In Search Of The Trojan War
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
For thousands of years we have been enthralled by tales of Troy and its heroes. Achilles and Hector, Paris and the famed beauty Helen remain some of the most enduring figures in art and literature. But did these titanic characters really walk the earth? Was there ever an actual siege of Troy? In this extensively revised edition, historian Michael Wood takes account of the latest dramatic developments in the search for Troy. His wide-ranging study of the complex archaeological, literary and historical records has been brought up-to-date. Detailing the rediscovery in Moscow of the so-called jewels of Helen and the re-excavation of the site of Troy begun in 1988, which continues to yield new evidence about the historical city, In Search of the Trojan War takes a fresh look at some of the most excited discoveries in archaeology. A dazzling and exhaustive analysis. Washington Post This beautifully illustrated book vividly evokes themes that are central to our civilizations quest for its past. The New York Times Book Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this liberally illustrated volume written to accompany a forthcoming PBS series, BBC producer and series narrator Wood, author of In Search of the Dark Ages, etc., explores the origins of Homer's epics and efforts of archeologists to document the historic truth of the Bronze Age Trojan War as celebrated in the Iliad. Oral tradition and accounts by poets, he notes, have yet to be disproved by archeology. He cites the fascination which the Trojan story has exercised throughout history and on travelers of all periodsByron among them. Despite archeologist Heinrich Schliemann's exaggerations, the author credits him with the development of modern archeology into a science. Schliemann's finds and those of other archeologists of Mycenaean, Minoan and Hittite civilizations are discussed in some detail. Troy, Wood speculates, may have been one of many cties sacked by the Greeks for economic reasons, and Helen one of the many women captured. 50,000 first printing; History Book Club main selection; BOMC and Macmillan's Natural Science alternates.
