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Troy: New Perspectives on Archaeology and Cultural Heritage in Turkey

Symposium at the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam, 20-23 March 2013

Knock down the walls to let the horse come in: conflictingimaginations, archaeology and reconstruction at Troy

Peter Jablonka

Introduction: a woman, a horse, and many storiesAs an archaeological site Troy is inconspicuous and hard to understand, to say the least. It actuallyresembles an abandoned stone quarry more than anything else, or did so at the onset of new

excavations 25 years ago.

The paradox about Troy archaeologists need to be aware of is that they are the only ones who

perceive it primarily as an archaeological site. For everybody else, both visitors to the site and thegeneral public around the world, it figures as the scene of the Trojan War. If there is anything iconicabout Troy, it is this archetypal story, a story about love and war, Us and the Other, Greeks and

Trojans. This story has been retold for millennia, in every conceivable genre and media from Greek

epic to computer game. And it has been used for many purposes, as teaching material in schools

from ancient Greece to modern higher education; as a means to construct identities and nationalhistories; as moral example; to support different ideologies, to boast tourism; or help to increase

Hollywoods income. If a text can be iconic, this one certainly is.

However, two iconic Trojan images immediately come to our minds, both emphasizing a connection

between site and legend: a woman and a horse. First, the portrait of Sophia Ergastromenos-

Schliemann dressed with Early Bronze Age jewellery found by her husband Heinrich in Early Bronze

Age layers and termed Priams Treasure. No doubt this is meant to be Helen of Troy, the face thatlaunched a thousand ships(Marlowe, 1981, Scene 13). And of course the horse keeps looming over

the site; millennia after the Greeks made the Trojans believe they had lifted the siege, so that they

would knock down their walls to bring the horse left as a gift by the enemy, and the warriors hidinginside, into the city if this ever happened (Easton, 2010 for more on the Trojan horse).

These two images will always overshadow any supposedly real archaeology or history of Troy

because of what they stand for is overwhelming: the woman, love; the horse, violence; libido and

aggression driving forces, and, just as much, permanent threats to any society (Freud, 1930 [1962]).

Fig. 1 An iconic text: Manuscript of the Iliad, ca. 2.-3 century AD, Papyrus Berlin P. 7502

(http://smb.museum/berlpap/index.php/02241/).


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Fig. 2 The face that launched a thousand ships

(Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Scene 13).

Sophia Schliemann-Ergastromenos posing as Helen of

Troy, wearing Early Bronze Age jewellery, found and

dubbed Priams Treasure by her husband Heinrich

Schliemann (Photograph by W. A. Mansell, 1 January

1877 (information from Gettyimages), this version

from (Schuchhardt, 1891)).

Fig. 3 Trojan Horses on the promenade in anakkale,

Turkey. Foreground: Small copy of the horse shown at

the archaeological site of Troy (like so many others

based on a painting by Henry Paul Motte (1846-

1922). Background: Horse used in the film Troy (2004,

directed by Wolfgang Petersen) and given to the city

by Brad Pitt (Peter Jablonka).

Archaeological reconstruction: beyond architecture and staffageFor better or worse, archaeology and Greek epic tradition remain inseparably joined. After all, Troy is

not the only site that has been excavated to reveal the truth behind the legend (Muhly, 2010). Asimilar example of a strong and intricate link between archaeology and an iconic text is perhaps the

archaeology of the land of the Bible. Nevertheless, present-day archaeologists at Troy try hard to

steer clear of any trouble caused by a war led for the most beautiful woman in the world. They do so

by invoking academic specialisation and pleading incompetent as far as the legendary part of the

story goes. Of course this attempt has not always been successful. One cannot escape fate one ofthe lessons taught by the Iliad and the Odyssey.

But let us take the claim that archaeology is a scholarly and scientific endeavour disconnected from

other aspects of the site of Troy at face value, and look at this rather different, very sober story, the

archaeologists own narrative. By definition, archaeology studies past human behaviour with the helpof material traces it has left. It has long been recognized by archaeological theory that this material

record of human behaviour is fragmentary, or filtered: Not all human behaviour will leave a

material record behind; much of what was left behind has been destroyed; only a fraction of what

remains can be excavated or studied by other methods; only part of what is studied will be

documented; and not all that has been documented will be published. Therefore, while not allreconstructions are archaeological, obviously, all archaeology is, to a certain extent, reconstruction.

Nevertheless, acceptance of reconstructions in general, and digital 3D-visualisations in particular, in

archaeology is poor. Dotted lines bridging gaps on plans is usually as far as it goes. There are several

reasons for this.

In the archaeological discourse reconstruction has taken on a variety of meanings, in between amere visualisation of architecture with some added furniture,landscaping and staffage figures, and


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the theoretically much more difficult ultimate goal of archaeology: reconstruction of ancient

societies as a whole.

For example, in pottery studies, fragments / sherds are frequently assigned to shapes of whole

vessels, which can be done by classification, involving reconstruction of the fragment just in the mind

of the expert, reconstructed drawing by hand or computer, or reconstruction by conservation and

restoration of the actual object. In studies of the environment, evidence like cores from drilling holesor plant and animal remains is used to reconstruct palaeolandscapes and past land use. At the next

level, such reconstructions are in turn used for interpretations of the archaeological record and

reconstruct past society in terms of agricultural and economic system, carrying capacity of the land,and demography. To test hypotheses, past behaviour or society can also be modelled or

reconstructed by means of a simulation, which is more likely a set of mathematical equations than

a visualisation. The most famous application of this methods is the expansion of the Neolithic intoEurope (cf. Bocquet-Appel, Naji, Vander Linden, & Kozlowski, 2012). Technically, computer

applications from Geographic Information Systems to Agent-based-modelling can be involved.

Only in a much more narrow sense, the term reconstruction is used for visualisations of the

restored appearance of a site, or part of it. This has always been part of archaeological methodology

with classical buildings where complete reconstructions from a few remaining stones are possiblebecause of standardized styles (Anastylosis). The reconstruction is often done by architects

working with archaeologists (an example from Troy: Riorden, 2007). Often the division of labour

remains unclear. There is a tendency to assign all tasks concerned with graphics, illustration, anything

visual, including reconstruction, or even museum exhibits to artists, designers, recently 3D-modelling

experts. If the artist gets it wrong, archaeologists cannot be blamed. A clear policy clarifying who isresponsible for which part of the work should be called for.

Architects usually go one step further and use the process of reconstruction as a research tool,

including properties like volume, area, amount of materials and labour needed,or static properties of

materials. The Early Bronze Age citadel and a palisade of Troy II have been analysed in this way

(Hueber, 2004; Schirmer, 1971). The aim is usually a definite solution; functionally possiblealternative reconstructions, for example gabled roofs for the Troy II Megaron buildings (Smith, 1942)

are rarely discussed. It is also established practice now to rebuild parts of a site in reality, on-site or

off-site, as a method of experimental archaeology. This has been done with a stretch of the city walls

at Hattusa, the Hittite capital (Seeher, 2007). The purpose was both to gain a deeper insight intoHittite architecture, and to present the result to visitors.

Several reconstructions of the main periods of Troy have been done by artists: Lloyd K. Townsend

(Siebler, 1994, end-paper), Peter Conolly (Connolly, 1986), and Christoph Hauner (Archologisches

Landesmuseum Baden-Wrttemberg et al., 2001, Figs. 26, 66, 372, 377, 388, 464-465; Hauner &

Raidt, 2000). The artists sought advice from archaeologists to include the latest research, butsometimes show scenes from the Iliad set against an archaeologically correct Late Bronze Age

background, thus placing the epic within a material reality. Compared to these lively artistsreconstructions, 3D-computer models (Brandau, Schickert, & Jablonka, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c;

Jablonka, 2002, 2004; Kirchner & Jablonka, 2001) done in a collaboration of archaeologists with an ITcompany look rather sober, if not cold. Detail had to be omitted because the system designed for an

exhibition should facilitate real-time movement. For exhibitions, wooden reconstruction models have

also been built (Archologisches Landesmuseum Baden-Wrttemberg et al., 2001, figs. 77, 349).


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Fig. 4 Architectural reconstructions of the citadel of Troy to and Megaron type buildings (top left: Drpfeld,

1902; right: Schirmer, 1971; bottom left: Smith, 1942).

Fig. 5 Artists' reconstructions of Troy VI (top left: Lloyd K. Townsend; bottom left: Christoph Hauner; right:

Peter Conolly). Note settlement outside citadel on Hauner's reconstruction; and Peter Conolly's archaeologywith and without added scene from the Ilias.


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In all reconstructions, details of the citadel walls of Late Bronze Age Troy resemble the Hittite city

walls of Hattusa because both are based on the same Hittite terracotta model of a wall and tower

(Seeher, 2007). Reconstructed buildings inside the citadel sometimes invoke images of Arthur Evansreconstructions of Knossos. Besides, new attempts at reconstructions also rely heavily on earlier

examples. New reconstructions of Troy VI leave the centre largely as it was, but add the newly

discovered settlement around the citadel. The main difference is not the technique or technologyused to do a reconstruction it is content.

It has been criticised that archaeological reconstructions are often, and to a large extent,

hypothetical. In the case of Troy this criticism targeted areas outside the Bronze Age citadel, of whichonly a small fraction has been excavated. But, because the archaeological record will always be

fragmentary and incomplete, we can never be sure about any interpretation or reconstruction. On

the other hand, one can be perfectly sure that even an ill-preserved, partially excavated settlementwas definitely not a largely empty space dotted with a few ruined buildings. Therefore one can and

should boldly go on and present complete reconstructions, as long as the difference between extant

remains and hypotheses is made clear. We will never know for sure how the past looked like, but we

can always suggest how it possibly could have. By being overtly timid, and regretting that we still

dont know enough after decades or even centuries of research, archaeology runs the danger ofmaking itself redundant. Clearly, documentation should clarify where the work incorporates

arguments based on actual evidence, plausibility (static properties, function, ...), or analogy (better

preserved evidence elsewhere, pictorial or textual sources, ethnographic or historic examples, earlierreconstructions ...), and hypothetical elements.

Fig. 6 Computer reconstructions of Troy VI. Top left: free reconstruction, complete; bottom left: only buildings

with complete ground plan known from excavations reconstructed; right: defensive ditch and gate, excavated

rock cuttings and schematic reconstruction; images provided by the author).

These considerations apply to all kinds of reconstructions, regardless if they are done as a drawing,

computer model, scaled-down or original size replica. However, 3-D computer representations arecertainly the most versatile method. They can be used for a large number of applications in research


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and presentation. Products for different audiences, purposes and media can be derived using the

same data.

In any case, reconstructions are very powerful visual statements. In everyday life, we encounter

similar visualisations of things that might or might not actually exist in different contexts. Scientific

visualisations are expected to be true images of real, but hidden objects, based on actual data, for

example CT or MRI scans of the inner organs of the body (Hence the misleading title "how it reallylooked like" given by the publisher to Brandau et al., 2004c). In architecture or product design,

objects are shown before they are built or produced, as they are supposed to look like in the future.

On the other hand, in films or computer games animations are meant to create the illusion that theseproducts of fantasy are real. The medium conveys conflicting messages: we know that visualisations

can be either representations of some aspect of reality, or delusions. 1

Within archaeology, reconstructions assume a double role depending on the audience. Forarchaeologists, they can serve as a tool or aid in research and interpretation. In presentations for the

wider public, reconstructions have much in common with a visit to the actual site but enhanced

with an element of virtual time-space travel. Still, a reconstruction on its own remains purely

descriptive and self-referential, like a journey to a foreign country without any experiences apart

from sightseeing. To create a lasting impression, a much richer narrative must be added. In the caseof Troy this is how the legends come back into the play. When visitors encounter the Trojan horse at

the entrance to the site, archaeology is reduced to a mere background for a much more interesting

story, inevitably presenting the Trojan War as real as the archaeology.

This may partly explain the

emotional and fierce criticism reconstructions can provoke, especially digital, or virtualreconstruction. Computer images using photo-realistic lighting and texture are perceived as objects

with strong materiality, negatively, as deception, an illusion of a reality that never existed. No

wonder many archaeologists are reluctant to make such statements. However, in an age of visual

communication one should rather learn to master visualisation techniques than avoiding them.

History as reconstructed past: simply to show how it "really" wasOf course the archaeology of a particular site is always just a material correlate of society and itshistory. History itself is a reconstruction combining different narratives taken from ancient sources as

well as modern academic conventions at a spot where they supposedly overlap in time and space.

Just like in archaeology, simply to show how it really was in a positivistic fashion is impossible (Carr,

1961 against von Ranke's "wie es eigentlich gewesen ist"). This can explain why Homer and the TrojanWar paradoxically still figure in all accounts of Greek or Anatolian history, even if the authors strongly

reject that the Greek epic tradition has any value as a historical source.

The ancient Greeks did not make a clear distinction between myth and history. But while maintaining

that the Trojan War did actually happen in their distant past, they were well aware that the stories

told about it needed critical reading. In the introduction to his history of the Peloponnesian War,

Thucydides gives an account of Greek prehistory, or archaeology(Thucydides, 1.1-1.19). The TrojanWar is stripped of all mythological and legendary elements, there is no interference of the gods, the

abduction (rape) of Helen is not considered as a possible cause of war, and the events are reduced

to an example of Realpolitik,a game of power and economy. Thucydides even uses archaeology inthe modern sense material evidence to support his argument.

Modern attempts to reconstruct early Greek and Anatolian history by combining archaeology,

ancient textual sources, and the epic tradition in one narrative still resemble Thucydides approach.

According to one scenario, which has been both acclaimed and criticised (Latacz, 2004; Starke, 1997),

Troy was the capital of the Hittite vassal state Wilusa. Conflicts between this kingdom and

Mycenaean groups during the period of unrest at the end of the second millennium BC are not

1Aptly, a market-leading 3D-visualisation software is named Maya. In Indian philosophy Maya stands for

the concept that the outside world created by our sensory perception is mere illusion.


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unlikely. A faint remembrance of such conflicts could have formed the core of the story of the Trojan

War. Narratives like this can be viewed as textual reconstructions of fragmentary sources.

Another type of narrative combining different lines of evidence may be termed

Geoarchaeomythology: Places and events from the epic are put on archaeological site plans

(Drpfeld, 1902, pp. 601-632), and on maps of the ancient or even modern topography. This line of

argument goes back to Hestiaia of Alexandria Troas, who rejected claims by the inhabitants ofHellenistic Ilion that their city was also Homers Troy (Strabo, 13.1.36). Remarkably scientific, she

argued that the plain of the Scamander consisted of recent alluvium. During the time of the Trojan

War the area had still been flooded a bay of the Aegean leaving no room for a battlefield.Nevertheless, since antiquity many locations from the epic, including the grave mounds of the

heroes, have been pinned down on the landscape (Luce, 1998). Contradicting Hestiaia, geologists

have placed the Greek camp and other places from the Iliad on palaeogeographic maps of the areaduring the Late Bronze Age (Kraft, Rapp, Kayan, & Luce, 2003). Even more, both Platos Atlantis and

Homers Trojan War have been put on the same palaeographic map, and projects have been

suggested to find scientific proof for this daring hypothesis (Zangger, 1992). Troy has even been

located in regions anywhere from Cambridge (England) (Wilkens, 2012) to Cilicia (southeast Turkey)

(Schrott, 2008). By eclectic or selective use of evidence and sources it is possible to construct aconvincing-looking "scientific proof" for almost anything. It can therefore be very difficult to refute

too far-reaching claims.

On the other hand, the fact that there are roadside signposts giving directions does not provide

definite proof that any particular phase of the archaeological site of Hisarlk actually is HomericTroy. Heinrich Schliemann may well have found nothing underneath the ruins of Hellenistic andRoman Ilion. But since his days, the remains of a large and strongly fortified settlement have been

unearthed. This means that the case remains open. We still have to consider if and how the events

told in the Iliad mirror history. The answer strongly depends on an interpretation of Greek epic

traditions. Unambiguous evidence of events that took place on the stage that archaeology canprovide is still lacking.

Archaeology and history of Troy are therefore facing the same dilemma. To tell the story without any

reference to the Iliad seems impossible. However, as soon as the legends are discussed, they assume

a status similar to other sources. In the design of an educational website, it has been attempted to

keep different threads archaeological evidence, reconstructions, historical background, legends separate (http://www.cerhas.uc.edu/troy/ ; Riorden, 2005). Perhaps such distinctions will be blurred

once again in the experience of readers/users.

Reconstructions of a myth: art as transmedia storytellingThe diversion of elements of a story across multiple delivery channels (websites, movies, books,

games, even theme parks) has been termed transmedia storytelling (Jenkins, 2006, pp. 99-130).

But this is exactly how the legends of Troy have been told and retold for millennia, in everyconceivable media: epic, theatre play, opera, painting, sculpture, novel, movie, computer game,

comic (Latacz, Greub, Blome, & Wieczorek, 2008). This clearly shows that the media or technologies

used are not of primary importance a good story can be carried across all genres. Since the Iliadfocuses on just a few weeks of a ten years war, the greater part of the story has to be reconstructed

from other sources. There never was a single, complete, authoritative, and canonical version of

Trojan legends. Beginning with the Hellenistic period or earlier, during Peisistratos reign in Athens, acanonical version of Homers Iliad and Odyssey (but not of the epic circle) developed. This of course

never included all the other parts of the story not covered by these two epics, the countless variants,

and the usage made of the legends to serve many purposes. The archaeology of Troy, including

reconstructions of the site, is only one more , rather recent, and certainly not the most important

aspect of what constitutes, as a whole, the most successful story of all times.In visual media, from Greek vase painting to Renaissance art, the story is usually set in a periodcontext with some added heroic or fantastic elements. In medieval manuscript illustrations of the


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Trojan legends, for instance, we will see knights in their typical armour fighting in front of a walled

town of their own time. Only later this will change into an antiquarian past. For the Achilleion, the

Habsburg Empress Elisabeths mansion on the island of Korfu, Franz Matsch (1861-1942) paintedAchilles triumphant. In this painting, weapons are apparently taken from the Greek Archaic period,

whereas Achilles chariot is based on models from Pharaonic Egypt. The architecture of Troy in the

background seems to be influenced by Schliemanns excavations in Troy and Mycenae. The Minoancolumn from the relief at the Lion Gate at Mycenae is used for palace entrances, but at the citadelgate column and lions are replaced by a swastika. In the latest movie versions of the legends, Troy

still has Late Bronze Age, Minoan-Mycenaean architectural elements. For his graphic novel Age of

Troy (Shanower, 2001-2009), the author even visited the excavations at Troy and did extensive

research to create a realistic setting.

Thus another strong, suggestive link has been established between Late Bronze Age archaeology andmodern versions of the Trojan legends spread by popular culture. Once again, it will be difficult, if not

impossible, to separate fact and fiction.

Fig. 7 Top: A view of Troy from the graphic novel Age of Bronze (Eric Shanower); bottom: Franz Matsch, Achilles

triumphant, mural in the Achilleion, Korfu(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_"Triumph_of_Achilles"_fresco,_in_Corfu_Achilleion.jpg).

Lethal reconstructions: Trojan identity building and re-enactment of the

epicFrom ancient Greece to modern higher education, Homer and the Trojan War have been a subject ofhigher education. However, if we read the Iliad today, what strikes us most are its graphic

descriptions of extreme violence, men against men, women, even children. The heroes follow a

moral code of conduct that reminds us more of Genghis Khan ethics than of noble chivalry: "Thegreatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their


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wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their

wives and daughters."2

Yet values like these had to be conveyed to elite young males (all others were oppressed rather

than educated) as long as their leaders would send them to war. Only recently what used to be

accepted behaviour has turned into a social problem when we are facing gangs of violent young men

in our streets. One way to act out such violent drives, not limited by any repressive constraintssociety imposes, and still without harming others in real life, seem to be interactive computer games.

Of course opinions are divided if it is healthy to escape from reality to live the life of an aggressor in

cyberspace, but the fact that such games are popular shows that they supply a need: ... as Lacan putit, the truth has the structure of a fiction: what appears in the guise of dreaming, or even

daydreaming, is sometimes the truth on whose repression social reality itself is founded (iek,2006). Perhaps not surprisingly, Warriors Legends of Troy (http://www.troy-game.com/) is atypical example. To make it look authentic, the game designers researched the archaeology of the

Late Bronze Age and included features from the Aegean landscape around Troy (IGN Staff, 2009).

Encouraging individual identification with heroic values is one way to exploit the epic tradition

politically. The other way is fostering group coherence by identification with one side in the war,

Greeks or Trojans. The epic tradition with its stories about a fight for a common cause, itsconnection of gods, heroes and men, its maze of genealogies linking real with mythological places,

persons , and events, formed the core of ancient Greek ethnogenesis. One can have doubts whether

a common Greek identity would have developed without Homer, just as a Jewish identity could

hardly be maintained without the Old Testament (Assmann, 1999, pp. 272-280).

Identification with the other side, the Trojans, started with the first Roman Emperor Augustus, who

traced the mythical ancestry of his family, the gens Julia, back to Julus (Ascanius), who had fled toItaly from Troy with his father Aeneas. Following the Roman example, many later gentes like the

Franks, and aristocratic families, assumed Trojan lineages.

Renaissance scholars noted that the Ottoman Empire had formed in Bithynia, in the vicinity of the

Troy. They also claimed that Teucri (Trojans) and Turci (Turks) were the same name. Maybe the Turkshad even conquered Constantinople and Greece to take revenge for the Trojan War (Meserve, 2008,pp. 22-64). This identification is maintained by Turks to the present day as an integral part of

republican Turkish Anatolism (Kranz, 1998), but also imposed on them by others, especially in times

of war. During the battle of Gallipoli (1916) allied forces, well aware that they fought close to Troy,

styled themselves as Greeks: Stand in the trench, Achilles, / Flame-capped, and shout for me(Patrick H. Shaw-Stewart; quoted after Wood, 2005, pp. 44-45). It was especially important to create

at least an illusion of a heroic past for the many ANZAC soldiers from Australia and New Zealand,

countries devoid of any history of their own to be proud of (Midford, 2010).3

Today, more peaceful ways of re-enacting the epic prevail in Turkey. Mustafa Erdoans dance showmusical Troy an Anatolian Legend / Fire of Anatolia does not hesitate to make Homers epic part

of Anatolian folklore (cf. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/troy-opens-season-with-fire-of-anatolia.aspx?pageID=238&nID=46481&NewsCatID=384). On the slope of Mount Ida (Kaz Da), the

judgement of Paris takes place every year as a beauty contest (cf. http://www.canakkaleili.com/ida-

guzellik-yarismasi.html). And after a history of wars, the city of Canakkale at the Dardanelles has

become a self-proclaimed city of peace (cf. http://www.canakkale.bel.tr/bp.asp?caid=273).

And towards the end of

the Turkish War of Independence, Mustafa Kemal Atatrk supposedly said after the decisive victoryat Dumlupnar (1922): Hector, I have avenged you (according to Sabahattin Eybolu: Aslan &

Atabay, 2012, p. 159).

2 Arnold Schwarzenegger says something similar in the movie Conan the Barbarian (1982). However, the

famous quote, often cited without source, ultimately goes back to Abraham dOhssons translation of a passagefrom Rashid-al-Din Hamadanis (12471318)Jami' al-tawarikh (d'Ohsson 1852, p. 104).3 It might have been a coincidence that one British battleship at Gallipoli was named Hector, for, from the

17th century to World War II, at least 11 ships of the Royal navy bore this name (internet search).


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When it comes to educational and political uses of the legends of Troy, it is no longer the question if

epic tales are based on actual historical events. Fact and fiction seem reversed. Real life is

reconstructed according to a moral code of conduct, identities, even re-enactment of events takenfrom the Iliad. And if epic wars and cruelty form a threat to society, they can be acted out in role-play

or virtual life.

Fig. 8 Reconstruction of the epic in real life: Re-enactment of the Judgement of Paris at Ayazma, on the slopes of

Kaz Da (Mount Ida), 2003 (http://www.canakkaleili.com/ida-guzellik-yarismasi.html).

Conclusion: reconstructions embedded into narrativesWhile Troy is certainly an extreme case, it can serve to highlight what is less obvious elsewhere, and

easily forgotten in our age dominated by visual media: One needs to illustrate something. And this

will always remain a story. Every painting has at least a title; and even movies or computer games are

still based on texts, screenplay scenarios, a storyline. Any reconstruction has to be part of a narrative.

To be successful, archaeological reconstructions must be embedded into the archaeologists own

narrative of methods and practices. This will include presentation only at the very end of the story, as

an illustration of the interpretation of a site. Before that, reconstructions in a more general meaningare part of the research process, and will be accepted if they can serve as a useful tool to aid this

process.

Cultural heritage in general, and an archaeological site in particular is auratic (Benjamin, 1939

[1972]): unique, authentic, remote. These properties make cultural heritage a valuable resourceseveral competitors will want to exploit (archaeology, other academic fields, tourism, entertainment,

politics). Under the conditions of developed capitalism narratives serve to make otherwise

interchangeable products unique what sells is the aura (brand), not the product. All interested

parties will therefore compete to profit from the aura of a site by attaching their own narratives to it.They will all make use of reconstructions of events to claim that their own narrative is the one and

only true story: there is no longer one grand narrative, only competing small narratives (Lyotard,

1984). In the presentation and interpretation of an archaeological site, archaeological

reconstructions will have to compete with other narratives.


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If this is neglected and archaeological reconstructions are created out of any narrative context, as

real or virtual objects or visualisations, the models will end up collecting dust in a dark corner, or they

will be used by others to support their own narratives. It will only be possible to keep them alive andconvey a message through them by embedding them in a story, using techniques like unique

characters and a storyline ("digital storytelling"). This can be as simple as an archaeologist telling

about his work and interpreting the site. It can also be based on events or characters taken fromhistory, or even fantasy.

By far the strongest narrative attached to Troy is the Iliad not archaeology. Any attempts to

reconstruct the story of the site without it will fail, no matter if the Trojan War ever was an event ofactual history or not. The horse and the woman will always come back. This is because the story is

both archetypical and unique. While there are perhaps no more than three basic plots (Foster-Harris,

1960), it is the quality of a particular realisation that counts, and an established link of characterswith well-known names to a specific location in space and time.

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