The Treasures of Troia

437 pp, color figures, in English, hard cover.

It has been some 140 years now that actual finds from the ancient city of Troy-that city near the Dardanelles-that Troia around which was spun the famed epic of Homer's Illiad-appeared to accompany and magnify the myth. The finds unearthed there-many representing buried treasures-are today widely scattered, with principal groups, however, now found housed in only (!) eight different museums. The goal of this work is to bring the individual pieces together, to verify their common origin, to consider their purpose, and to place them into an accurate chronological perspective-not only within the strata of the site itself, but throughout the Bronze Age world that helped create them.

These objects demonstrate how developed the aesthetic sensibilities of our ancestors living some 4,500 years ago really were, and how highly developed the craft of their goldsmiths was at the time. Geographical patterns of influence as well as the import of semiprecious stones and other raw materials stress the far-reaching trade and significance of the Trojans.