This is my favorite picture of Ancient Troy. I can stare at it for hours. It is an artist's impression from the Luwian Studies website. There is a cut through the coastal ridge at Troy, and the picture below looks almost due east across the cut in the ridge toward the walled city in the plain and its acropolis on the hillside above. There is a boat being pulled through the cut into an inland basin. Coming out toward the cut is a gated avenue. The city also has at least one navigable canal going through it from side to side. There are straight, well-defined canals on both sides of the plain going all the way up the hill. The waterway between the city and the coastal ridge is navigable and has a bridge across it. There are three inland basins and an angular harbor. There are villages on the coastal ridge and in the hills around the plain.
I wrote about that cut through the coastal ridge in my last post. It is one of the five contemporary declivities in the plain of Troy that need to be explained. I have been thinking that it was used to drain a marsh on the inside of the ridge. However, it is much wider than would be necessary for that purpose. The only other purpose for it that I have come across is the one depicted here, where it functions as a dry slipway for ships. I have not thought up another. Sailing into the mouth of the Dardanelle straights may have been so difficult for bronze age mariners that something like that dry slipway was extremely useful, if not necessary.
Below is a Spratt map turned sideways to mirror the eastward orientation of the picture above. At the bottom of the map is an area marked Lisgar Marsh. Beyond the coast are the words Artificial Cut. In the cut is the abbreviation "Fount" which is short for Fountain, by which Spratt means a spring. There is another along the creek north of Kalifat and 3 more on the north side of Hissarlik. There are a lot of springs in the plain, and there was one either in or near the great cut in Spratt's time.
Going back now to the topmost picture, I already noted the gated avenue coming out toward the cut in the coastline. Now I want to draw your attention to the avenue to the right of that, on the south end of the city. It is angled toward another cut in the coastline, one which I did not address in my last post, but did address in an earlier post. This is the canal at Besik Bay (Besik means Cradle). The avenue pointing toward Besik Bay looks navigable in the picture.
In the map from Spratt, there is a canal in approximately the position of the artist's avenue pointing at Besik Bay. It ends at Kalifat.
West of Kalifat the map shows a "Deep Bed". Going north from that bed is an arc of marshy areas that lead to a branch labeled Swampy Hollows. That arc of low spots in the plain corresponds rather well with the arc of the outer city wall in the topmost picture above.
Finally, in the Spratt map, there is a strip of low, marshy land extending from the branch marked Swampy Hollows east to the creek below Hissarlik. This line corresponds nicely with the northernmost wall in the artist's impression above. Note their relative positions in relation to the valley north of Hissarlik.
I suspect that the artist's impression was based on the Spratt maps. The artist places the southernmost avenue over the canal leading to Kalifat depicted by Spratt. It arcs around Hissarlik like the arc of marshes Spratt drew. The placement of its northern wall seems to be inspired by Spratt as well. Because it harmonizes so nicely with the Spratt maps the picture deserves extra praise, imho. It is one of my favorite things on the internet. Nevertheless, I shall point out some of its weaknesses.
1. In the artist's rendering, the city in the plain is a lot wider than the empty area outlined on the Spratt maps. Look at the distance between the gate on the gated avenue and the coastal ridge. It has barely enough space for the navigable canal. Then look at the space on the Spratt map between the arc of marshy areas and the coastal ridge. Spratt shows lots of space, enough to farm the area between the river and the marshes. So, the artist's city comes out from Hissarlik toward the coast too far to be a match with the Spratt map.
2. The picture includes a lot more water than the actual plain does. There are are no navigable waterways in the plain of Troy. There are mere mountain streams and drainage canals in the plain. Even the biggest of them, the Scamander, is shallow and not very wide in summer.
3. The artist depicts a bay of Troy that comes a quarter of the way into the valley of the Simois. Meanwhile, the entire stream of the Simois has been diverted to the top of Hissarlik. The water then circles the citadel knoll, and my question is, what happens to the water after that? Where does the excess water go?
4. I think the city in the picture will not survive floods. Imagine the entire plain above the city in knee deep water from side to side. Flood waters would hit the uphill wall at a 90 degree angle. That wall reaches out over half way into the plain, so it would be holding back over half the water in the plain, and it would eventually give way. Remember, this is mud brick construction on top of stone foundations.
