This will be a continuing series for a while. I want to explore nine mythical places that archaeologists think may have actually existed.
History is rife with
mythical lands, from the homes of legendary kings to the earthly abodes of gods
and monsters. Past civilizations have dreamed of extraordinary places hiding in
plain sight.
But while many people
believe it unlikely that either Atlantis or Shangri-La was real, other myths
may have more truth to them than anyone realized. A growing body of archaeological
research suggests certain places—the Minotaur’s maze from Greek mythology;
Vinland, the first North American Viking settlement mentioned in Norse sagas;
Solomon’s Temple described in the Bible; and others—could have been more than
fables.
From western Turkey to
Jerusalem, and from coastal England to the Colombian Andes, evidence indicates
that these nine mythical places may have really existed.
Let’s look at the first
one today.
1. Troy, Turkey – 1200 BCE
The city of Troy was at
the heart of Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid. It is one of the
most legendary sites of classical Greek mythology. Fantastic details are woven
into the tales such as; the interference of the gods in the Trojan War, the
half-divine heritage of the Spartan hero Achilles, and the gift of a wooden
horse filled with Greek soldiers. But these days, archaeologists believe some
aspects of the stories were true.
Nearly 150 years of
excavations at the site of Troy in modern Turkey have revealed that it was
occupied for 4,000 years. Also, during the Late Bronze Age (when Homer’s Trojan
War allegedly took place), the Trojans began to prepare for an insurgence from
outside.
Researchers are still
looking for proof of the battle that raged outside the city’s walls for ten
years. If it’s there, it’s buried under 65 feet of sediment, which built up
alongside the shifting Scamander (now the Karamenderes) River. It’s the mouth
of that river that makes Troy so important in the first place. Troy was settled
over and over again because if you controlled the harbor, you controlled the
Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.
Troy isn’t the only
mythological site discovered in the region. Apollon Smintheion is an imposing
temple built for the god Apollo on top of a settlement from the sixth century
BCE. Antandros was an ancient shipbuilding settlement. These and the sacred
forests of Mount Ida are all historical sites that correspond to places
mentioned in the Ilied and Aeneid. Together, they now make up
Turkey’s Aeneas Route, a tourist corridor following the epic journey taken by
Aeneas, the father of Rome, after he escaped Troy’s sacking by the Greeks.
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