@artemiscollective: Who were the Trojans? Part 3: Language 🏺 | After 150 years of excavation at Troy, only one piece of Bronze Age writing has ever been found. And it isn’t Greek. It's a small bronze seal inscribed in Hieroglyphic Luwian, an Anatolian language spoken widely across western Anatolia. On its two sides are references to a scribe and a woman, probably his wife. One seal can't tell us what an entire city spoke. But it fits into a much larger picture. Troy’s political world was deeply connected to the Luwian-speaking kingdoms of western Anatolia. Some of the names associated with Wilusa appear Anatolian, and even the earliest written form of the city’s name shows Luwian influence. The lack of a Trojan archive may also have a very simple explanation: they may have been writing on wood. Hittite texts actually mention wooden documents belonging to a deposed king of Wilusa, and three thousand years underground isn't particularly kind to wood. But Troy also had extensive contact with the Aegean world, and then there is Alaksandu, the king of Wilusa whose name is widely compared with the Greek Alexandros. So the picture we get is probably not a clean Greek-versus-Anatolian divide. Troy sat between both worlds. And while we still can't say for certain what language the Trojans spoke, the evidence we do have points us toward Anatolia, and quite possibly Luwian. Which makes the effortless conversations between Greeks and Trojans in the Iliad a little more complicated. Sources: Watkins, Calvert. How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Watkins, Calvert. "The Language of the Trojans." In Troy and the Trojan War, edited by Machteld J. Mellink, 45–62. Bryn Mawr: Bryn Mawr College, 1986. Hawkins, J. David, and Donald F. Easton. "A Hieroglyphic Seal from Troia." Studia Troica 6 (1996): 111–118. Melchert, H. Craig, ed. The Luwians. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Leiden: Brill, 2003. Hawkins, J. David. Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2000. Yakubovich, Ilya. Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Starke, Frank. Die keilschrift-luwischen Texte in Umschrift. Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten 30. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1985. Bryce, Trevor R. The Trojans and Their Neighbours. London: Routledge, 2006. Latacz, Joachim. Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery. Translated by Kevin Windle and Rosh Ireland. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Kloekhorst, Alwin. "The Language of Troy." In Troy: City, Homer and Turkey, edited by Jorrit Kelder, Günay Uslu, and Ömer Faruk Şerifoğlu, 46–50. Amsterdam: Zwolle, 2013. Hoffner, Harry A. Letters from the Hittite Kingdom. Writings from the Ancient World 15. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009. Homer. Iliad. Book 2, lines 803–806; Book 4, lines 433–438. Translated by Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951. #ancienthistory #ancientgreece #bronzeage #trojans #historytok

kostas kostas kourabies :

Even the word "Anatolia" is the Greek word *anatolika* [meaning "to the east"]... wherever you dig in those parts, you will find Greek script—and nothing else.

1250BCE 🇦🇺 🇬🇷 :

I suspect that the archive, if it existed, may have been destroyed by Schliemann.

Amir M Sherif :

Greeks of today lay claim on Anatolia. Crazy.

Mereck7980 :

I think the use of wooden writing materials explains a lot about the absence of Trojan written materials in the archeological record. Sarah can you post the name of the music you use in your videos? It is beautiful and haunting, I

Sarah | Classical History🏺 :

Sources in caption :) enjoy!

Marcos Garza :

Most of Troy was destroyed by a treasure hunter who didn’t know the first thing about archaeology.

fotios 1983 :

Which god did the city of Ilium have as its patron? And why was it called Helion? It was not called Troy. The patron of the sun was the god Apollo, the god of the sun, hence the name of the city. The Hittites called the sun Vilousa and the Achaeans Ahiyava. What does this mean? Helion was a Greek city in a strategic position for the trade of the Greeks towards the Black Sea and in Tauris. The unbearable taxation from Helion was unbearable. The attack on the city was inevitable. After the victory of the Greeks, since they had a huge army, they decided to attack the entire Mediterranean. They destroyed the Hittite empire, which was in decline. Only Egypt with Ramses A was able to repel them.

Falling Upwards :

Another thing I didn’t know that Sarah taught me 🫶🏻

spirosmixailidis7 :

the Homer description that the Trojans had the same God's as the Greeks. also the same burial customs. You think that's scripted with "poetic license "??

Ben T :

In addition to the likelihood of wooden tablets, the earliest excavators of Troy (from what I understand) did a really, really, really bad job and destroyed some areas of some of the layers beyond recovery. Don’t quote this exactly, I’m going off of memory from an article I read months ago, and this may contribute at least somewhat to why there aren’t many remaining pieces of writing

Nard Alira :

Anatolian dialects are not Indo European but Indo Europeans were influenced by Anatolians because Hittites controlled the Black Sea region and had colonies in today Ukraine where Indo European are said to originate. Anatolians like Albanians were a feminist society ruled by warrior queens such as Olympia, Kynane, Cleopatra, who led armies to war, very unlike Greek and Roman women who were kept in the kitchen as second hand citizens.

davidrattray441 :

Troy was in anatolia so it fits that would be the language would be anatolia no?

Sunshine Australia Party :

10 tribes.

Aris :

Due to the absence of other written records or tablets at Troy, the small bronze seal of the "Scribe" remains the only written text from the Bronze Age to have been unearthed from the soil of historic Ilion.

Tahirr and 1419 others :

There were at least 22 Trojan allies and they spoke multiple languages. Though most were related under the Anatolian branch. Phrygians and Thracians were from the Balkans. Since Homer tradition canonized the Iliad 500 years after the Trojan war by this time Hittites were forgotten by the bards.

Monday Knight™ :

if any part of the Trojan war history is true, could it be an option that the archives were utterly destroyed by the Achaeans?

roosevelt dunn :

kushdeep singh380 :

Fine I'll stat following. I have seen your content enough times and its objective enough and focuses a good amount on bronze age collapse. Thanks for the great content

spirosmixailidis7 :

👏👏👏

{Human}{brand}{Artist} :

Amazing

Aris :

Mikael Alektor :

Sarah classic myths

Aris :

i have a dollar i m American[Πολύ γέλιο][Πολύ γέλιο][Πολύ γέλιο][Πολύ γέλιο][Δάκρυα χαράς][Δάκρυα χαράς][Δάκρυα χαράς]

donkey :

οι ορνιθες του αριστοφανη?

Le petit Marseillais :

[Πολύ γέλιο][Πολύ γέλιο][Πολύ γέλιο][Πολύ γέλιο][Πολύ γέλιο][Πολύ γέλιο][Πολύ γέλιο] complete BULLSHIT... The troyans had the same gods with the Greeks.. and the same language...and cotumes..