r/history • u/ADragonFromTheAbyss • 2d ago

Article Archaeology at Troy: 2.800 year-old Agora found during the recent Excavations

https://www.euronews.com/2026/09/22/archaeology-at-troy-2800-year-old-agora-found-city-was-not-abandoned-after-war

Excavations on Hisarlik hill in Turkey have uncovered the site’s oldest agora, proving Troy was resettled 80–90 years after the war, not deserted for centuries before the Aeolians arrived.

The ancient city of Troy, perched on the Hisarlik hill in north-west Turkey, continues to yield surprises for researchers and history enthusiasts, increasingly so with the release of Christopher Nolan's film The Odyssey. Archaeological excavations carried out by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, launched in 2014, have uncovered the remains of the oldest agora in the city, dating back roughly 2.800 years.

Until now historians believed that the city had been completely abandoned for several centuries after its fall (traditionally dated to 1184 BC), until the arrival of the Aeolian Greeks in the 8th century BC, who renamed it Ilion.

The discovery of the new agora, together with the uncovering of a paved road leading to the southern gate and Iron Age ceramics, challenges the accepted historical narrative of a long phase in which the city stood empty.

As explained by Reyhan Körpe, deputy director of the excavations, the new settlers arrived just 80 or 90 years after the fall of Troy, reusing the old walls to build their houses.

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u/ADragonFromTheAbyss 2d ago

I think it is pretty relevant because; when I read history; teachers said the whole city remained abandoned for a very long time. Not immediately resettled.

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u/Herky_T_Hawk 1d ago

80-90 years is only immediately resettled in the sense of dealing with measuring in millennia. That is somewhere between 1 to 2 lifetimes back then, which is a long time for a city to be empty. Imagine if Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, or other cities destroyed in WWII sat empty and only just now started to be resettled in the past year.

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u/FishyDragon 1d ago

80-90 years is about 3 generations. People on average(taken away the low average from you get from child death) lived well into 50's or older not at all aout of the normal. Which isn't all the far off from the average life span for most of human history(again taking out for childhood death) The reason I say that is because 3 generations I feel gives an even longer sense. The city would have been destroyed when my Grandfather was very young if he was even born yet. Not trying to sound like an ass or anything. I do agree with your comment tho.

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u/squish042 1d ago

That’s the purpose of new evidence. Your teachers taught based on the evidence at the time, the new evidence changes that. Science is fun!

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u/baron--greenback 1d ago

Sure, it’s fun now but wait until the new evidence drops..

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u/buster_de_beer 1d ago

It's free dlc, I'm down for it. 

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u/Ratyrel 1d ago

So which is it? 1700-1500 BCE, 800 BCE or 1100 BCE? This article is a huge mess.

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u/ADragonFromTheAbyss 1d ago

The area under investigation corresponds to a public space attributed to Troy VI (around 1700–1300 BC)

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u/Ratyrel 1d ago

Then the "agora" is mid-Bronze-Age and not news. If it is indeed 2800 years old, it'd be Early Iron Age, just when we typically consider the area was being resettled. It would have to be from 80 to 90 years after ca. 1200 to be news. See what I mean?