Are we in Troy?

The cuneform tablet I show is not the actual one of the Hittite treaty, but an example tablet that I photographed myself and so owned the rights to the shot.

I'm a bit annoyed that I have to interrupt the piece-to-camera with the remark about Wlios's having a water-tunnel, but I think that it was necessary for clarity.

You may notice that the sound changes tone a couple of times. This is a result of my partially-successful attempts to filter out the wind noises.

Camera assistant: Jenny Eish.

www.LloydianAspects.co.uk

Category:

Education

Tags:

• troy
• ilium
• troia
• ilios
• wilios
• wilusa
• water
• tunnel
• archaeology
• turkey
• legend
• homer
• trojan
• war
• hittite

[MithraisAugustus]

Every time I watch one of your videos I ask myself,"Why isn't he an archaeologist." This time I'll ask you. Why aren't you an archaeologist?

[lindybeige]

@MithraisAugustus In Britain, an archaeologist is either an archivist (dull), a digger (terrible pay and conditions), or an academic (sharp elbows required).

Could be good, though. Why am I not an archaeologist?

[TheWoodenKnight]

A(n interesting) triviality: The word "Trojan" derives from the Latin "Troianus", the English 'j' having replaced the Latin 'i' - therefore the pronunciation in English of the word (with the g-like sound) is an accident of spelling. The word would be more properly pronounced (if English had any regard for that kind of thing, ha ha) as though it were spelled "Troyan", which really makes quite a lot of sense, doesn't it?

[lindybeige]

@TheWoodenKnight Yes, and Ajax is really Aias. But then Achilles is really Achilleos (various spellings). Homer calls the city Ilium.

[gurkfisk89]

Now I think I know why most people in the ancient world where illiterate.

[NoisemakerArrow]

@gurkfisk89 They went to a public school in the US?

[JohnTraviss]

@lindybeige Incindentally Indonesians spell and pronounce both Troy and Trojan as Troya.

[MrBsct]

yes

[Crossbowman]

I'm reading a book called Empires of the Word, and something in it reminded me of what you said about cuneiform. It mentions that Aramaic, a language of nomads, became the lingua franca of the Assyrian empires (and later Persian). The common explanation is that Aramaic used an alphabetical script rather than the difficult cuneiform of Assyrian, Akkadian, Sumerian, and others languages of the more civilized societies of the region. (The author disagrees with this view, though).

[Keasri]

Lost language was lost forever?

I hope those scribes had dictionary hidden somewhere waiting to be dug up.

[mordechaimordechai]

Yes cuneiform had to be hard to read and write: that was all the point about having a chaste of scribes

[Torome86]

And they called my handwriting chicken scratch!?

[youmaus]

Christ failed to teach the arrogant scribes humility....it was Gutenberg who managed to do that.

[TheWoodenKnight]

@lindybeige That, ah, that would explain the title of the Illiad, then, wouldn't it? Ha ha.