The 1997 campaign, the tenth since the beginning of the new series of excavations, ran from June 9th through August 29th. Twelve areas were excavated and nine sections of the site were restored. In addition to excavation results, we are now focussing increasingly on activities associated with the start of concrete planning for the national park recently approved by the Turkish government and on the construction of a museum near the entrance to Troy.

The Bronze Age:

Troy I-III (ca. 2600 - 2300 B.C.)

Excavation in Area G6 as well as in a key section of E/F4 supported our hypothesis of structural continuity between Troy II and Troy III as well as our designation of the Troy I-III horizon as "the maritime Troy culture"

Troy VI-VIa (ca. 1700 - 1150 B.C.)

We began a sondage inside the Northeast Bastion, where we hoped to find a well or cistern, in order to answer significant questions concerning Troy's water supply. In addition, a cave with a spring, partially excavated by Heinrich Schliemann, was further investigated. We began determining the date of the water conduits and basins found there with the help of geophysical prospection and trenches dug by earth moving machinery around the site of spring. Both operations will continue in the coming year.

Investigation of Areas K/L16-17 in the Lower City had already uncovered sections of "negative architecture"; the foundation cut for a wooden palisade cut into the bedrock In 1997 our excavation in this area was crowned by the discovery of a gate on the same axis as the South Gate of the citadel mound (Area G9). This likely fortification structure has, up to now, no known parallels for this period throughout the eastern Mediterranean region.

The contexts and finds from the second millenium B.C. have made Troy VI-VII's change in orientation from the Aegean toward Anatolia more clear than ever. We recall the evidence for this includes the offset house and fortification walls, the densely settled and fortified lower city, the relative rarity of Mycenaean pottery among the tons of local wares, the burial customs (in particular cremation in grave houses and pithoi), the find of a bronze figure of an oriental-anatolian deity and the bronze seal inscribed with luwian hieroglyphs.
  Post-Bronze Age:

Troy VIII-IX

The extensive excavation of the Sanctuary, which began in 1992, was completed last season with the identification of the third century A.D. "Mosaic Building" as a cult building, possibly associated with the Samothracian gods. Twelve mould bases used in casting as yet unidentified, reasonably large bronze objects were uncovered in the area of the North Building (Area z6).

Further investigation in the area of the Skene of the Odeion uncovered a collonade south of the building as well as a very well-preserved head of Augustus, who visited Ilion in 20 B.C. Beneath these levels Hellenistic buildings dating to the second century B.C. were uncovered.