Iman Jacob Wilkens, a Dutch economist, has a website (and a book) that shows how ancient Troy was not located in Hisarlik, Turkey, as Schliemann surmised, but outside Cambridge on the Gog Magog Hills.
The Greeks did not know that the Trojans who once lived in that area were migrants, as the collective memory of this fact was lost during the Dark Ages (1200-750 BC).
From 1180 to 1100 Hissarlik was indeed inhabited by a non-local people. They were the survivors of the greatest war of prehistory, when Troy on the Gog Magog Hills in Cambridgeshire, England, was destroyed. Here, countless bronze weapons and other remains of a major war in the late Bronze Age have been found.
The great migrations of the second millennium BC brought also Achaeans, Troy’s enemies, from regions along the Atlantic coast of the Continent to the Mediterranean where they caused the collapse of many civilisations.
The name Achaeans means Watermen or Sea People (the Gothic acha for water or stream is cognate with Latin aqua). The Greek historian Herodotus (fifth century BC) confirms that Pelasgians (Sea Peoples) had settled in Greece long before his time. They founded Athens, renamed places, merged with the local population and adopted their language.
There’s also a lecture online that Mr Wilkens gave before the Herodoteans (a Cantabrigian Classics student society) in 1992.
Posted by jim at July 7, 2005 07:17 AMOh... my... gu-HAW-duh.
WTF?
Anyway, as I'm sure you know the Gothic he has in mind is ahwa. I guess that explains why the Hittites wrote that name (if it is indeed the same name) with a kh (sorry, no unicode at the moment), but the Egyptians used a q. Problem solved!
Posted by: Justin on July 7, 2005 02:27 PMI've forgotten the name of the Beirut prof who wrote a book claiming that the Jews came from Yemen. His agenda was not particularly well concealed, but what is Wilkens' trip, and why hasn't he got together with another gent whose name I have also forgotten in Twente, Holland, who demonstrated some years back that the world's languages are all based on Old Twents?
Posted by: trevor@k’alebøl on July 8, 2005 07:52 AMHey, makes sense to me. And Agamemnon was an Oxford man, so no wonder he was pissed off.
Posted by: language hat on July 9, 2005 09:04 AMTwo comments.
1 The reactions that are given are very emotional. Don't you think one should read the book first to find out the arguments given before even forming an opinion? If this had been common reaction to new ideas the world would still be flat (Hey is it round? WTF! (excuse me for the language?))
2 It took scientist years and years to accept and adopt Schliemann's ideas. Now these ideas will remain beyond any doubt forever just because they are adopted and that seemingly is how science works. Should science be like this?