I wrote two months ago about the fact that old maps of the plain of Troy place Kalifat in the center of the plain, rather than at the foot of the prominence south of Hisarlik. I noted that it is possible that the village used to be in the plain and was moved to its present location. I thought that was unlikely, because it seems unlikely that there would be a village in the plain at all given the flood danger.
Well, according to William Leaf, who visited Troy in the early 20th century, Kalifat was "on the flat".
"The plain of Troy itself, exposed to frequent inundations in winter, marshy and malarious in summer, is almost uninhabitable. The alluvial soil, fertile enough where not waterlogged, can maintain a considerable population ; but those who till it are compelled to have their homes on the hillsides, barren though they are, as high as may be above the wet and fever of the level. At the present day only one poor village, that of Kalifatli, lies on the flat; while the hills around carry a considerable number of thriving settlements, some of them newly founded with Moslem refugees from various Turkish countries taken over by Christian powers. " Walter Leaf, p. 53
There you have it. Leaf saw Kalifat "on the flat", not on the foot of the prominence where we see it today. The old maps place Kalifat in an abandoned river bed.
The above map from Thomas Spratt places Kalifat in the "Winter Channel" of the Scamander around 1844. That bed was canalized in modern times, and the Scamander/Mendere now flows in that bed.
I have lost the link for the above map, so, I am unsure where it comes from. It shows a 1956 shoreline at the Dardanelles, from which we can conclude that it was made after that time. It places Kalifat in the plain, west of the sharp angle taken by the Kalifatlee Osmak. Based on this recent work, it is reasonable to conclude that as of 1956 or so, Kalifat was in the plain, as the older maps show. When the river was canalized, the village must have been destroyed and moved to a new location above the plain.
So, I think my original question is answered. I was asking, how could Spratt get this wrong? But in fact he did not get it wrong. Kalifat was correctly placed by Spratt and others in the center of the plain. However another problem is raised by this answer. Because if Kalifat lasted hundreds of years in the low spot that Spratt called the winter channel, that fact needs an explanation. How could it have survived for so long in a flood plain?
Leaf is not wrong about the difficulty of living in the plain of Troy. The plain is often waterlogged, marshy and mosquito laden. And it floods.
"The Mendere is a considerable stream throughout the year; in winter it often brings down heavy floods, which overflow the whole plain, and leave it covered with silt and tree-trunks." Leaf p 30
I suspect that the old Kalifat was protected by ancient flood control structures that are no longer visible. Perhaps the canalization project obliterated them.