Map from Wikipedia's “Troy” Chronology of Troy Eve Clarity “The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.” (Genesis 10:2, 4-5) [My thanks to Bill Cooper for the following information.] Javan was the father of the Ionians; Homer's Iawones. Tubal settled Iberia, the current Russian state of Georgia whose capital is Tbilisi. Meshech became the Cappadocians and Muscovites. The city of Troas (Troy) was named after Tiras. Tiras' descendents were known to Egypt as Tursha, to Greece as Tyrsenoi, and to Rome as Thracians. Elishah was the father of the Aeolians and “the origin of the term Hellenic”1 whom the Hittites knew as Alasiya. The Kittim settle Cyprus. The first settlers of Troad were the Dodanim whom the Greeks called Dardani, hence the Dardenelles straight. The Dodanim also settled the island of Rhodes. Using Ussher's date of 2348 BC for the flood, Japheth's seven sons, may all have been born by 2340 BC. By 2310 BC Tiras and his family may have established a homestead at Troas and built the first citadel (Troy I) by 2280 BC. Javan's son Dodan, born about 2310 BC, and his family may have settled near Troas by 2250 BC. 1 Cooper, Bill, After the Flood, New Wine Press, 1995, page 202 Geography according to the Greeks In describing the Trojan War, Homer's Iliad2 and Odyssey provide geographic surroundings of Ilion, now known as Canakkale and Troy in northwest Turkey. Virgil gave further descriptions of Troy in his Aeneid. The Greeks even provided the name Hellespontos, Sea of Helle, to the straight which connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. Rams were often used for sacrifices in the ancient world. To the Greeks, the constellation Aries portrayed a sacrificial ram with the golden fleece of a king (other cultures invisioned a golden crown with the brightest star as a gem).3 Aries' brightest star, Alpha Arietis, was the marker for the vernal equinox in Spring during the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The equinox occurs twice each year when the length of the day and night are equivalent (around March 20th and September 22nd) when the sun is at its zenith over the equator. The Sea of Helle is based upon the following myth which sets up the story of Jason and the Argonauts. King Athamas of Boetia in central Greece had been deceived into believing if he sacrificed his son Phrixus (whose sister was Helle) at the vernal equinox it would appease the gods to provide good weather for abundant crops. Queen Nephele magically sent a golden winged ram to rescue her son. Phrixus and his sister Helle got on the ram and flew eastward, but Helle fell into the Dardanelles, which the Greeks renamed in her honor. Upon safely reaching Colchis on the eastern Black Sea, Phrixus sacrificed the golden ram to Zeus. Phrixus then presented its golden fleece to the King Aeëtes of Colchis who gave Phrixus the hand of his daughter Chalciope in return. Later, Phrixus' ghost haunted his cousin Pelias in Greece who had seized the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly. The true successor to the throne was Jason. Pelias promised to give up the throne to Jason if he brought him the golden fleece. Argas built a ship for at least 20 rowers which he named after himself, thus the mighty warriors who joined Jason's voyage to Colchis were dubbed Argonauts. After Jason succesfully perfomed the feats requested by King Aeëtes, aided by magic help from his daughter Medea, Medea overheard that her father was still not going to give Jason the golden fleece, so they took it by stealth and left, and used the huge fleece as their bed until they returned to Greece and placed it in the temple of Zeus. The Trojan War which culminated in the destruction of Troy occurred after this Argonaut Expedition. 2 “Historicity of the Iliad,” Wikipedia 3 To Christians Aries represents Jesus, the King of the Universe, sacrificing His life for them. The family of Frank Calvert owned the farm land in and around New Ilium. The Turks called the mound Hisarlik, closer to the Hittite name Wilusa. After decades of archaeological field work in Troad (Troas), the Biga peninsula of Turkey, Calvert postulated in 1866 that Hisarlik was the ancient city of Troy; Homer's Ilion. Calvert persuaded Heinrich Schliemann to excavate the site, and Schliemann visited Calvert two years later. Schliemann excavated at Hisarlik in 1871–73 and in 1878– 79, discovering city strata from the Roman to early bronze age in which he found a cache of gold, silver, and copper objects which he called Priam's Treasure4 and left the country with much of it. The earring style seems to have influenced those at Colchis (Georgia). The site was later excavated by Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1893-94) and Carl Blegen (1932-38). It was Blegen who assigned strata divisions to the dig site. Hisarlik (Troy) with Clarity centuries BC and other important dates (www.pharaohsofthebible.com) Strata Age Cent. Description I EBI 23rd walls, city gate, and megarons (great rectangular halls; columned porches); textiles II EBII 22nd Large city was destroyed Cache of gold, silver, copper, and electrum shows much trade. [Glacial maximum] 2174 Tower of Babel; new language is possibly Luwian with influx of scattered people III EBIII-IV 21st City was rebuilt, and homes had dome-shaped ovens. IV MBI-IIB 20-19th City is isolated and poor. [End of Ice Age] 1924 highest sea levels V MBIII-LBIA 18-17th Hittite (descendants from Canaan's son, Heth) presence with more idolatry [LBIB] 1651 Thera eruption which brought new immigrants to Troy. VI LBIIA-Iron IA 16-14th Anatolian Grey Ware in Mid-Helladic III shapes also found in Miletus;5 knobbed ware Treaty between Alaksandu of Wilusa and Muwatalli II (1506-1483) of Hatti. (1476-1436) Hattusili III mentioned a military conflict over Wilusa (Troy) in Tawagalawa letter. 1313 Significant Aegean eruption causing people to abandon Troy during Rameses III 5th year. 1310 Huge Aegean eruption which caused quakes at Troy, but no bodies beneath debris. VIh Iron IB-C 13-12th A more orderly city was built, but it was destroyed by an earthquake. VIIa Iron IIA 11-10th Huge fortified city destroyed by war (arrowheads and injured bones) with traces of fire. VIIb1 Iron IIB 9th City destroyed by fire. Seal with Luwian hieroglyphs, and some geometric sherds found. VIIb2 Iron IIB 8th Helladic Ilion destroyed by fire. Trade greatly reduced. VIIb3 Iron IIB 7th City that may have been abandoned or forced into exile, but no gap of 100's of years. VIII Iron III 6th-3rd City on a grid with bouleuterion, odeon, agora, and stoa. Geometric designs on pottery. IX Iron III 2nd BC-4th AD Roman city: 3-storey marble stage at new theater, aqueduct, bathhouses, and fountain. 4 “Priam's Treasure,” Wikipedia 5 Pavuk, Peter, “Grey Wares as a Phenomenon,” http://www.aegeobalkanprehistory.net/article.php?id_art=5 The diameter of the citadel wall of Troy I was about 100 meters. The Troy II citadel wall (about 150 meter diameter) had four gates and several megarons. The city of Troy II was surrounded by a wooden palisade. The Troy VI citadel wall's diameter was about 250 meters, and it had three towers and four gates which encompassed several houses and a well (cistern). A ditch surrounded the entire city with limited wheeled access. Troy VII was a 440 meters squared city (roughly 50 acres) with tower bastions 18 sq. meters and a height of 9 meters. The Romans built a 142 meters squared wall around a temple to Athena with inner and outer courts and a water tank and tunnel. Outside the acropolis of Troy IX was a large amphitheater, a stone bouleuterion parliament building, and more stoas.6 In 306 BC Troy was the capital of the league of cities in Troad. In 188 BC Troy was recognized as the mother city of Rome (Ilium Novum). Astronomical dating of the Argonaut Expedition and the Trojan War Troy VIIa is the best candidate for the Trojan War. Isaac Newton was convinced the Argonauts were given a celestial sphere with equinoxes and solstices in the middle of the constellations. Based upon the precession of astronomical data of the Argonauts, Newton initially placed their expedition between 946 and 938 BC, and through later astronomical observations eventually determined it occurred in 933 BC. Newton placed the Fall of Troy to the Greeks about a generation later between 904 and 900 BC.7 Because of Earth's wobble on its axis (precession), the earth's north pole points to a differen star over time. The star Thuban of the constellation Draco was the pole star from 3942 to 1793 BC. 8 The star Kappa Draconis in Draco was closest to the North Celestial Pole visible to the naked eye from 1793 BC to approximately 1000 BC.9 The Earth's precession also effects which constellation we view the sun to be “in” during equinoxes and solstices. The Greek astronomer Hipparchus (190-120 BC) defined the position of the vernal equinox in 146 BC south of the star Mesartim (Gamma Arietis). Today the vernal equinox is in the constellation Pisces. Because the earth precesses on its axis, the equinoxes move through the constellations of the Zodiac at the rate of about one degree every seventy-two years.