ABSTRACT

In the last decades of the eighth century BC, Aeolian Greeks from the island of Lesbos set out in their boats for the short crossing to the Anatolian mainland. Here they made their way to the ruined site occupying a mound which the Turks now call Hisarlık, meaning ‘fortress’. Close by, to the north, lay the narrow corridor of water known in Classical times as the Hellespont, today’s Dardanelles. The remains of stone fortifications, now thickly overgrown, gave evidence of a once great fortress on the mound. It was derelict, except for a scattering of inhabitants whose forebears had occupied it in the years following its destruction. Campfires among the ruins betrayed their presence and primitive lifestyle.