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In Search of the Trojan War
Tales of Troy and its heroes--Achilles and Hector, Paris and the legendary beauty Helen--have fired the human imagination for 3,000 years. With In Search of the Trojan War, Michael Wood brings vividly to life the legend and lore of the Heroic Age in an archaeological adventure that sifts through the myths and speculation to provide a fresh view of the riches and the reality of ancient Troy.This gripping story shows why the legend of Troy forms the bedrock of Western culture and why its past is a paradigm of human history. Wood's meticulous scholarly sleuthing yields fascinating evidence about the continuity and development of human civilization in the Aegean and Asia Minor. With its 50 feet of debris resulting from constant rebuilding, human destruction, earthquake, and abandonment, the mound of Troy contains the beginnings and ends of new races and civilizations.This edition includes a new preface, a new final chapter, and an addendum to the bibliography that take account of dramatic new developments in the search for Troy with the rediscovery, in Moscow, of the so-called Jewels of Helen and the re-excavation of the site of Troy, which began in 1988 and is yielding new evidence about the historical city.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
About the author
Michael Wood
255 books373 followersLibrarian Note: There's more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Michael David Wood is an English historian & broadcaster. He's presented numerous tv documentary series. Library of Congress lists him as Michael Wood.
Wood was born in Moston, Manchester, & educated at Manchester Grammar School & Oriel College, Oxford. His special interest was Anglo-Saxon history. In the 70s Wood worked for the BBC in Manchester. He was 1st a reporter, then an assistant producer on current affairs programmes, before returning to his love of history with his 1981 series In Search of the Dark Ages for BBC2. This explored the lives of leaders of the period, including Boadicea, King Arthur, Offa, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, Eric Bloodaxe & William the Conquerer (& gave rise to his 1st book, based upon the series).
Michael David Wood is an English historian & broadcaster. He's presented numerous tv documentary series. Library of Congress lists him as Michael Wood.
Wood was born in Moston, Manchester, & educated at Manchester Grammar School & Oriel College, Oxford. His special interest was Anglo-Saxon history. In the 70s Wood worked for the BBC in Manchester. He was 1st a reporter, then an assistant producer on current affairs programmes, before returning to his love of history with his 1981 series In Search of the Dark Ages for BBC2. This explored the lives of leaders of the period, including Boadicea, King Arthur, Offa, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, Eric Bloodaxe & William the Conquerer (& gave rise to his 1st book, based upon the series).
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July 15, 2026Although it's several months since I finished The Iliad, I feel a continued fascination with the Trojan war as Homer described it. In the days after finishing it, I went looking for more information about some of Homer's characters in the four plays Euripides wrote about the women of Troy—just as if they had really existed and that Euripides, although writing three hundred years after Homer, might have some further news of them for me.
The thing is, I really want them to have existed and for the siege Homer wrote about so powerfully to have actually happened—despite all the death and destruction that were involved. This book by Michael Wood reassures me that I'm not the only one to feel like that.
From the Persian king Xerxes to Alexander the Great (who is said to have slept with a copy of The Iliad under his pillow), from Julius Caesar to the Emperor Julian, many historical figures have visited the place that Homer described as Troy, simply because they, like me, were enthralled with the siege story Homer set down in The Iliad. The English poet, Lord Byron, wrote in his diary in 1821, ‘We do care about the authenticity of the tale of Troy. I venerate the grand original as the truth of history and of place; otherwise it would have given me no delight.’
That's exactly how I feel too.
In Search of the Trojan War is a very thorough analysis of every scrap of evidence that might prove there really was a siege of Troy as described in The Iliad. The author has gathered that evidence from historical sources, from archeological digs, and from the topography of the site in western Turkey where Troy, or Ilium as it was also named, is thought to have been situated. Needless to say, I drank it all in with pleasure, although often, a later chapter would discount what archeologists or historians had believed in an earlier chapter. The book is like an archeological dig itself, the later chapters are the deeper layers of the excavation, offering something closer to the truth than what could be seen in the earlier ones.
And although I wasn't looking for him, I found Euripides in these pages (I've been searching for references to him a lot lately). There was a mention of his play The Trojan Women in the chapter about whether the walls of Troy were indeed knocked down in the siege that Homer commemorated. Euripides had described Hecuba (wife of King Priam of Troy) and the other Trojan women listening as the walls of their city crashed to the ground like thunder. Euripides didn't describe how the walls were knocked down but Michael Wood tells of one possibility: Pausanias, a second century Greek historian, didn't believe the story of the famous wooden horse of Troy, supposedly given by the attackers to the people of Troy as a 'parting gift' (Homer mentions nothing about it in The Iliad although he allows Odysseus to tell a tall tale about it in The Odyssey). Anyway, Pausanias couldn't believe that the Trojans would have fallen for such trickery. His theory was that the 'horse' was a massive wooden contraption on wheels designed to destroy the fortress walls—and therefore it would be that machine at work that Hecuba and the other Trojan women heard from the shores of the bay of Ilium where they waited to board the Greek ships as prisoners after the siege had ended.
So Michael Wood maintains that archeological excavations reveal that a fortified town such as Homer and Euripides described really existed, and that its walls were destroyed sometime in the 1200s BC. His conclusion is that "the hypothesis of a historical Troy and the Trojan War is now stronger."
But what about the characters who featured in The Iliad? Could some of them have been real figures too. I'd already come to that conclusion about the character Nestor who features in both The Iliad and The Odyssey, having seen an exhibition in Athens recently about the archeological digs in Pylos where Homer had said Nestor came from. The excavations show that there was a large palace complex in Pylos just as described in The Odyssey. Michael Wood devotes an entire chapter to those same findings, which include clay tablets written in Linear B script: "Perhaps the most surprising thing about the tablets [at Pylos] was that the world they revealed was not ‘heroic’ at all, but bureaucratic to the most extraordinary degree. Here were lists of flocks down to the last ewe or ram; the names of individual shepherds and tax inspectors; the minutest enumerations of equipment and war gear; individual thrones and chariots listed with their accoutrements and defects, including even broken or useless bits of equipment—chariot bodies or wheels, say, faithfully noted as ‘useless’ or ‘burnt at the end’. Here even individual oxen are named: ‘Blacky’ and ‘Spot’.…"
Michael Wood devotes another chapter to the excavations at Mycenae where Homer's Agamemnon and Menelaus came from. They too were real figures, it seems, and they were thought to have been involved in raids up and down the coast of Asia Minor—where Troy was located—in the 1200s BC.
Wood also tells of the excavations in Knossos in Crete and how the findings, pottery in particular, link it with Mycenae. He tells us that Idomeneus, whom Homer mentions sailed out from Crete with eighty ships in support of Agamemnon's siege on Troy, probably existed too.
And he also mentions that a king called Priam lived at Ilium in those times just as Homer records. Perhaps Priam had a wife called Hecuba? I really want to believe that!
……………………
Thanks to GR friend Jan-Maat for pointing me towards this book.
The thing is, I really want them to have existed and for the siege Homer wrote about so powerfully to have actually happened—despite all the death and destruction that were involved. This book by Michael Wood reassures me that I'm not the only one to feel like that.
From the Persian king Xerxes to Alexander the Great (who is said to have slept with a copy of The Iliad under his pillow), from Julius Caesar to the Emperor Julian, many historical figures have visited the place that Homer described as Troy, simply because they, like me, were enthralled with the siege story Homer set down in The Iliad. The English poet, Lord Byron, wrote in his diary in 1821, ‘We do care about the authenticity of the tale of Troy. I venerate the grand original as the truth of history and of place; otherwise it would have given me no delight.’
That's exactly how I feel too.
In Search of the Trojan War is a very thorough analysis of every scrap of evidence that might prove there really was a siege of Troy as described in The Iliad. The author has gathered that evidence from historical sources, from archeological digs, and from the topography of the site in western Turkey where Troy, or Ilium as it was also named, is thought to have been situated. Needless to say, I drank it all in with pleasure, although often, a later chapter would discount what archeologists or historians had believed in an earlier chapter. The book is like an archeological dig itself, the later chapters are the deeper layers of the excavation, offering something closer to the truth than what could be seen in the earlier ones.
And although I wasn't looking for him, I found Euripides in these pages (I've been searching for references to him a lot lately). There was a mention of his play The Trojan Women in the chapter about whether the walls of Troy were indeed knocked down in the siege that Homer commemorated. Euripides had described Hecuba (wife of King Priam of Troy) and the other Trojan women listening as the walls of their city crashed to the ground like thunder. Euripides didn't describe how the walls were knocked down but Michael Wood tells of one possibility: Pausanias, a second century Greek historian, didn't believe the story of the famous wooden horse of Troy, supposedly given by the attackers to the people of Troy as a 'parting gift' (Homer mentions nothing about it in The Iliad although he allows Odysseus to tell a tall tale about it in The Odyssey). Anyway, Pausanias couldn't believe that the Trojans would have fallen for such trickery. His theory was that the 'horse' was a massive wooden contraption on wheels designed to destroy the fortress walls—and therefore it would be that machine at work that Hecuba and the other Trojan women heard from the shores of the bay of Ilium where they waited to board the Greek ships as prisoners after the siege had ended.
So Michael Wood maintains that archeological excavations reveal that a fortified town such as Homer and Euripides described really existed, and that its walls were destroyed sometime in the 1200s BC. His conclusion is that "the hypothesis of a historical Troy and the Trojan War is now stronger."
But what about the characters who featured in The Iliad? Could some of them have been real figures too. I'd already come to that conclusion about the character Nestor who features in both The Iliad and The Odyssey, having seen an exhibition in Athens recently about the archeological digs in Pylos where Homer had said Nestor came from. The excavations show that there was a large palace complex in Pylos just as described in The Odyssey. Michael Wood devotes an entire chapter to those same findings, which include clay tablets written in Linear B script: "Perhaps the most surprising thing about the tablets [at Pylos] was that the world they revealed was not ‘heroic’ at all, but bureaucratic to the most extraordinary degree. Here were lists of flocks down to the last ewe or ram; the names of individual shepherds and tax inspectors; the minutest enumerations of equipment and war gear; individual thrones and chariots listed with their accoutrements and defects, including even broken or useless bits of equipment—chariot bodies or wheels, say, faithfully noted as ‘useless’ or ‘burnt at the end’. Here even individual oxen are named: ‘Blacky’ and ‘Spot’.…"
Michael Wood devotes another chapter to the excavations at Mycenae where Homer's Agamemnon and Menelaus came from. They too were real figures, it seems, and they were thought to have been involved in raids up and down the coast of Asia Minor—where Troy was located—in the 1200s BC.
Wood also tells of the excavations in Knossos in Crete and how the findings, pottery in particular, link it with Mycenae. He tells us that Idomeneus, whom Homer mentions sailed out from Crete with eighty ships in support of Agamemnon's siege on Troy, probably existed too.
And he also mentions that a king called Priam lived at Ilium in those times just as Homer records. Perhaps Priam had a wife called Hecuba? I really want to believe that!
……………………
Thanks to GR friend Jan-Maat for pointing me towards this book.
Read
April 23, 2020Spiralling down, discussing in turn the ongoing interest in Troy, the archaeologists who worked the site , their discoveries, the evidence from Homer, our understanding of the world of Mycenaean Greece, then the documents surviving from the Hittite archives, I felt as though a clear and final single answer was before us when the text turned, and like a bird on a thermal, rose and spiralled out to a world of wider possibilities, leaving us with a richer range of uncertainties.
No, I cannot type a short and technical review stating that Homer's Troy was Troy VII as Dorpfeld held and relate it neatly and definitively to the world of Mycenaean Greece, whose 'kings' were dependant on raider-trading for the gold, copper, tin, and slaves to maintain their bean counting palace-economies. Instead Troy may have fallen several times, and multiple incidents of warfare may be remembered in the Iliad.
The search for the Trojan war in the end is not a search for the war, for the face that launched a thousand ships, rather the book discusses the many contexts of the stories. One of those is the science of archaeology and the interrelationship between facts and interpretations. Another the world of Dark Age Greece, looking back on the lost glories of an earlier age but also seeking to create an equivalence between its heroes and those of the past. The last years of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean, troubled by long term drought, migrations, population collapses. The iterations of the Iliad, during the course of which perhaps over corrections have stripped out all but a couple of the Mycenaeanisms and simplified the windswept plain of Troy, and maybe it was only a poor mirror of a Trojan war in any case - Of the names in the Linear B tablets which are found in Homer, twenty of them (one third) are applied to Trojans: in other words Greek names have been invented for Trojan heroes, Hector among them. But two names may not fit with this...Priam's name looks like the Anatolian name Pariamu, found in Hittite texts, Alexanderos of Wilios does seem to have a connection with the Alaksandus of Wilusa named in Hittite tablets of the early thirteenth century, and his alternative name Paris is again very likely the Anatolian Pariya (p233).
Those Hittite tablets, mostly correspondence, look on the one hand to lay bare a historical reality, and yet on the other push it further away. If Illios was Wilusa, a client state of the Hittites, and if the Achaians of Homer were the Achaiwoi of the Hittites then it is hard to countenance a ten year war over Helen of Troy that wouldn't have ended not with a Trojan horse but with the rumble of hundreds of Hittite chariots.
This is an enjoyable book, but as with the issue of Goliath's armour one that snatches at pieces of evidence. Any one of which is contestable, but taken together seductively promise plausibility. Did the Sea Peoples who plagued Egypt include rootless Mycenaean warriors, adrift after the systems collapse of their homeland? Does Helen's kiss in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus suck forth his soul? And yet the afterword reports that archaeologists have found a cache of Mycenaean burials including women, children, and one hero, in what was traditionally believed to be Achilles' tomb, on the edge of the plain before Troy.
I finished the book and laid myself down to sleep. In my mind I imagined the cult places of the holy river Scamander, sacred to the God Apollo, then still foreign and not yet a Greek god, some dark and secret place, whose cult objects still lie under discovered.
The search for the Trojan war is an Odyssey without end.
No, I cannot type a short and technical review stating that Homer's Troy was Troy VII as Dorpfeld held and relate it neatly and definitively to the world of Mycenaean Greece, whose 'kings' were dependant on raider-trading for the gold, copper, tin, and slaves to maintain their bean counting palace-economies. Instead Troy may have fallen several times, and multiple incidents of warfare may be remembered in the Iliad.
The search for the Trojan war in the end is not a search for the war, for the face that launched a thousand ships, rather the book discusses the many contexts of the stories. One of those is the science of archaeology and the interrelationship between facts and interpretations. Another the world of Dark Age Greece, looking back on the lost glories of an earlier age but also seeking to create an equivalence between its heroes and those of the past. The last years of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean, troubled by long term drought, migrations, population collapses. The iterations of the Iliad, during the course of which perhaps over corrections have stripped out all but a couple of the Mycenaeanisms and simplified the windswept plain of Troy, and maybe it was only a poor mirror of a Trojan war in any case - Of the names in the Linear B tablets which are found in Homer, twenty of them (one third) are applied to Trojans: in other words Greek names have been invented for Trojan heroes, Hector among them. But two names may not fit with this...Priam's name looks like the Anatolian name Pariamu, found in Hittite texts, Alexanderos of Wilios does seem to have a connection with the Alaksandus of Wilusa named in Hittite tablets of the early thirteenth century, and his alternative name Paris is again very likely the Anatolian Pariya (p233).
Those Hittite tablets, mostly correspondence, look on the one hand to lay bare a historical reality, and yet on the other push it further away. If Illios was Wilusa, a client state of the Hittites, and if the Achaians of Homer were the Achaiwoi of the Hittites then it is hard to countenance a ten year war over Helen of Troy that wouldn't have ended not with a Trojan horse but with the rumble of hundreds of Hittite chariots.
This is an enjoyable book, but as with the issue of Goliath's armour one that snatches at pieces of evidence. Any one of which is contestable, but taken together seductively promise plausibility. Did the Sea Peoples who plagued Egypt include rootless Mycenaean warriors, adrift after the systems collapse of their homeland? Does Helen's kiss in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus suck forth his soul? And yet the afterword reports that archaeologists have found a cache of Mycenaean burials including women, children, and one hero, in what was traditionally believed to be Achilles' tomb, on the edge of the plain before Troy.
I finished the book and laid myself down to sleep. In my mind I imagined the cult places of the holy river Scamander, sacred to the God Apollo, then still foreign and not yet a Greek god, some dark and secret place, whose cult objects still lie under discovered.
The search for the Trojan war is an Odyssey without end.
August 6, 2025
That really was an excellent read. For the most part, it's extremely readable and for the opening 100 plus pages reads almost like a novel. It does get bogged down in the middle when Wood gets onto the translations of the Linear B tablets and the glories of bureaucratic admin in the 13th Century BC, but for the most part this book does a really good job of putting a case that The Illiad, and the legends of the Trojan War, are based upon an actual skirmish / siege and that Troy did actually exist and had a proud place with the bronze-age world.
March 25, 2021
March 25, 11am ~~ Review asap.
March 25, 2pm ~~ Oh my, another wonderful book from Michael Wood. This was the 1998 updated version of his original 1985 volume. This one had an extra chapter added in order to discuss discoveries made since the time of the first book.
This was not quite as intimate as the book about Alexander The Great that I read just before starting this one, but it was also not your standard dry history text either. Wood explores so many topics that it was almost an immersion into the field of ancient history. And of course now I just HAVE to re-read The Iliad, but this time I will read the Lattimore translation, which is what Wood quoted here from time to time and was recommended to me a few years ago by my GR friend Cleo. It has been sitting quietly waiting for me to get to it but now it is calling me!
But that is coming up Soon. For now, this book was simply fascinating. In his 8 chapters from the original edition, Wood moves from The Search For Troy to following in the footsteps of Heinrich Schliemann and his destructive method of making discoveries. Then we explore the ancient world and learn about how and when the Greeks arrived; there is a chapter about Homer; another about Agamemnon, and yet another about the Hittite empire and how they might have interacted with the Greeks. Two more chapters bring us back to the present and Woods' conclusions at the time, then an epilogue with the newest information.
It was, as the front cover claims, "dazzling and exhaustive". There is a lot of information here but it was all very interesting, from the archeological details to the political review of the ancient days, how their systems worked, how the kings related to each other according to whatever status they each had and how this system would have and could have led to one king calling on others to give him ships and men for a war he wanted tp wage.
I got a kick out of the section about the Hittites, too. Wood shares snippets from some of the messages the Hittite king sent to other rulers. Not exactly all completely diplomatic, but at least he said what he felt. lol
I am very much looking forward to the next Michael Wood book on my list!
March 25, 2pm ~~ Oh my, another wonderful book from Michael Wood. This was the 1998 updated version of his original 1985 volume. This one had an extra chapter added in order to discuss discoveries made since the time of the first book.
This was not quite as intimate as the book about Alexander The Great that I read just before starting this one, but it was also not your standard dry history text either. Wood explores so many topics that it was almost an immersion into the field of ancient history. And of course now I just HAVE to re-read The Iliad, but this time I will read the Lattimore translation, which is what Wood quoted here from time to time and was recommended to me a few years ago by my GR friend Cleo. It has been sitting quietly waiting for me to get to it but now it is calling me!
But that is coming up Soon. For now, this book was simply fascinating. In his 8 chapters from the original edition, Wood moves from The Search For Troy to following in the footsteps of Heinrich Schliemann and his destructive method of making discoveries. Then we explore the ancient world and learn about how and when the Greeks arrived; there is a chapter about Homer; another about Agamemnon, and yet another about the Hittite empire and how they might have interacted with the Greeks. Two more chapters bring us back to the present and Woods' conclusions at the time, then an epilogue with the newest information.
It was, as the front cover claims, "dazzling and exhaustive". There is a lot of information here but it was all very interesting, from the archeological details to the political review of the ancient days, how their systems worked, how the kings related to each other according to whatever status they each had and how this system would have and could have led to one king calling on others to give him ships and men for a war he wanted tp wage.
I got a kick out of the section about the Hittites, too. Wood shares snippets from some of the messages the Hittite king sent to other rulers. Not exactly all completely diplomatic, but at least he said what he felt. lol
I am very much looking forward to the next Michael Wood book on my list!
July 27, 2018
The Trojans and Achilles and the great ancient war always seemed to be just a myth, as first told by a blind poet. But Michael Wood brings the reality to life with the exhaustive research on the actual historical city of Troy, brought to ashes by the revengeful Greeks.
The author keeps the reader involved with descriptions of the archeological digs and even illustrating how the city of Troy was closer to the sea thousands of years ago. The Bronze Age comes to life here and even includes the re-discovery of the long-missing Hittite empire.
I rank this highly as an adventure for the armchair.
Book Season = Summer (age of heroes)
The author keeps the reader involved with descriptions of the archeological digs and even illustrating how the city of Troy was closer to the sea thousands of years ago. The Bronze Age comes to life here and even includes the re-discovery of the long-missing Hittite empire.
I rank this highly as an adventure for the armchair.
Book Season = Summer (age of heroes)
November 6, 2025
In dit boek doet Michael Wood uitgebreid verslag van de ingewikkelde archeologische, letterkundige en historische gegevens die de achtergrond vormen van het verhaal van Troje. Hij heeft alle belangrijke plaatsen bezocht en zijn onderzoek heeft hem gebracht tot een nieuwe conclusie over de legendarische stad zelf, de stad die naar zijn vaste overtuiging het Troje van Homeros is. In dit boek zijn niet alleen de ideeën opgenomen van geleerden en archeologen, maar ook een gedetailleerd verslag van de speurtocht naar de plek waar Troje ooit heeft gelegen.
Zeer informatief boek, misschien wat verouderd. Het wist in elk geval mijn aandacht vast te houden.
Zeer informatief boek, misschien wat verouderd. Het wist in elk geval mijn aandacht vast te houden.
February 15, 2016
More on the Trojan War. . . This was written in conjunction with a PBS Television series, which probably influenced the way it was organized. It takes a historical approach, beginning with Heinrich Schliemann's excavation of Hissarlik, then going on to the excavations at Mycenae and the other Bronze Age sites in Greece, to the excavation of Knossos, and ultimately to the Linear B tablets and the Hittite archives. It was actually fairly interesting. The author's conclusions: the question is still open, but the Trojan War probably was an actual event, Hissarlik (specifically Troy VI) was probably Troy, and was probably sacked by the Greeks sometime around 1260 BCE; this may be connected with the dispute between Ahhiyawa and Hatti over Wilusa; and Troy VIIa was probably destroyed about 1180 BCE by the Sea Peoples.
October 24, 2020
This is an odd history book. Much of it is archeology and even literary analysis, complete with a lot of pictures and maps. I can think of few single volume books that discuss events from the Bronze Age to the 20th century, giving this book great sweep. While new evidence has come out since the book's 1986 publication, its argument that the Trojan War essentially did occur has held up. Homer has been vindicated. As for the book itself, it is a solid, if at times a dry read. The occasional exclamation point is, as with nearly all exclamation points, unwarranted. Yet, it works very well all the same.
September 16, 2020
I read this book years ago when it first came out. I have always been a big fan of Ancient Greece and Troy, and I studied Greek archaeology and art history in school. So, this book is right up my alley. Michael Wood goes through a lot of historical evidence and theory to tell the tale of the Trojan war, and whether it happened, and where and when it happened. I do tend to agree with his conclusions, even though he laces his conclusions with caveats. There is a lot of scholarship referenced here, and Wood is a good storyteller through it all.
I got to visit the site of Troy years ago, and I read this book before I went there. It was amazing to see the things I had just studied and read about. Seeing the bits left over of walls and structures and roads that may have been walked on by Hector, and attacked by Achilles. Wow. Of course, I have a picture of me looking out of the Trojan Horse, which I convinced way too many people that the archaeologists had recently unearthed. I know. Silly
Anyway, this book is a good one for an intro into the archeology and history of the time, and a good one even if you think you know it all already.
I got to visit the site of Troy years ago, and I read this book before I went there. It was amazing to see the things I had just studied and read about. Seeing the bits left over of walls and structures and roads that may have been walked on by Hector, and attacked by Achilles. Wow. Of course, I have a picture of me looking out of the Trojan Horse, which I convinced way too many people that the archaeologists had recently unearthed. I know. Silly
Anyway, this book is a good one for an intro into the archeology and history of the time, and a good one even if you think you know it all already.
June 20, 2019
Tied to the origins of modern tomb robbing archeology, the search is a great look at how we now examine our past and what's gone before. It's sad to think that Schliemann's initial work probably destroyed more than he discovered, but there have been some recent successful digs. The rise and fall of the Mycenae culture is interesting, some SF authors have used this period as a model for their societies (With the Lightnings) along with the Hittite and Sea People. There are some photos and illustrations along with a bibliography. Take a visit to Homer's wine-dark sea, it's a fun read.
October 23, 2013
Deeply informative and entertaining. Wood's tone is brisk. Unsure if any of his conclusions are recognised or firm or if we can put credence in any of them, but Wood convinced me that Troy VI was 'Heroic' or mythic Troy. I knocked one star off because a timeline was absent and would have helped, and some more maps and diagrams (eg of the site, it's locale and conjectured extent, estimates of coastline etc) would have been nice. A fun read.
April 28, 2011
This books is heavily weighed down by conjecture, but incredibly endearing conjecture. Also, no matter how many guesses Wood makes, he always comes back to reality to point out how far the facts actually take us. Just an extraordinary look at the Greek Bronze Age, which makes me want to delve even deeper.
May 13, 2017
The Trojan War holds a grip on the imagination like few other events in mythology. Part of the modern interest in the myth is due to the startling confirmation over the past century that Troy was a real place, located exactly where the legend puts it, with even minor details of topography from Homer's text backed up by archaeological evidence. This makes Troy a fascinating subject to discuss, but also a dangerous one: it's too easy to let the imagination run riot and conclude that perhaps the legend is a true story, that Agamemnon and Achilles were real people, and the survivors of Troy did go on to found Rome.
Back in the mid-1980s Michael Wood produced a TV documentary for the BBC based on the premise that the Trojan War was a real even that took place approximately in the 12th Century BC. This accompanying book and its later second and third editions expanded on the idea: Wood proposes that Troy was a client-state of the Hittite Empire that fell prey to a series of incursions into Asia Minor by the Greeks, at that time dominated by Mycenae. Mycenae was reaching the zenith of its power and in fact would soon face a rapid decline and collapse (plunging Greece into a more barbarous period which they would take some centuries to recover from). In one of its last expansions of power it tried to expand its empire into the Near East whilst the Hittites were distracted by clashes with the Egyptians, Assyrians and other neighbouring powers, and Troy was one of the cities destroyed in the process.
Wood outlines the 'discovery' of the site of Troy (a hill in Turkey a few miles from the Dardanelles called Hisarlik) by the early archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the mid-19th Century and the work by Schliemann and others in uncovering the site and other notable contemporary locations, including Mycenae itself. Wood describes the problems associated with these digs, which tended to be rushed and even destructive ("Schliemann has left us with the ruin of a ruin," he laments at one point) before later, more careful archaeologists could work on the sites. Accompanied by lavish illustrations and numerous photographs of the site (some modern, some from Schliemann's time), Wood describes in clear detail the problems presented by the fact that Troy is divided into 'layers', with the city inhabited both before and after the time of the alleged Trojan War, and dating the war to the correct layer is problematic (both the sixth and seventh layers have been proposed as 'Homer's Troy', and both have issues fitting that conclusion).
After this, Wood expands the scope to incorporate the entire Eastern Mediterranean at the time of the 12th-13th centuries BC. This was a time of surprisingly frequent international relations: the Hittite, Egyptian and Assyrian rulers tended to correspond with one another directly (and, less frequently with their more distant Mycenaean neighbours) and trade flourished between their nations (with wars - even large ones - put down as minor and temporary disagreements, soon mended). Amusingly, there are even surviving tablets featuring the Hittite queen exchanging minor court gossip with King Ramses II, one of the greatest Egyptian pharaohs. Unfortunately, the record is frustratingly incomplete, and Greek-Hittite discussions over a troublesome matter in the west which resulted in military activity (a clash over the city of Wilusa, and notably the Greek of Homer's time doesn't use the 'W', meaning he would have called it 'Ilusa', which is close to 'Ilium') are particularly fragmented.
Wood describes the situation well, first exploring the archaeological unearthing of Troy and other important sites. He describes the work and research done that uncovered the Hittites, a mighty empire of the ancient world that had fallen so completely that evidence of its existence was only uncovered a century ago, and how they provided a 'missing link' that explained the balance of power of the time. Sites contemporaneous with Troy are explored and shared pottery remnants and tablets written in the same languages are used to trace a network of trade and political relations between cities and nations. Pottery and pictures of the time depicting siege engines as stylised giant wooden horses smashing down city walls provide clues as to the origin of the Trojan Horse legend. But every time a conclusion seems to drift into view, it's frustratingly snatched away by a gap in the records.
Woods' solution to this is to present 'scenarios' which he acknowledges are highly speculative but nevertheless credible. The problem is a lack of specific mentions or references to Troy in the historical record of the time. Wood suggests that the evidence supports a more widespread incursion into Asia Minor by the Greeks, with Troy as a minor sideshow at best, and this is supported by strong evidence that the Greeks had an enclave on the shores of south-western Anatolia around the city of Miletus. However, the evidence that the Greeks launched attacks in north-western Asia Minor is much more limited.
This is the book's greatest weakness: whilst discoveries at Troy, Mycenae, Knossos and in the old Hittite ruins have resulted in some spectacular revelations over the last century, and expose a fascinating and more complex world than Homer suggests, they also stop short of giving us enough data to draw solid conclusions about the Trojan War. Wood seems to reluctantly agree with this in the final assessment: that having gone in search of the Trojan War, he can only prove that it could have happened, but no more than that. But the uncertainty allows for the myth of the Trojan War to yet live on, awaiting more archaeological discoveries to illuminate the time.
In Search of the Trojan War (****) is a well-researched book that succinctly (in less than 300 pages) provides an overview of the archaeological history of the region and allows Wood to present the evidence for his broad conclusions about the period. Occasionally he gets drawn a little too far down the path of 'speculative' musings rather than sticking strictly with the evidence, but these musings are well-signposted in advance.
Back in the mid-1980s Michael Wood produced a TV documentary for the BBC based on the premise that the Trojan War was a real even that took place approximately in the 12th Century BC. This accompanying book and its later second and third editions expanded on the idea: Wood proposes that Troy was a client-state of the Hittite Empire that fell prey to a series of incursions into Asia Minor by the Greeks, at that time dominated by Mycenae. Mycenae was reaching the zenith of its power and in fact would soon face a rapid decline and collapse (plunging Greece into a more barbarous period which they would take some centuries to recover from). In one of its last expansions of power it tried to expand its empire into the Near East whilst the Hittites were distracted by clashes with the Egyptians, Assyrians and other neighbouring powers, and Troy was one of the cities destroyed in the process.
Wood outlines the 'discovery' of the site of Troy (a hill in Turkey a few miles from the Dardanelles called Hisarlik) by the early archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the mid-19th Century and the work by Schliemann and others in uncovering the site and other notable contemporary locations, including Mycenae itself. Wood describes the problems associated with these digs, which tended to be rushed and even destructive ("Schliemann has left us with the ruin of a ruin," he laments at one point) before later, more careful archaeologists could work on the sites. Accompanied by lavish illustrations and numerous photographs of the site (some modern, some from Schliemann's time), Wood describes in clear detail the problems presented by the fact that Troy is divided into 'layers', with the city inhabited both before and after the time of the alleged Trojan War, and dating the war to the correct layer is problematic (both the sixth and seventh layers have been proposed as 'Homer's Troy', and both have issues fitting that conclusion).
After this, Wood expands the scope to incorporate the entire Eastern Mediterranean at the time of the 12th-13th centuries BC. This was a time of surprisingly frequent international relations: the Hittite, Egyptian and Assyrian rulers tended to correspond with one another directly (and, less frequently with their more distant Mycenaean neighbours) and trade flourished between their nations (with wars - even large ones - put down as minor and temporary disagreements, soon mended). Amusingly, there are even surviving tablets featuring the Hittite queen exchanging minor court gossip with King Ramses II, one of the greatest Egyptian pharaohs. Unfortunately, the record is frustratingly incomplete, and Greek-Hittite discussions over a troublesome matter in the west which resulted in military activity (a clash over the city of Wilusa, and notably the Greek of Homer's time doesn't use the 'W', meaning he would have called it 'Ilusa', which is close to 'Ilium') are particularly fragmented.
Wood describes the situation well, first exploring the archaeological unearthing of Troy and other important sites. He describes the work and research done that uncovered the Hittites, a mighty empire of the ancient world that had fallen so completely that evidence of its existence was only uncovered a century ago, and how they provided a 'missing link' that explained the balance of power of the time. Sites contemporaneous with Troy are explored and shared pottery remnants and tablets written in the same languages are used to trace a network of trade and political relations between cities and nations. Pottery and pictures of the time depicting siege engines as stylised giant wooden horses smashing down city walls provide clues as to the origin of the Trojan Horse legend. But every time a conclusion seems to drift into view, it's frustratingly snatched away by a gap in the records.
Woods' solution to this is to present 'scenarios' which he acknowledges are highly speculative but nevertheless credible. The problem is a lack of specific mentions or references to Troy in the historical record of the time. Wood suggests that the evidence supports a more widespread incursion into Asia Minor by the Greeks, with Troy as a minor sideshow at best, and this is supported by strong evidence that the Greeks had an enclave on the shores of south-western Anatolia around the city of Miletus. However, the evidence that the Greeks launched attacks in north-western Asia Minor is much more limited.
This is the book's greatest weakness: whilst discoveries at Troy, Mycenae, Knossos and in the old Hittite ruins have resulted in some spectacular revelations over the last century, and expose a fascinating and more complex world than Homer suggests, they also stop short of giving us enough data to draw solid conclusions about the Trojan War. Wood seems to reluctantly agree with this in the final assessment: that having gone in search of the Trojan War, he can only prove that it could have happened, but no more than that. But the uncertainty allows for the myth of the Trojan War to yet live on, awaiting more archaeological discoveries to illuminate the time.
In Search of the Trojan War (****) is a well-researched book that succinctly (in less than 300 pages) provides an overview of the archaeological history of the region and allows Wood to present the evidence for his broad conclusions about the period. Occasionally he gets drawn a little too far down the path of 'speculative' musings rather than sticking strictly with the evidence, but these musings are well-signposted in advance.
August 29, 2021
Pretty good summary of what we know. it feels like its out of date but there hasnt been any excavations since the Korfmann excavations which are covered in the postscript. just be sure to get the 1996 edition.
Very exciting stuff. there is a lot more evidence for the historicity of the Trojan war than you would think.
Very exciting stuff. there is a lot more evidence for the historicity of the Trojan war than you would think.
July 7, 2021
Wonderful. Well researched. Orderly chronology that helps the reader understand a thousand years of history without being overwhelmed.
I wish it was updated again ( last done in 1995). with new archeological finds that further the development of Greek epic history
I wish it was updated again ( last done in 1995). with new archeological finds that further the development of Greek epic history
March 7, 2019
Comprehensive, intelligent and thought-provoking. A definite must for anyone interested in the Trojan War or the two thousand-year search for Troy.
February 1, 2020
Dated, but that's not a problem for the casual reader; a more significant problem is the amount of conjecture. Woods did rather go off on the deep end about the Hittites and the Sea People. Still, an excellent read, conveying both the grand sweep of history and the successes and failures in determining it. Lovely evocative photos.
October 8, 2020
The Trojan War occupies an odd place in the west’s cultural memory, part history and part myth. For centuries, scholars have considering questions such as whether the war actually happen, if Troy was a real place, the characters of The Iliad actually based on real people, and how accurate are Homer’s accounts? Michael Wood sets out the evidence in In Search of the Trojan War, exploring the linguistic and archaeological evidence for the Trojan War.
The first thing to say is that In Search of the Trojan War was originally published in the 1980s as part of a tie-in for a documentary and although the more recent editions have been updated to reflect the new archaeological work, most of the “update” exists in a postscript, rather than being interwoven into the text. I did find myself wondering at times if watching the documentary would be more fulfilling, too – if the information contained in the book was more easily digestible with the benefit of visuals and audio. Although I see from some reviews here that earlier editions were lavishly illustrated, this most recent edition has zero photographs or illustrations. I kept thinking, “oh it’d be nice if there was a photo of the palace at Knossos or the so-called Jewels of Helen or the ruins of Troy and Mycenae” – well, there were except the publisher was too cheap when they reissued the book to include them.
My problem with In Search of The Trojan War was that it was very uneven. Parts of the book were fascinating, such as the discussion of archaeological digs and discoveries, and other parts… not so much, being heavy on detail, and my concentration went out the door. Wood clearly does know a lot and draws a lot of links, some more tenuous than others, that suggests there was something of a Trojan War but how close it was to the Trojan War of legend remains unknown. But I did want more of a narrative or something more easy for a lay person to “get” – which is why I wonder if the documentary worked better.
I also appreciated that Wood, while being fairly critical of Heinrich Schliemann and his “discoveries”, pointed out that his methods weren’t that bad considering the era he was working in – it’s always easy to bemoan the methods of past archaeology and conservation while forgetting the constraints of the time when they living in and enjoying the benefit of hindsight.
In short, I think this is a decent overview of the history of the search for the Trojan War but parts were a lot more engaging that others.
The first thing to say is that In Search of the Trojan War was originally published in the 1980s as part of a tie-in for a documentary and although the more recent editions have been updated to reflect the new archaeological work, most of the “update” exists in a postscript, rather than being interwoven into the text. I did find myself wondering at times if watching the documentary would be more fulfilling, too – if the information contained in the book was more easily digestible with the benefit of visuals and audio. Although I see from some reviews here that earlier editions were lavishly illustrated, this most recent edition has zero photographs or illustrations. I kept thinking, “oh it’d be nice if there was a photo of the palace at Knossos or the so-called Jewels of Helen or the ruins of Troy and Mycenae” – well, there were except the publisher was too cheap when they reissued the book to include them.
My problem with In Search of The Trojan War was that it was very uneven. Parts of the book were fascinating, such as the discussion of archaeological digs and discoveries, and other parts… not so much, being heavy on detail, and my concentration went out the door. Wood clearly does know a lot and draws a lot of links, some more tenuous than others, that suggests there was something of a Trojan War but how close it was to the Trojan War of legend remains unknown. But I did want more of a narrative or something more easy for a lay person to “get” – which is why I wonder if the documentary worked better.
I also appreciated that Wood, while being fairly critical of Heinrich Schliemann and his “discoveries”, pointed out that his methods weren’t that bad considering the era he was working in – it’s always easy to bemoan the methods of past archaeology and conservation while forgetting the constraints of the time when they living in and enjoying the benefit of hindsight.
In short, I think this is a decent overview of the history of the search for the Trojan War but parts were a lot more engaging that others.
March 9, 2013
Like his In the Footsteps of Alexander, this book, a combination of archaeological history and history of legend, was written to accompany a television documentary. Like it, both book and documentary are complementary and well-worth watching. Even if one already knows the material Wood discusses, the imagery in both the book and the series is worthy of attention.
June 13, 2018
At first glance, Michael Wood's "In Search of the Trojan War" looks like it could be a shallow retelling of the story of the Trojan War. (It is the companion book to a TV documentary series, which Wood also hosted.) In fact, Wood is an excellent writer who has brought together all the evidence from archaeology, literary sources, and comparative studies to paint a compelling picture of when and how the Trojan War might have taken place.
Though he uses nary a footnote, Wood has clearly read all the primary sources and scholarly literature on the subject. He made me excited to read, for example, Heinrich Schliemann's own published accounts of his digs at Troy and Mycenae. Throughout the book he presents various scholars' opinions and arguments. An annotated bibliography at the end enables the reader to follow up whichever strands are of most interest. And then at the end of the book, Wood synthesizes all the information to present his own surprisingly specific speculation about the timing and causes of the Trojan War.
The book includes numerous maps and illustrations, though I wished more of these were in color rather than black-and-white. Wood seems to have written the main body of text in the mid-1980s, but an epilogue to the second edition (which I read) brings the research up to date for 1996.
After reading "In Search of the Trojan War," I feel I have a much better grasp on the Mycenaean Greeks and the Mediterranean world they lived in. I am eager both to watch Wood's documentary series, which is available on YouTube, and to read some of his other historical books on topics like England, Alexander the Great, and India.
Though he uses nary a footnote, Wood has clearly read all the primary sources and scholarly literature on the subject. He made me excited to read, for example, Heinrich Schliemann's own published accounts of his digs at Troy and Mycenae. Throughout the book he presents various scholars' opinions and arguments. An annotated bibliography at the end enables the reader to follow up whichever strands are of most interest. And then at the end of the book, Wood synthesizes all the information to present his own surprisingly specific speculation about the timing and causes of the Trojan War.
The book includes numerous maps and illustrations, though I wished more of these were in color rather than black-and-white. Wood seems to have written the main body of text in the mid-1980s, but an epilogue to the second edition (which I read) brings the research up to date for 1996.
After reading "In Search of the Trojan War," I feel I have a much better grasp on the Mycenaean Greeks and the Mediterranean world they lived in. I am eager both to watch Wood's documentary series, which is available on YouTube, and to read some of his other historical books on topics like England, Alexander the Great, and India.
April 14, 2019
Life deals out its cards skew whiff. Some people struggle, burdened with debts personal and afflictions public. Others get given the full house. Witness: Michael Wood. Not only was he blessed with the sorts of looks that historians, historically, were denied - compare him to Eric Hobsbawn for example - but Wood was also gifted the ability to write with a clarity and enthusiasm that matched his on-screen persona. In Search of the Trojan War is a good example: a scholarly account of the archaeological history of the search for Troy good enough, in its grasp of the sources, to stand comparison with the best specialist work, but Wood also writes it in a way that makes the technicalities accessible to the layman. But then of course, good Hector, prince of Troy and all round decent bloke, also realised, as he coughed out his life's blood on the plains of Ilium with that peacock psychopath Achilles strutting victory above him, that life doesn't play fair. Take advanatage of that: read this book.
August 17, 2025
This was meatier than the usual companion book to a tv series. It's not Wood's specialty, but he looks carefully into the archaeology, the personalities, and the legend. He seems to be convinced Hisarlik is Troy and the war actually happened. The Iliad is one of my favorite classics and yet I'm a bit doubtful that any group of "kings" could leave their territories for ten whole years just to lay siege to one city, for any reason, much less for someone absconding with someone's wife. Who's running the farm while they're away?
And my favorite part is the catalog of the ships. I have a spreadsheet I made of all the similes and a list of "50 Ways to Kill an Achaian."
So what new thing did I learn from this? That the Mycenaean W vanished from the poem. Its traces are detectable because its absence messes with the meter - according to Wikipedia. Ooo, way cool!
And my favorite part is the catalog of the ships. I have a spreadsheet I made of all the similes and a list of "50 Ways to Kill an Achaian."
So what new thing did I learn from this? That the Mycenaean W vanished from the poem. Its traces are detectable because its absence messes with the meter - according to Wikipedia. Ooo, way cool!
June 13, 2017
Despite (or perhaps because of) being written by a non-expert, this is definitely the best book on the Trojan War out there. Wood is willing to do a little speculation in order to provide a possible picture of this historical event, rather than simply offering up all the tidbits of evidence and leaving it to the reader to make sense of it all. Archaeologists seem to have a knack for seeing buildings in a pile of rocks, but they are pretty bad at helping non-archaeologists to see those buildings too.
You should definitely watch the old documentary in conjunction with reading this book.
You should definitely watch the old documentary in conjunction with reading this book.
July 1, 2022
Fascinating
Although this is a book which will be of interest mainly to people interested in this specific topic and era of history, it is a fascinating read which gives great insight into Mycenaean Greece and the neighbouring empires of the time. It is easy to read and I personally found it engrossing.
Although this is a book which will be of interest mainly to people interested in this specific topic and era of history, it is a fascinating read which gives great insight into Mycenaean Greece and the neighbouring empires of the time. It is easy to read and I personally found it engrossing.
August 9, 2024
Michael Wood brings the myth to life. Reading this book is a pleasure. He explains how were the excavations not only in Troy, but in Mycenae and other mycenaean sites, with an interesting point of view, because he refers to the archaeological sites and the myths, but also to Hittite and Egyptian historical sources, and it brings an exceptional view of the real Troy, and of the maybe more famous war in our History. I strongly recommend this book!
September 17, 2021
Sublime presentation from the master tv historian made this great tv. An archeological cliffhanger. The book fills this with nuanced reasoning and insightful reflections and is just as entertaining. Excellent historical reasoning from the site's plunder, the archives, and the Homeric legacy.
June 8, 2017
Wonderful companion to the documentary series I've watched several times. Makes for great material to flip through.
December 9, 2017
A revised edition of the 80's book about the archaeological search for Troy. A good introduction to the subject.
July 22, 2018
Excellent book, but it needs updating to include new archeological findings.
August 21, 2018
If you’re really into the minutiae or archaeologists’ lives and personalities, this is a good source. I’m not so much interested in that...
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