Archaeology Magazine - September 1954 - 61

devoid of conjectures, theories, and
speculations.
A good part of the Sixth settlement
was dug up by Schliemann and
Doerpfeld and the latter recognized
in it the city of Priam. The excavations
of the University of Cincinnati, however, have proved that the Sixth is not
the famous Homeric city, but a royal
stronghold that attained its maximum
prosperity and strength around 1400
B.c.The central part of the settlement,
on the highest point of the hill, was
"telescoped" when, in Hellenistic and
Roman times, the temple of Athena
was constructedand the building which
had occupiedthat area, presumablythe
palace of the ruler, was completelydestroyed.A number of houses, however,
were preserved in the lower terraces
and in the periphery and they, together
with the well known, magnificentfortification walls, imply advanced knowledge of architecture and economic
prosperity.These architectural remains
and the objects discoveredwith them,
especiallythe pottery and metal, stone
and bone objects are discussed in a
thorough and masterly fashion.
Of great interest is the cemetery
some 500 meters from the citadel,

EARLY

Gordon

EARLY

and

ANCÓN
by

which yielded urns containingcremated
remains, proving that in the closing
phase of the settlement (ca. 1300 B.c.)
cremation was practised. Few furnishings were found, and this leads the authors to suggest that the burial ground
"was used principally by people in the
humbler ranks of Trojan society."Perhaps it could better be attributed to
current burial customs that did not require kterismata (grave offerings). We
may recall that in later years no special
gifts were placed even on the pyre of
Hector and that he was burned in his
pharea (cloak or shroud).
The new cultural elements in the
Sixth settlement in the realm of architecture (excellent fortifications, well
built, spacious, free-standing houses,
the transformation of a site that was
the abode of a relatively numerous
population into the seat of a ruler and
his entourage) and ceramics (Minyan
pottery appearing suddenly without local antecedents) lead the authors to
conclude that Troy VI marked a new
era, a definitebreak in the old tradition
of the Early Bronze Age, and that a
new people was responsible for that
break. They brought the domesticated
horse and, after a while, looked to the

Willey

and

west and the Aegean for peaceful communication. Minyan pottery, which is
characteristicboth of the Greek mainland and also of Troy VI, is the basis
for the authors' suggestion that this
new people "may have constituted one
branch in the folk movementthat overran the Mainland of Greece" at the end
of the Early Helladic period. The custom of cremation, which seems to be
current in the later phase of Troy VI, is
not to be found in the Greek mainland
in the Middle BronzeAge and the earlier Mycenaean periods; but that custom could have been picked up and developed independentlyby the invaders
of Troy.
Troy VI was destroyed by an earthquake around 1275 b.c. Its beginnings,
equated with the beginnings of the
Middle Helladic period, are placed
around 1800 B.c. Thus the great city
had a long life attested by the eight
phases which characterize its remains.
The world of scholarshipwill again
be indebted to the authors for an exemplary piece of work, a model of scientific presentation of archaeological
discoveries.
George E. Mylonas
Washington University

SUPE
John

CULTURE
Corbett

Rounded out here is archaeological data on the famous Ancón and Puerto de
Supe sites in central Peru. The book is a scientific report on excavations made in
this area in 1941-42 under the direction of the Institute of Andean Research. It
studies a period estimated at about the first millennium before the Christian Era;
the authors deal especially with the concepts of period and horizon as means of
Peruvian prehistory. The book- illustrated with 31 photographs
understanding
of the sites and of objects found there, with 17 tables, 29 figures, and 5 mapsgives detailed reports on every aspect of the expedition, including the excavations themselves, the ceramics, artifacts, metals, animal remains. The authors incorporate recent research into their picture of what this long-ago culture was
like. Columbia Studies in Archaeology and Ethnology , No. 5.
$5 00
COLUMBIA

UNIVERSITY

PRESS

* 2960 Broadway,

New York

189

Archaeology Magazine - September 1954

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September 1954