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http://articles.latimes.com/1993-02-22/news/mn-438_1_trojan-war

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-Believed that Troy VI was destroyed by an earthquake

-He  discovered, clay tablets in 1939 that were inscribed with one of the earliest known European scripts and dating from about 1250 bce.

-His most significant findings were the first examples of Greek writing, similar to the Linear B script found earlier in Crete.

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- Korfmann worked on the site of Troy in 1988.
- His excavations show that Troy around 1200 B.C was very similar to the description Homer has given in his book

- He also found enemy spear tips and arrow tips embedded in the wall of troy 7 probably cementing that part of troy as Homers Troy.

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"For Dr. Korfmann the epic confrontation between Greeks and Trojans, Dr. Jansen said, "was merely an illustrative and metaphoric episode in a series of many wars that undoubtedly were waged through the centuries in the power play at this strategic place." - NYTimes article

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Dr. Korfmann's excavations followed in the tradition of earlier German archaeologists, notably Heinrich Schliemann, the inspired amateur who in the 1870's established that a mound of buried ruins at Hisarlik, in northwestern Turkey, was most likely the Troy of Achilles and Hector, Paris and the beautiful Helen. Schliemann believed implicitly in the Homeric Troy.

Against the advice of many scholars, who thought there was little new to be learned from the Hisarlik ruins, Dr. Korfmann reopened excavations there after a lapse of more than 50 years. He applied new technology to an intensive investigation that generated a new image of ancient Troy.

Even Schliemann, not usually given to doubts, was left puzzled that the ruins he dug up seemed too slight for a city of Troy's reputed wealth and power. Were there other buried ruins somewhere that could give more substance to the poetic legend?

Beginning in 1992, a geomagnetic survey and spot excavations south of the exposed hilltop stone ruins disclosed evidence of Troy's greater dimensions. The city uncovered by previous archaeologists was no more than the central fortress surrounding the palace, temple and other buildings of the elite. Beyond stretched a "lower city" inhabited by artisans, merchants and sailors.

"Everywhere we have excavated in the lower city we've encountered clear indications of residential density," Dr. Korfmann said, describing a Troy that was perhaps 10 times as large as previously estimated and presumably worthy prey for invading Greeks, even if much of "The Iliad" was myth.

Getzel M. Cohen, a historian of Greek culture at the University of Cincinnati who helped plan the new excavations at Troy, said the discovery of a larger, more populous example of a Late Bronze Age city was "one of Manfred's major contributions." He described Dr. Korfmann as a dynamic leader and provocative interpreter of the expedition's findings.

Manfred Osman Korfmann was born April 26, 1942, in Cologne and was educated at the University of Frankfurt, where he received his doctorate in ancient history and archaeology in 1970. Over the next decade, he conducted excavations in Africa and the Middle East, was a scientific adviser to the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul and was a lecturer at Frankfurt. In 1982, he joined the faculty at Tübingen.

He is survived by his wife and a son and a daughter.

In 1988 Dr. Korfmann received a license from the Turkish government to resume excavations at the ruins of Troy and the adjacent plain. Each summer since, the project has fielded 200 to 300 archaeologists and graduate students, other scientists and workers. He recently had succeeded in getting the Troy area set aside as a national park. Last year, he took out dual Turkish citizenship.

Investigating the site's buried layers of occupation from about 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1200, Dr. Korfmann concluded that in the Late Bronze Age, the centuries around the time of the legendary Trojan War, Troy was a prosperous and powerful center of commerce, in part because it could control shipping and collect duties on all goods passing through the Dardanelles. Its wealth presumably made it a tempting target for invaders from Greece.

Dr. Korfmann's thesis was illustrated in 2001 in an exhibition that opened in Stuttgart, Germany. It included an elaborate model of what a greater Troy might have looked like, which provoked bitter scholarly skirmishing.

Another Tübingen historian of ancient times, Frank Kolb, demanded to know Dr. Korfmann's proof. He accused the archaeologist of "willful deceit," arguing that Troy in that period was only a princely seat, a castle and little else of consequence.

"Our work is reviewed by independent scholars every year, and we have never got a negative report," Dr. Korfmann responded.

Dr. Korfmann also found himself bombarded by questions about the Troy of literature. He said the primary aim of his research was to understand the city's history in this region between Asia and Europe.

"If we find something that helps Homeric scholars, so much the better," he said.

Peter Jablonka, the archaeologist now in charge, said the Troy excavations would continue as planned.

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Manfred Korfmann, 63, Is Dead; Expanded Excavation at Troy

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Dr. Korfmann's excavations followed in the tradition of earlier German archaeologists, notably Heinrich Schliemann, the inspired amateur who in the 1870's established that a mound of buried ruins at Hisarlik, in northwestern Turkey, was most likely the Troy of Achilles and Hector, Paris and the beautiful Helen.

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Lion Gate at Mycenae with Wilhelm Dörpfeld and Heinrich Schliemann

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Friedrich Wilhelm Dörpfeld

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In 1882 Dörpfeld joined Schliemann, who was then excavating Troy. The two eventually became good friends and continued their collaboration on other projects as well. After Schliemann's death in 1890, his widow hired Dörpfeld to continue where Schliemann had stopped his excavations of Troy. He continued to excavate Troy from 1893-94.

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-His stratigraphic method of dating archaeological sites based on the strata in which objects were found and the type of building materials remains at the core in archaeological site analyses.

-In 1882 Dörpfeld joined Schliemann, who was then excavating Troy.

-Dörpfeld spent a lot of time trying to prove that Homer’s epics were based on historical facts

-Dörpfeld found nine separate cities, one atop the other, at the Hisarlik site. He argued that the sixth of these was the legendary Troy, because it was larger than the first five cities and had high limestone walls, surrounding the city.

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'His excavations of Troy, and later Pylos, found additional evidence of the historical accuracy of the epic. Additionally, his findings of Mycenaean culture, including tablets inscribed in the early Greek script called Linear B, were significant contributions to scientific knowledge of these past people's lives.'

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Carl_Blegen

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- Joined Schliemann at Troy and worked on the site from 1882-1890.

- found that Troy VI in its later phases belonged to the Mycenaean Age.

- when excavating Troy his used

- stratigraphic excavation

- scientific methods

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Worked on the site 1932-38

- discovered that the nine layers of Troy represented two or more phases

- isolated 47 strata of Troy and placed them in chronological order

- first to photograph and map Troy I and II

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The Early Bronze Age levels at Demircihüyük corresponded to the earliest Troy Level I, and Korfmann's interest was drawn westward to the Troad, where he conducted six seasons of excavations in the environs of Besik Bay, the "harbour of Troy" some seven kilometres south-west of the site, in the years 1982-87. He excavated and surveyed several of the local sites, initially expanding knowledge of the Early Bronze Age, and later investigated a Late Bronze Age cemetery shore

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Continued the Troy excavations form 1893 - 94

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"For seventeen years, until his death in 2005, Manfred Korfmann conducted an archaeological dig at Troy called the Troia Project run by the University of Tubingen and the University of Cincinnati. This modern dig uncovered the full extent of the city, including the lower city, where the majority of residents and activities took place. Now it was clear that Troy was one of the larger Anatolian cities of the period during which we would place the Trojan War."

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Over the years there have been many objections to the idea of a historical basis for the Iliad and its portrayal of an extended war. During the first generations of archaeology at the site of Troy under Schliemann and Blegen, only the citadel was uncovered and mistaken for the whole city. For those who believed that a great war had been fought over this city, the small size was a major obstacle. How could this be the fabled city of golden riches that controlled the watery "superhighway" through the Hellespont?

For seventeen years, until his death in 2005, Manfred Korfmann conducted an archaeological dig at Troy called the Troia Project run by the University of Tubingen and the University of Cincinnati. This modern dig uncovered the full extent of the city, including the lower city, where the majority of residents and activities took place. Now it was clear that Troy was one of the larger Anatolian cities of the period during which we would place the Trojan War.

Moreover, Korfmann and other archaeologists used the prevalence of Anatolian-style pottery and Anatolian architecture, among other signs, to refute the notion that Troy was a Greek city. In conjunction with the written records from the Hittite capital of Hattusa, this evidence placed Troy within the Hittite circle of influence and within the Anatolian cultural milieu. In those written records we hear about conflicts between the region of Troy and the Greeks throughout the Late Bronze Age.

In a 2004 article for Archaeology, an online publication of the Archaeology Institute of America, Korfmann gave his answer to the question, "Did the Trojan War really happen?" In his final summary he put it this way:

"According to the archaeological and historical findings of the past decade especially, it is now more likely than not that there were several armed conflicts in and around Troy at the end of the Late Bronze Age. At present we do not know whether all or some of these conflicts were distilled in later memory into the "Trojan War" or whether among them there was an especially memorable, single "Trojan War." However, everything currently suggests that Homer should be taken seriously, that his story of a military conflict between Greeks and the inhabitants of Troy is based on a memory of historical events-whatever these may have been. If someone came up to me at the excavation one day and expressed his or her belief that the Trojan War did indeed happen here, my response as an archaeologist working at Troy would be: Why not?"

I encourage you to enjoy his complete article Was There a Trojan War?.

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Over the years there have been many objections to the idea of a historical basis for the Iliad and its portrayal of an extended war. During the first generations of archaeology at the site of Troy under Schliemann and Blegen, only the citadel was uncovered and mistaken for the whole city.

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"Beginning in 1992, a geomagnetic survey and spot excavations south of the exposed hilltop stone ruins disclosed evidence of Troy's greater dimensions...Dr. Korfmann concluded that...Troy was a prosperous and powerful center of commerce, in part because it could control shipping and collect duties on all goods passing through the Dardanelles."- New York Times Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/obituaries/manfred-korfmann-63-is-dead-expanded-excavation-at-troy.html?_r=0

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"According to the archaeological and historical findings of the past decade especially, it is now more likely than not that there were several armed conflicts in and around Troy at the end of the Late Bronze Age."-Manfred Korfmann
http://archive.archaeology.org/0405/etc/troy.html

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This is Korfmann at Troy VI

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German archaeologists have made new discoveries at modern day Hisarlik, northwest Turkey – ancient Troy.

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German archaeologists have made new discoveries at modern day Hisarlik, northwest Turkey - ancient Troy.

The finds further confirm the area occupied during the Bronze Age was not limited to the citadel; Troy VI and VII were much larger than originally thought.

The three year research project at Troy - lead by Prof. Ernst Pernicka, from the University of Tubingen's Institute of Pre- and Early History - sees scholars focus on the analysis and publication of materials found since the university started excavations at the site in 1988.

But to investigate - and resolve - outstanding issues, Project Troia does undertake some smaller excavations.

These digs, in combination with geophysical surveying and the drilling of test holes, allow the team to narrow down the Bronze Age occupation below Troy's citadel more closely.

This year, the team confirmed the layout of a one kilometre long Late Bronze Age defensive system - a rock-cut ditch - south of the Troy hillfort.

A gate, situated in the southeast area of the trench, is now fully excavated. It is located some 300 metres south of the citadel wall, and dated to about 1300 BC. The passage is about five metres wide, smaller than the ditch's previously excavated southern gate.

Late Bronze Age layers came to light in the vicinity of the southeastern gate - remains of walls, roads, storage pits and even an ancient oven. The finds suggest the area was occupied from about about 1700 (Troy VI) to 1100 BC (Troy VII). Soil samples, taken 200 metres east of the citadel, reveal Bronze Age remains as well.

Further east, a second trench was discovered, significantly deeper and wider than the excavated ditch. This structure isn't dated yet, but will be further examined next season.

The archaeological site of Hisarlik was first excavated in the 19th century - not without controversy - by self-taught archaeologists Heinrich Schliemann.

Rather than being one ancient city, it consists of multiple layers of ruins. From the early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) until the Roman Period (1st century BC), at least nine cities - Troy I to IX - existed at the archaeological site; there ruins are stacked up to 15 metres high (nicely shown in the timeline on the University of Cincinnati's website).

Which of these remains - if any - are those of the Homeric city of Troy, is still debated.

Schliemann nominated Troy I or II, but nowadays the Late Hittite Troy VII - showing traces of fire and possibly warfare - is seen as the most likely source of inspiration for the Trojan myth. Its remains are dated between the 13th and 10th century BC, where as ancient Greek historians place the Trojan War somewhere in the 12th to 14th century BC.

That Troy VI and VII are far larger than originally thought - not a mere hillfort, but strongholds surrounded by a settlement with its own defensive structures - makes it more likely Hisarlik is indeed the site of the legendary Troy, or Ilion, the siege of which was described by Homer in the Iliad.
Author: Ann Wuyts | Source: Heritage-Key [October 04, 2010]

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Project Troia - Bronze Age Troy just keeps on growing

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German archaeologists have made new discoveries at modern day Hisarlik, northwest Turkey - ancient Troy. The finds further confirm the area occupied during the Bronze Age was not limited to the citadel; Troy VI and VII were much larger than originally thought. The three year research project at Troy - lead by Prof.

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Research in pairs one of the following archaeologist:
Dorpfield
Blegen
Korfmann

And try to address the following areas:
- When they worked on the site
-Key discoveries
-Impact of their research
-Techniques they used in their archaeology

When posting you need to include the Archaeologist name and you names