is written in hexameter is a clear nection with the sun and the moon. indication that it had been preserved as an After three days of exciting reading I oral tradition. found what I was looking for in book 17, lines 366-377: Although the Iliad is written in Greek, it is “So they fought like blazing fire, nor would a Greek with many anachronisms. For exam- you say that sun or moon still remained intact, ple, the name Achaeans was no longer used for with darkness were shrouded in the fight all during the time of Homer. Some of the the chief men who stood around the slain son of names used may be of Luwian origin, but the Menoetius. But the rest of the Trojans and the preserved texts in this language have unfor- well-greaved Achaeans fought unimpeded tunately not been interpreted so far. Great under clear air, and over them was spread progress has now been made, however, in the piercing brightness of the sun, and on all the identification of the place names men- the earth and the mountains was no cloud THE TROJAN WAR DATED BY TWO SOLAR ECLIPSES 65 seen; (my italics) and they fought resting Hector, the greatest Trojan hero, thought that themselves at times, avoiding one another’s he had defeated and killed Achilles himself. shafts laden with groans, and standing far I have discussed the original Greek text apart. But those in the middle suffered woes with Dr Johan Flemberg, Department of because of the darkness and the war, and Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, were worn down with the pitiless bronze, all Uppsala University. In his opinion the men- they who were chief men.” (Wyatt 1999). tion of the sun and the moon and the strong My identification of the darkness men- emphasis on the contrast between the dark- tioned there with the total solar eclipse on ness in the middle and the brightness outside June 11, 1312 BC, was presented to the post- it makes it conceivable that this passage con- graduate seminar at the Department of Clas- tains the memory of a solar eclipse. The word sical Archaeology and Ancient History at for darkness in the passage quoted above is Uppsala University in the spring of 1986. aer (mist, haze), which is not unique, whereas This description of a remarkable darkness the episode itself is. According to Edward, during daytime, without any obscuring commenting on lines 370-377 (1991: 98): clouds seen over the mountains or on all the “This amplification of the mist theme is earth, and in which the sun and the moon no unique; nowhere else is the darkness local- longer were shining normally, can in my ized like this, and much of the language is in- opinion be explained most simply and natu- novative and vivid”. Edward has found rally as a non-technical description of a total several unique features in these lines, and solar eclipse in which the moon completely this strengthens the opinion that it is a gen- covers the solar disc. Moreover, the informa- uine description of an unusual phenomenon tion that the piercing brightness of the sun and not just a poetic expression. was spread over the Achaeans who fought in We are therefore looking for a total solar the outer parts of the battlefield can easily be eclipse during the Bronze Age with the explained if the outer parts of the battlefield southern limit of the total zone situated some lay just outside the zone of totality. kilometres to the south of Troy. As chariots were used in the battle, the central parts of the battlefield must have TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSES IN TROY been situated in the dry area to the south or In Table 1 all solar eclipses, between 1000- south-east of the lower city of Troy, and the 2000 BC, with a magnitude in Troy of more outer parts of the battle must have taken than 0.990 of the sun’s diameter, can be place further to the south. found. The calculations were performed in The slain son of Menoetius was Patroclus, 1986 with the original formulas by Carl the best friend of Achilles, the greatest war- Schoch (1931). (All dates in the Gregorian rior among the Achaeans. To frighten the calendar). Trojans, Patroclus used Achilles’ armour, and

Table 1 All solar eclipses in Troy, with magnitude greater than 0.990, between 1000-2000 BC. The calculated time has an uncertainty of about one minute, but the seconds are presented to make it possible for other authors to compare this calculation with results from diﬀerent computer programs. Year Date Local mean Magnitude of the eclipse Comments BC solar time in Troy 4' (7.4 km) in Troy south of Troy 1014 14/11 17t 13m 01s 0.998 0.999 Partial 1312 11/6 12t 35m 24s 1.002 1.000 Total, southern limit 1341 26/12 10t 23m 50s 1.009 1.010 Total 1406 30/6 14t 43m 11s 0.994 0.996 Partial 66 GÖRAN HENRIKSSON

The coordinates for Troy used in this cal- at all for instance in Troy. To get useful re- culations have been measured from a map: sults the clock error in the calculations longitude = 26° 14' 21" E and latitude = 39° should be just a few minutes. 56' 54" N. The German astronomer Carl Schoch Only two of the four solar eclipses were solved this problem in 1926 and his theory total in Troy. The only interesting eclipse here was used in my computer program in com- is the one in 1312 BC, June 11, at 12.35.24 bination with modern astronomical param- local mean solar time in Troy, whose south- eters until July of 2011 when I made the new ern limit of the zone of totality is situated calibration. Unfortunately Schoch died in only 4' (7.4 km) to the south of Troy (Fig. 1). 1929, but his important work was published The fight over Patroclus' dead body must after his death by P. V. Neugebauer (Schoch have taken place some kilometres south or 1931). The apparent rotation of the earth is south-east of Troy where it was possible to the fundamental clock in these formulas, and use chariots as described in the Iliad. therefore corrections for the braking of its ro- A new calibration tation must be in- made by the author cluded in the in 2011 of the lunar formulas for the mo- secular acceleration tion of the sun, the in longitude, based moon and the planets. on 33 total solar These corrections are eclipses back to 3653 proportional to the BC and the use of co- mean motion of these ordinates for Troy celestial bodies and from Google Earth, are easy to apply. longitude = 26° 14' I started to develop 20" E and latitude = my computer pro- 39° 57' 27" N, shifted gram in 1977, but it the limit of the total did not work suffi- zone just about 400 m ciently well until further south, and 1985, after many im- the time of maximum provements in the cal- eclipse became culation methods and 12.36.08 local mean Fig. 1. The map shows the reconstructed shore- the introduction of solar time in Troy. lines during Troy VI-VII, ca 1300 BC, drawn about 450 periodic after Korfmann (2001). The most difficult The southern limit of the zone of totality for terms in the perturba- problem in the calcu- the solar eclipse on June 11, 1312 BC, at 12.36 tion formulas for the lations of ancient local mean solar time in Troy. The upper line, orbit of the moon solar eclipses is the 7.4 km south of Troy, corresponds to the posi- (Hansen 1857). correction for the tion of this limit according to the original for- After June 1985, mulas by Schoch (1931) and the lower line, 7.8 braking of the rota- km south of Troy, is the position according to the agreements be- tion of the earth. As the new calibration by Henriksson in 2011. tween my computa- can be seen in Fig. 3 tions and the ancient the rotation of the sources have been ex- earth has been delayed by about 10 hours cellent. These sources include five solar since the fourteenth century BC. If this effect eclipses observed by Copernicus, notations is not taken into account the calculated zone in medieval monastery chronicles, observa- of totality will be shifted by 150o westwards tions by ancient Greek astronomers such as and there seems to have been no solar eclipse Thales and Hipparchos, Late Babylonian THE TROJAN WAR DATED BY TWO SOLAR ECLIPSES 67 cunei-form texts, Hittite annals by King Mur- Orion and the Bear, that men call also the sili II and interpretations of depictions of Wain, that circles ever in its place, and total solar eclipses on Swedish Rock-carvings watches Orion, and alone has no part in the from the Bronze Age (Henriksson 1999, baths of Ocean.” (Wyatt 1999). (The Wain is 2005). also called the Big Dipper.) The most important and conclusive test of It may not be just a coincidence that all the my computer program was the identification celestial objects mentioned in these lines of two total solar eclipses in Babylon in 1859 were visible in the sky during the total phase BC and 1558 BC that fit very well with the of the solar eclipse on June 11, in 1312 BC, at details in the written sources and also with 12h 36m, during the fight over Patroclus’ the interval between the eclipses of 301/300 body. This part of the sky is the winter sky, years (Henriksson 2006). Six solar eclipses not visible during the summer except during have been used to determine an absolute the total phase of a solar eclipse (Fig. 2). chronology for the pharaohs from the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties in Egypt, and two solar eclipses date the exodus from Egypt by the People of Israel (Henriksson 2007). The Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties have been dated by identification of important Chinese total solar eclipses preserved in later historical chronicles (Henriksson 2008).

The sky on Achilles’ new shield The famous “Shield of Achilles” is the shield that Achilles used in his fight with Hector described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478-608 of the Iliad. The description of the shield falls between the fight over Patro- clus’ body and Achilles’ re-entry into battle. Fig. 2. The sky above Troy during the total solar Achilles had lost his armour after lending it eclipse on June 11, in 1312 BC, at 12h 36m local to his friend and companion Patroclus who mean solar time, during the fight over the body of Patroclus. This date corresponds to was killed by Hector and his weapons taken Skirophorion 1, in 1312 BC, according to the as spoils. Thetis, Achilles' mother, asked the much later Attic calendar. god Hephaestos to make new armor for her son. Homer gives a detailed description of the imagery which decorates the new shield, The memory of this unique situation may which may be considered as a physical en- have been considered as a proof of the inter- capsulation of the entire world. It starts from ference from the gods in the battle and may the shield's centre and moves outwards in have been the inspiration to the central motif circles. The central motif is the earth, sky and of the new shield that Hephaistos made for sea, the sun, the moon and the constellations, Achilles. ILIAD, BOOK 18: 484-489: This independent evidence supports the “On it he fashioned the earth, on it the hypothesis that the total solar eclipse was heavens, on it the sea, and the unwearied the explanation for the darkness described so sun, and the moon at the full, and on it the dramatically in book 17. constellations with which heaven is crowned – the Pleiades and the Hyades and mighty 68 GÖRAN HENRIKSSON

CALCULATIONS OF ANCIENT SOLAR culate the Universal Time (UT) necessary in ECLIPSES the calculation of ancient solar eclipses must be established. This method has not been Unfortunately all modern computer pro- successful for calculation of early solar grams for the calculation of ancient solar eclipses. John Steele (2000) admits that it is eclipses are based on the so-called completely useless for epochs before 700 BC. Ephemeris Time (ET) (Stephenson and Mor- However, there exist problems also with rison 1984). It is deﬁned by the mean motion some critical solar eclipses before 500 AD of the planets, but a conversion table to cal- (Morrison and Stephenson 2002) (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. The parabolic time-shift, ΔT=ET-UT, due to the deceleration of the rotation of the Earth as a function of time with the coefficient 36.28 from Schoch(1931) and 31.0 from Stephenson and Morri- son (1984). The unit for the coefficients is seconds/(century)2 and the time is reckoned from 1800.0. The symbols correspond to identified solar eclipses, mostly total or annular. Most of the identified eclipses can be found in Henriksson (1999, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010).

Today the results of the determinations of not possible until during the 1970s when as- the lunar secular acceleration from ancient tronauts from the Apollo project placed laser solar eclipses can be tested by comparison reflectors on the surface of the Moon. Mod- with the Lunar Laser Range (LLR)-measure- ern calculations give the value for the preces- ments. Before the observed lunar sidereal sion of the geodesic as -2 x 1.92"/cy2 = secular acceleration can be used in the calcu- -3.84"/cy2 (Nordtvedt 1996). lations of the LLR-measurements, by the The lunar secular acceleration -25.85"/cy2 Third Law of Kepler, it must be corrected for determined from the LLR-measurements by the precession of the geodesic predicted in Williams et al. (2008) is only valid in the the General Theory of Relativity by Albert earth-moon inertial system. The followers of Einstein (1916). Such a test was in practice Stephenson, for example John Steele (2000), THE TROJAN WAR DATED BY TWO SOLAR ECLIPSES 69 have taken the value -25.85"/cy2 from the de- ular acceleration is time-dependent in terminations by LLR as a confirmation of Schoch’s theory, and the constant -29.68"/cy2 their own value, -26 ± 2"/cy2, determined by is only valid around the year 1800 AD. The Morrison and Ward (1975). However, this main purpose for Schoch was to get the best determination was considered by Williams set of formulas for calculation of ancient et al. (2008) as “not accurate to the number solar eclipses. He was probably less inter- given” and useless because the value from ested in the real acceleration of the Moon. LLR must be corrected for Einstein’s preces- In July 2011, the present author found a sion of the geodesic to get the sidereal lunar constant value for the sidereal secular accel- secular acceleration used in the calculations eration of the Moon without the third-order of the solar and lunar eclipses. term. The new constant value corresponds to This means that Stephenson’s method to the true secular acceleration of the Moon calculate eclipses is based on a too approxi- caused by the tidal acceleration by the earth. mate value for the lunar secular acceleration and is without physical relevance. The great DIFFERENT ATTEMPTS TO DATE THE deviations from the observations are ex- TROJAN WAR plained as non-tidal effects of unknown ori- There were two generations between the gin. A detailed discussion of the problems fall of Troy and the Dorian invasion, accord- with Stephenson’s method to calculate ing to Eratosthenes. His date, 1184 BC, is eclipses can be found in Henriksson (2009 based on the traditional year 1104 BC for the and 2010). Dorian invasion and two generations set The real sidereal lunar secular acceleration equal to 80 years. The date for the Dorian in- determined by the LLR-measurements, invasion, however, is a reconstruction and can- cluding the Einstein effect, is: -25.85"/cy2 - not be used as a fixed point for an absolute 3.84"/cy2 = -29.69"/cy2. This value is very close chronology. If we instead accept my date to the value -29.68"/cy2 determined by 1312 BC as the year of the fall of Homeric Schoch (1931) from ancient solar eclipses. Troy, then the Dorian invasion should have This seems to be a very good confirmation of taken place about 1232 BC, which fits very Einstein’s prediction. However, Schoch’s the- well with the introduction of the ceramic ory has an undefined third-order term in his style LHIIICb, or about 1230 BC according to formula for the lunar longitude. It has prob- the classification by the archaeologist Arne ably been used as a final correction to his the- Furumark (1941) of Uppsala University, see ory to get a closer fit to the observed ancient Table 2. solar eclipses. This means that the lunar sec-

Table 2 The Trojan war dated by ancient sources and modern investigations Year Author/reference Ceramic Comment BC period 1135 Ephoros from Cyme* 1184 Eratosthenes* 1104+2x40 1209 Parian Marble# Chronicle from Paros 1250 Blegen (1964) VIIa Furumark IIIBb 1300 Dörpfeld (1902) VI Furumark IIIBb - IIIAs 1300 Starke (2001) VIh Furumark IIIBb - IIIAs 1312 Henriksson (1986) Total solar eclipse 1334 Douris from Samos* * Blegen (1964), # Jacoby (1929) 70 GÖRAN HENRIKSSON

The Parian Marble is preserved as two tification of the total solar eclipse mentioned fragments, one of which gives the traditional in the Iliad, and this was presented at the De- dates for the kings of Athens from the leg- partment of Classical Archaeology and An- endary Kekrops, beginning as far back as cient History, Uppsala University, in 1986. 1581/80 BC, down to events of 355/4 BC, and However no attempt was made to publish the other fragment covers the period 336/5 - the result, as there existed no independent 299/8 BC. The date 1209/8 BC is determined support at that time for such an early date as as “24 From when Troy was taken, 945 years, compared with the archaeological date of ca in the <2>2nd year that [Menesthe]us was 1250 BC made by Blegen (1964). king of Athens, on the 7th day before the end The situation is now completely different of the month Th[argelio]n”, translated by after the investigation begun in 1988 by a Gillian Newing (2001). team of German and American archaeolo- When Heinrich Schliemann started his in- gists lead by Manfred Korfmann. The results vestigation of Troy in 1871, he was looking from this investigation identify the Homeric mainly for the treasure of King Priam. In Troy once more as Troy VIh, with a date of 1878 he made a deep trench through the ca 1300 BC (Starke 2001). In Korfmann (2004) mound and at the bottom of this he found a there is a table called “Chronological Table, collection of valuable vessels and jewellery Troia-project, state April 2004” which repeats made of gold and other objects made of the earlier conclusion that the end of Troy bronze that he identified as the treasure of VIh may have been an earthquake and a fire Priam (Schliemann 1880, 1884). This level is catastrophe that took place ca 1300 BC. The now called Troy II and dated ca 2500 BC, end of Troy VIi=(VIIa) was another fire catas- which means that it belongs to an epoch 1200 trophe perhaps in a lost war 1190/80. years before the Homeric Troy. After the more careful excavation lead by ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE USED Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1902), nine different TO IDENTIFY THE HOMERIC TROY main layers could be identified. Dörpfeld ar- gued that Troy VI, now dated ca 1300 BC, The impressive city walls of Troy VI were corresponds to the Homeric Troy. Schlie- constructed over a period of several hundred mann realized in 1890, the last year he lived, years and a development towards stronger that he had been mistaken and admitted that walls can be seen. A wider and higher wall Dörpfeld was right. successively replaced the older and weaker The University of Cincinnati sponsored parts. This work was almost finished, except the next large investigations, those of 1932- for about 35 m of the southwestern wall, 38, led by Carl Blegen. His conclusion was which has half the thickness of the adjacent that the city walls of Troy VI had been dam- parts to the south and north. They do not join aged by an earthquake and not by the because the newer thicker parts of the wall Achaeans and he identified the Homeric were built outside the thinner, older wall. Troy as level VIIa, with a date of ca 1250 BC. The thinner wall was built in the middle of Fritz Schachermeyr (1983) considers the the period Troy VI (about 1550 BC) and it “Trojan war” to be a combination of two was probably intended to be replaced by a wars: the fall of Troy VI, 1300-1280 BC, and new stronger wall like the one that encircled the fall of Troy VIIa, 1220-1200. He calls the nearly all the city (Fig. 4). The work to re- pottery of type LHIIIC in Troy VIIb1 Barbar- build the weakest part was never completed ian Ware, and the pottery of Troy VIIb2 is and the gaps between the adjoining parts of called Buckel-pottery. the new wall were only provisionally filled The author of this paper dated the fall of up with large stones. the Homeric Troy to 1312 BC through iden- A possible explanation for this interrup- THE TROJAN WAR DATED BY TWO SOLAR ECLIPSES 71

more fanciful style than in the Iliad. During the following period, Troy VIIb, a completely different kind of less sophisti- cated handmade pottery was found, similar to that found in excavations in modern Bul- garia and very unlike the pottery from the earlier periods, which was made on the pot- ter’s wheel. Schachermeyr (1950) has related the construction of the Trojan horse to the earthquake that destroyed Troy VIh and helped Fig. 4. Part of the mighty eastern wall of Troy VI the Achaeans to take Troy. They believed that (Photo G. Henriksson 2006) Poseidon, the Earth shaker, had given them their victory and offered him the wooden tion in the construction of the new wall is a horse because his symbol was a horse. sudden unexpected attack on Troy during the last part of period VI called Troy VIh ABSOLUTE CHRONOLOGY FOR (LHIIIBb- IIIAs). There are also traces of de- THE HITTITE KINGS BASED struction by fire of some houses in this sub- ON A SOLAR ECLIPSE stratum but not of a catastrophic fire as When Edwin Forrer (1926) investigated expected in a city taken by assault. the annals of the Hittite king Mursili II, he Blegen (1964) discovered that the upper found that a very sinister solar omen was parts of the city walls of Troy VI had fallen mentioned in the beginning of his 10th year down on the buildings closest to the inside of rule. It happened right at the outset of a of the southern part of the wall. His conclu- military expedition against the country of sion was that this destruction could not have been caused by attacking enemy troops, but Hayasha in north-western Armenia. Forrer was the result of an earthquake that took recognized this as a solar eclipse and con- place about 1300 BC, and the pottery was tacted Carl Schoch, who the same year had LHIIIBb. developed new improved formulas for the After the destruction of Troy VIh by the calculation of ancient solar eclipses. Schoch earthquake, the destroyed houses and parts identified this solar omen as the powerful of the city wall were repaired during Troy partial solar eclipse on February 28 (March VIIa. During this period the same pottery 13 Julian calendar) in 1335 BC, with magni- (LHIIIBb - IIIAs) was used and the same peo- tude 0.89 at the capital city Hattusa. ple continued to live in the city. Dörpfeld The absolute years of rule for the Hittite suggested that Troy VIIa should be called kings (Astour 1989), calibrated by the solar Troy VIi, but Blegen wanted to preserve the eclipse in the 10th year of Mursili II, correlates designation VIIa, as it was widely used by perfectly with the Egyptian chronology via many archaeologists. the battle at Kadesh 1299 BC, in the fifth year The end of Troy VIIa, about 1250 BC, was of Ramses II (1304-1238 BC) and the last connected with a great fire; several unburied years of rule of the Hittite King Muwatalli II human bodies were found in the streets. The (1315-1297 BC). The first year of Ramses II, jaw of one corpse had been cut by a sword. 1304 BC, is independently determined by the The destruction of Troy VIIa was identified date for the new moon during his coronation by Blegen as the result of the assault by the festival (Parker 1957). Achaeans as told in the Odyssey, written in a The historical résumé in the next para- graph is mainly based on a paper by Frank 72 GÖRAN HENRIKSSON

Starke (2001) with Hittite dates corrected by vations made by non-specialists, mainly adding 25 years due to the identification of looking for treasures. Even today the site is the tenth year of Mursili II as 1335 BC by the only partly excavated. One exception is the solar eclipse. A discussion on the correlation massive city walls of hard limestone from between the Hittite chronology by Schoch Troy VI, which are the most dominant con- (1931), my calibration of the Old Babylonian struction among the ruins. chronology from identification of two total It is therefore of the greatest importance solar eclipses in Babylon and my calibration that some historical information about an- of the years of rule for Egyptian pharaohs of cient Troy can be found in recent studies of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties from identifi- the Hittite cuneiform texts. Many place cation of eight solar eclipses, can be found in names mentioned in the Hittite annals can Henriksson (2006 and 2007). now be identified with later Greek place names, and the story told by Homer can to a Troy/Ilios identified in Hittite greater extent be related to historical events cuneiform texts before and after the time of the Iliad. The Hittite Kingdom, called Hattusa after In the western part of Asia Minor, to the its capital, was very well organized, and the east of the Dardanelles, the Luwian lan- different kings preserved important events guage, related to the Indo-European Hittite during their years of rule in archives in the language, was spoken at the end of the form of annals. Important treaties with Bronze Age. The control of the narrow strait friendly and hostile neighbouring countries, of the Dardanelles had long been of great im- diplomatic correspondence and even family portance, and already around 3000 BC a for- problems in the royal families are preserved tified city was built on a hilltop on its in these annals. south-eastern side, which later became fa- Wilusĳa is included among the states be- mous as Troy or Ilios in the Iliad. longing to the Land of Arzawa, in the earliest Homer used the place name Troy 50 times form written as Arzawĳa. Its corresponding and Ilios 106 times in the Iliad as names of the Luwian name was Wilusa and it was men- city and the country. Starke (2001) has iden- tioned together with the country of tified this pair of names with the Luwian Taruwisa/Truwisa, identified with the Greek place names Truwisa and Wilusa respectively. name for Troy. Today the local Turkish name In fact, these identifications and those dis- of Troy is Truva. cussed below were already suggested by the Frank Starke, according to Joachim Latacz brilliant Swiss linguistic Edwin Forrer dur- (2001), convincingly solved the problem with ing the 1920s, but they were not accepted by the identification of the name Wilusa in 1996 the other authorities of that time (Forrer after years of work by him and other schol- 1931). ars. Archaeologists identify nine main levels Rudolf Wachter (2001) describes the devel- of the city, built one upon the other with a opment of the earliest Greek alphabet. In that total of 46 substrata. The main candidate for alphabet there existed a letter with the sound the Homeric city is Troy VIh or Troy VIIa. of W, the digamma, but this letter did not exist However, it is almost impossible to identify among the East Ionian letters used by details mentioned in an ancient poetic de- Homer. Thus the Greeks of Homer’s time scription of historic events with actual ar- were not able to represent the sound w with chaeological finds from nine superimposed a letter; the Luwian Wilusa became Ilios in city layers, partly destroyed when consecu- Greek. tive buildings were constructed upon earlier The Hittite kings led many military cam- ones and later partly removed by early exca- paigns against small neighbouring countries, THE TROJAN WAR DATED BY TWO SOLAR ECLIPSES 73 mainly along its eastern border. The most struction of Millawanda, Mursili II con- powerful of them was the northern quered Arzawa, and Abasa fell without a Mesopotamian State of Mitanni, but their fight. King Uhhazidi and the royal family main enemy were the Egyptians in northern fled to the territory of Ahhĳawa “over the sea Syria to the south. to the islands”, according to the annals by The first time Wilusa is mentioned in the Mursili II. After that, Arzawa lost its sover- Hittite annals was in connection with a mili- eignty and the federation of states was dis- tary campaign by King Tudhalĳa I (1445- solved. The former members of the 1425 BC) against his western neighbours the federation were forced to enter a new feder- Arzawa states, which included Wilusa; the ation with Hattusa ca 1340 BC. The western- date corresponds to Troy VIg. The capital of most among the former Arzawa States, Arzawa was Abasa (Greek Ephesos). The Wilusa, had friendly relations with Hattusa next king of Arzawa, Tarhuntaradu, was and was not forced to be a member of the very powerful and he wrote two letters in federation. Hittite to the Egyptian king Amenhotep III If the final battle of Troy took place during (1416-1379 BC). These letters have been the total solar eclipse in 1312 BC and the Tro- found in Egypt among the Amarna letters. jan War really lasted for ten years, the war At that time stratum VIh had begun to ap- started around 1322 BC, at the end of the pear in Troy, and Tudhalĳa II (1400-1380 BC) reign of the Hittite King Mursili II. As Wilusa was the Hittite king. The next Hittite king was not a member of the federation, there was the powerful Suppiluliuma I (1380-1345 was no formal reason for Mursili II to help BC), and in the beginning of his rule, the city against the attacking army from Ah- Kukkunni became king of Wilusa. He is the hĳawa. first king of Wilusa mentioned in the Hittite On the other hand it is more reasonable to sources. suppose that the ten years duration of the The land of Millawanda (Hittite name) war is just “a nice number” used to enhance was a southern neighbour to Arzawa along the magnitude of the struggle and the suffer- the western coast of Asia Minor. It has now ing of the heroes. The Iliad relates only what been identified as the Greek place name happened during the last 51 days of the Miletos, which was a Minoan colony during fighting, whereas the war may have lasted the 16th century BC and became a Mycenaean just one summer or at most a few years. After colony ca 1400 BC. The archaeological finds their bad experience in the war against the belong to Late Helladic (LH) IIIA2. The Hit- powerful King Mursili II, the leaders of Ah- tite sources tell us that it was dominated by hĳawa may have waited until the king died the land Ahhĳawa, whose main area was sit- in 1315 BC before they started an attack on uated on the islands in the Aegean Sea, prob- the small and independent but rich country ably including Crete. Ahhĳawa appears for of Wilusa. the first time in the Hittite sources ca 1425 It is known from Hittite texts that in 1315 BC, LH IIIA1, with the oldest form of the BC, Prince Pĳamaradu, a grandson of the de- name Ahhĳa, close to the original Luwian feated King Uhhazidi of Arzawa, was sup- name that can be identified as the Achaeans ported by the king of Ahhĳawa in military mentioned in the Iliad under the command operations from his islands to gain influence of King Agamemnon from Mycenae. in Mira, one of the former Arzawa states. Millawanda was destroyed by the Hittite After that, when Pĳamaradu attacked the king Mursili II in his third year, 1342 BC. This coast of Seha, the neighbouring country to destruction is clearly discernable as a fire Wilusa in the south, the king in Wilusa, Alak- horizon, and above it the archaeological sandu, was ordered by the Hittite king to finds are classified as LH IIIB1. After the de- send military help. However, Pĳamaradu, 74 GÖRAN HENRIKSSON supported by the king of Ahhĳawa, was vic- ing to Eratosthenes on Skirophorion 23, but torious and conquered the island Lazba Ephoros and the Parian Marble give the same (Greek Lesbos) belonging to Seha and date one month earlier, on Thargelion 23. caused great military losses for Seha and There is an uncertainty of one month at the Wilusa. King Manabatarhunta from Seha fi- end of the year because of intercalation. nally asked for military help from the Hittite The story of the attack on Troy/Ilios by the army to restore order in Wilusa after the tres- Achaeans in the Iliad may be the poetic ac- pass of Pĳamaradu. But King Muwatalli II count of a successful attack by the king of did not send military help until later, when Ahhĳawa and his allied forces on Wilusa to the situation in Wilusa threatened the stabil- get compensation for their loss of influence ity of the whole Hittite federation of states. in Milliwanda and Arzawa. After the intervention in Wilusa by the Hittite army to stabilize the rule of the coun- CONCLUSIONS try, Wilusa lost its sovereignty and became If the passage quoted above from book 17 an integrated part of the Hittite Kingdom. of the Iliad describes the total solar eclipse in THE TROJAN WAR DATED BY Troy in 1312 BC, the battle at Troy may be A HITTITE LETTER connected to historical events in the Hittite archives. These, in turn, can be related to an According to the Iliad, King Priam of Troy absolute chronology by the solar eclipse in had two sons, Hector and Paris (Alexander). 1335 BC, in the tenth year of Mursili II. Priam and Hector were killed at the end of Therefore we know that there was an attack the war, but Paris survived and became king at Wilusa/Ilios/Troy by Ahhĳawa/Achaeans in Troy after the war. shortly after the death of Mursili II in 1315 There exist six copies in the archives in BC. In the Hittite archives a prince Pĳama- Hattusa of a cuneiform letter from the Hittite radu from Arzawa was the commander of King Muwatalli II (1315-1297 BC) to King the forces from Ahhĳawa that took the island Alaksandu in Wilusa. It contains an agree- Lazba, identified as Lesbos, and in the Iliad ment that regulated the status of the Wilu- the Achaean hero Achilles and his men con- sian kingdom after the intervention by the quered Lesbos before they attacked Troy, Hittite troops. King Muwatalli II dictated the both taking place at the same time. agreement and it limits the sovereignty of the country because it was not capable of de- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS fending its borders. Alaksandu is Luwian for the Greek name I want to express my gratitude to Dr Johan Alexander; an early Mycenaean feminine Flemberg, Department of Classical Archae- form Alexandra is recorded. ology and Ancient History at Uppsala Uni- The Iliad describes only 51 days during the versity, for his help in 1986 in finding Edwin last year of the war, and one of these days Forrer’s handwritten German translation was June 11, in 1312 BC, if my identification from Hittite of the annals by Mursili II in the of a total solar eclipse in book 17 is correct. great collection of books in Carolina Rediviva, This date is in perfect agreement with the the University Library in Uppsala. He also only possible interval, 1315-1297 BC, for the helped me with the reading of the original letter from King Muwatalli II to King Alak- Greek text in book 17. Finally, I want to thank sandu. my research college associate professor Mary The fight over Patroclus’ body took place Blomberg, also of the Department of Classi- on June 11, in 1312 BC, which corresponds to cal Archaeology and Ancient History in Up- Skirophorion 1, the first day of the last month psala, for useful discussions and the that year in the Attic calendar, used by the correction of my English. Greek authors. The Trojan War ended accord- THE TROJAN WAR DATED BY TWO SOLAR ECLIPSES 75

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