The Kalifat problem deepens

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.  

Pliny the Elder on the Troad and the Navigable Scamander

Pliny the Elder mentions a navigable Scamander river in the first paragraph of his discussion of the Troy region, which was chapter 33 of his Natural History.  

CHAP. 33.—TROAS AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS.
The first place in Troas is Hamaxitus, then Cebrenia, and then Troas itself, formerly called Antigonia, and now Alexandria, a Roman colony. We then come to the town of Nee, the Scamander, a navigable river, and the spot where in former times the town of Sigeum stood, upon a promontory. We next come to the Port of the Achæans, into which the Xanthus flows after its union with the Simois, and forms the Palæscamander, which was formerly a lake. The other rivers, rendered famous by Homer, namely, the Rhesus, the Heptaporus, the Caresus, and the Rhodius, have left no vestiges of their existence. The Granicus, taking a different route, flows into the Propontis. The small city of Scamandria, however, still exists, and, at a distance of a mile and a half from its harbour, Ilium, a place exempt from tribute, the fountain-head of universal fame.  Beyond the gulf are the shores of Rhœteum, peopled by the towns of Rhœteum, Dardanium, and Arisbe. There was also in former times a town of Achilleon, founded near the tomb of Achilles by the people of Mitylene, and afterwards rebuilt by the Athenians, close to the spot where his fleet had been stationed near Sigeum. There was also the town of Æantion, founded by the Rhodians upon the opposite point, near the tomb of Ajax, at a distance of thirty stadia from Sigeum, near the spot where his fleet was stationed.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57493/57493-h/57493-h.htm#FNanchor_665 

In the first sentence, Pliny mentions three towns, the last of which is Alexandria Troas, a town 15 miles south west of Troy on the Aegean shore that was renamed for Alexander the great, and which was in Pliny's day a Roman colony.  He is progressing north along the Aegean shore.  Another town, then the river, then Sigeum,  

If Pliny spotted a river between Troas and Sigeum, it would have been the artificial canal at Besik Bay.  It is probably not the Scamander, and certainly not navigable.  Below is a clip showing the canal in our times.  

Even if that is only a tenth of the water volume that was flowing down this hillside in ancient times, it was not navigable.   

After Sigeum, Pliny mentions "the port of the Acheans into which the Xanthus flows".  At this point his progression turns eastward.  The port of the Acheans has a river flowing into it which has joined with the Simois, and forms the Paleoscamander, "which was formerly a lake".  That sounds like a large river mouth.  After this he talks about the other rivers mentioned by Homer.  Then he talks about the trojan plain.  There is a town called Scamadria.  And "Ilium, a place exempt from tribute, the fountain-head of universal fame" is a mile and a half from its port.  

Then he says, "Beyond the gulf" is Rhoeteum. What gulf does he have in mind?  Perhaps the Paleoscamder.  Perhaps there was more of a bay between the two prominences than we see today, and he is referring to that gulf.  

In addition, he mentions the belief that Achilles and Ajax stationed their ships on the far sides of the beach, one near Sigeum the other near Rhoeteum, which are at least two miles apart.  

There is a tumulus of Achilles where Achilleon was supposed to be.  There is a tumulus of Ajax near Rhoeteum.  

My question is, what is Pliny talking about with his navigable Scamander remark?

Perhaps he thinks of the canal as a branch of a navigable river, the Paleoscamander, which he says was once a lake.  He calls its source Xanthus, which is interchangeable with Scamander in many writers.  

So if Pliny is at sea going north along the Aegean coast here, then perhaps he thinks of the canal and Besik Bay as a finger of the delta of a navigable river.  As he sails east into the Dardanelle Straits, he sees a quarter mile wide, mile long river mouth and other river mouths.  He concludes that what he saw along the Aegean side of the land mass was a finger of the same river.  

That is my suggestion.   On this reading, Pliny is not saying that the finger of river he saw at Besik Bay was navigable.  He is saying that the river that puts out a finger there was navigable.  

So, I think he is probably making two bad inferences.  

1. He infers that the canal at Besik Bay is part of the Scamander/Paleoscamander

2, He infers that the upper parts of the Xanthus/Paleoscamander are navigable like the mouth at the shoreline of the Dardanelles probably was

In general, the waterways in the plain of Troy are not navigable except by small craft near the Dardanelles.    

The City as Explanatory Hypothesis

An explanandum is a sentence containing something that needs to be explained. An explanans is a sentence containing something that explains an explanandum.  

Try writing sentences that can explain one or more of the following sentences.  

Explanandum:

1. There is an ancient, artificial cut through the coastline at Lisgar Marsh, due west of Hisarlik.  

2. The valley of the Ciplak rivulet rises as it approaches the valley of the Mendere. 

3, The Dumreck valley rises as it approaches the valley of the Mendere.  

4. There are huge, unnatural berms, mounds and declivities west and southwest of Kalifat. 

5,  The ground rises and turns NW of Kalifat.

6.  The ground rises and falls between Hisarlik and the Mendere.  

7. The ground rises and falls twice between the Dumreck valley and the Mendere. 

Explanans: 

A city built to survive floods is buried in the plain in front of Hisarlik. 

Accounting for the explanation: 

1 The Kesik Cut drains Lisgar Marsh so that it does not overflow in the direction of the city

2,3 each valley rises where it encounters the city

4 those are flood control works protecting the city

5,6,7 that is the mound containing the buried city 

Legends of Troy: Hercules Sacks Troy

A very persistent rumor about Troy is that it was sacked.  There are several stories to that effect, including the Iliad.  There are at least three distinct legends about Hercules sacking Troy.  I will review the three I know about.  

The first is told by Dares Phrygius (Darius of Phrygia), who is sometimes called the first historian.  Dares connects the story of Jason and the Argonauts with the start of the Trojan War. Hercules is one of the Argonauts.  

Dares Phrygius, 2-4  

[2] When Jason came to Phrygia, he docked at the port of the Simois River, and everyone went ashore.  Soon news was brought to King Laomedon that a strange ship unexpectedly had entered the port of the Simois, and that many young men had come in it from Greece. On hearing this, the king was disturbed. Thinking that it would endanger the public welfare if Greeks began landing on his shores, he sent word to the port for the Greeks to depart from his boundaries. If they refused to obey, he would drive them out forcibly.
Jason and those who had come with him were deeply upset at the barbarous way Laomedon was treating them; they had done him no harm. Nevertheless, they were afraid to oppose him. They were not ready for battle and would certainly be crushed by the greater forces of the barbarians.
Thus, reembarking, they departed from Phrygia. And set out for Colchis. And stole the fleece. And returned to their homeland.
[3] Hercules was deeply upset at the insulting way Laomedon had treated him and those who had gone with Jason to Colchis. He went to Sparta and urged Castor and Pollux to help him take vengeance against Laomedon, saying that if they promised their aid, many others would follow. Castor and Pollux promised to do whatever he wanted.
He departed with them and went on to Salamis. There he visited Telamon and asked him to join the expedition against Troy, to avenge the ill-treatment he and his people had suffered. Telamon promised that he was ready for anything Heracles wanted to do.
He set out from Salamis and went on to Phthia. There he asked Peleus to join the expedition against Troy. Peleus promised to go.
Next he went to Pylos to visit Nestor. When Nestor asked why he had come, Hercules answered that he was stirred to seek vengeance and that he was leading an army against Phrygia. Nestor praised him and promised his aid.
Hercules, knowing that he had everyone’s support, readied his ships and gathered an army. When the time for sailing was right, he sent letters to those he had asked and told them to come in full force. On their arrival, they all set sail for Phrygia.
They came to Sigeum at night. Hercules, Telamon, and Peleus led the army into the country, leaving Castor, Pollux, and Nestor behind to guard the ships.
When news was brought to King Laomedon that the Greek fleet had landed at Sigeum, he took command of the cavalry himself and went to the shore and opened hostilities.
But Hercules, having gone on to Troy, was beginning to besiege the unsuspecting inhabitants of the city. When Laomedon learned what was happening at home, he tried to return immediately. But the Greeks stood in his way, and Hercules slew him.
Telamon proved his prowess by being the first to enter Troy. Therefore, Hercules gave him the prize of King Laomedon’s daughter Hesione.
Needless to say, all those who had gone with Laomedon were killed.
At this time Priam was in Phrygia, where Laomedon, his father, had put him in charge of the army.  

Hercules and those who had come with him plundered the country and carried much booty off to their ships. Then they decided to set out for home. Telamon took Hesione with him.
[4] When news was brought to Priam that his father had been killed, his fellow-citizens decimated, his country plundered, and his sister Hesione carried off as a prize of war, he was deeply upset to think that the Greeks had treated Phrygia with such contempt. He returned to Troy, along with his wife, Hecuba, and his children, Hector, Alexander, Deiphobus, Helenus, Troilus, Andromache, Cassandra, and Polyxena. (he had other sons by concubines, but only those by lawfully wedded wives could claim a truly royal lineage.) Arriving in Troy, he saw to the maximum fortification of the city, built stronger walls, and stationed a greater number of soldiers nearby. Troy must not fall again, as it had under his father, Laomedon, through lack of preparedness.
He also constructed a palace, in which he consecrated an altar and statue to Jupiter; sent Hector into Paeonia; and built the gates of Troy – the Antenorean, the Dardanian, the Ilian, the Scaean, the Thymbraean, and the Trojan.
When he saw that Troy was secure, he waited until the time seemed right to avenge the wrongs his father had suffered. Then he summoned Antenor and told him he wished him to go as an envoy to Greece. The Greek army, he said, had done him grave wrongs by killing his father, Laomedon, and by carrying off Hesione. Nevertheless, if only Hesione were returned, he would cease to complain.

The "port of the Simois " is presumably somewhere on the Dardanelles below Troy, because the Simois is thought to be the river that passes to the north of Hisarlik, now known as the Dumbrek, and sometimes called the Thymbrius or Thimbreck.  That river now exits the Trojan plain alongside the others into the Dardanelle straits.  

Hercules is offended by the anti-Greek prejudice of Laomedon.  He raises an army and recruits kings to his cause.  They sail to Sigeum, which is around four miles NW of Hisarlik on the far side of the Scamander valley.  Laomedon takes the cavalry to Sigeum.  But only the Greek navy is there to meet him, because Hercules and his cohorts have already taken the army "into the country."  With Laomedon away at the sea shore, Hercules and the army attack the undefended city.  When Laomedon returns, he and his force are slain.  Priam returns from Phrygia, rebuilds Troy, and begins a process that results in what we know as the Trojan War. According to Darius, the war is provoked by Priam, as revenge for his father's death at the hands of Hercules, and for the kidnapping of his sister, Hesione.  

In a second legend, told by Apollodorus, Hercules, Telamon (Argonaut and father of Ajax and Teucer) and an army sack the city for no obvious reason. 

After his servitude, being rid of his disease he mustered an army of noble volunteers and sailed for Ilium with eighteen ships of fifty oars each.  And having come to port at Ilium, he left the guard of the ships to Oicles and himself with the rest of the champions set out to attack the city. Howbeit Laomedon marched against the ships with the multitude and slew Oicles in battle, but being repulsed by the troops of Hercules, he was besieged. The siege once laid, Telamon was the first to breach the wall and enter the city, and after him Hercules. But when he saw that Telamon had entered it first, he drew his sword and rushed at him, loath that anybody should be reputed a better man than himself. Perceiving that, Telamon collected stones that lay to hand, and when Hercules asked him what he did, he said he was building an altar to Hercules the Glorious Victor. Hercules thanked him, and when he had taken the city and shot down Laomedon and his sons, except Podarces, he assigned Laomedon's daughter Hesione as a prize to Telamon and allowed her to take with her whomsoever of the captives she would. When she chose her brother Podarces, Hercules said that he must first be a slave and then be ransomed by her.  So when he was being sold she took the veil from her head and gave it as a ransom; hence Podarces was called Priam.  Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 2.5.9 

This story involves Laomedon going "against the ships" but ending up "beseiged" while Telamon attacked the city, followed by Hercules.  So, in both of these stories Laomedon is drawn to the empty ships instead of attacking the invading army, which then enters the city facing little resistance.  In this second story Hercules "shot down" Laomedon, which is a nice touch because Hercules is an expert bowman.  

A third legend, and apparently the most widely known, has Hercules sacking Troy as revenge for not being paid by its king.  

When Laomedon refused to give the gods Apollo and Poseidon a promised reward for building the walls of Troy, they sent a pestilence and a sea monster to ravage the land. An oracle revealed to Laomedon that the only way to save Troy would be to sacrifice his daughter Hesione, so Hesione was bound to a rock to await her death. But the Greek hero Heracles, who happened to be at Troy, offered to kill the sea monster and rescue Hesione in exchange for Laomedon’s divine horses. (Zeus himself had given the horses to Tros, Laomedon’s grandfather, in exchange for the beautiful youth Ganymede—Tros’s son and Laomedon’s uncle—whom Zeus had kidnapped.) Once Heracles had killed the monster and saved Hesione, however, Laomedon refused to give up the horses. Heracles left Troy and then returned with a band of warriors, captured the city, and killed Laomedon and all his sons except Priam and Tithonus (who was carried off by Eos). Heracles gave Hesione to Telamon, who had fought at his side. (She became the mother of legendary archer Teucer [Teucros, Teucris], who was praised in Homer’s Iliad.) Laomedon was buried near the Scaean Gate, and, according to legend, as long as his grave remained undisturbed, the walls of Troy would remain impregnable. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Laomedon 

In this version, Hercules helps Laomedon, but Laomedon refuses to pay him (as he had refused to pay Apollo and Poseidon earlier).  The gods took revenge on Laomedon by sending a pestilence and a sea monster.  Hercules takes revenge by sacking the city and slaying Laomedon. 

The third of these tales, involving the sea monster, is referred to by Homer at Iliad book XX, line 144f.  I offer two quite different translations; first by Andrew Lang and Walter Leaf, then by A.T. Murray.  

Thus spake the blue-haired god, and led the way to the mounded wall of heaven-sprung Herakles, that lofty wall built him by the Trojans and Pallas Athene, that he might escape the monster and be safe from him, what time he should make his onset from the beach to the plain. There sate them down Poseidon and the other gods, and clothed their shoulders with impenetrable cloud. 

So saying, the dark-haired god led the way to the heaped-up wall of godlike Heracles, the high wall that the Trojans and Pallas Athene had builded for him, to the end that he might flee thither and escape from the monster of the deep, whenso the monster drave him from the seashore to the plain. There Poseidon and the other gods sate them down, and clothed their shoulders round about with a cloud that might not be rent; and they of the other part sat over against them on the brows of Callicolone, round about thee, O archer Phoebus, and Aries, sacker of cities. 

The Fort of Hercules was supposed to have been built with divine assistance to protect Hercules when he fought the sea monster.  

Homer refers to the tale involving the sea monster sent by Poseidon on two more occasions.  At Iliad VII 451 Poseidon recalls that he and Apollo built the walls of Troy.  On another occasion, the two gods discuss their service and Laomedon's treachery at Iliad XXI, 441

But unto Apollo spake the lord Poseidon, the Shaker of Earth: “Phoebus, wherefore do we twain stand aloof? ... Fool, how witless is the heart thou hast! Neither rememberest thou all the woes that we twain alone of all the gods endured at Ilios, what time we came at the bidding of Zeus and served the lordly Laomedon for a year's space at a fixed wage, and he was our taskmaster and laid on us his commands. I verily built for the Trojans round about their city a wall, wide and exceeding fair, that the city might never be broken; and thou, Phoebus, didst herd the sleek kine of shambling gait amid the spurs of wooded Ida, the many-ridged. But when at length the glad seasons were bringing to its end the term of our hire, then did dread Laomedon defraud us twain of all hire, and send us away with a threatening word. He threatened that he would bind together our feet and our hands above, and would sell us into isles that lie afar. Aye, and he made as if he would lop off with the bronze the ears of us both. So we twain fared aback with angry hearts, wroth for the hire he promised but gave us not. It is to his folk now that thou showest favour, neither seekest thou with us that the overweening Trojans may perish miserably in utter ruin with their children and their honoured wives.” 

By Lang and Leaf: 

Then to Apollo spake the earth-shaking lord: “Phoebus, why stand we apart? ... Fond god, how foolish is thy heart! Thou rememberest not all the ills we twain alone of gods endured at Ilios, when by ordinance of Zeus we came to proud Laomedon and served him through a year for promised recompense, and he laid on us his commands. I round their city built the Trojans a wall, wide and most fair, that the city might be unstormed, and thou Phoebus, didst herd shambling crook-horned kine among the spurs of woody many-folded Ida. But when the joyous seasons were accomplishing the term of hire, then redoubtable Laomedon robbed us of all hire, and sent us off with threats. He threatened that he would bind together our feet and hands and sell us into far-off isles, and the ears of both of us he vowed to shear off with the sword. So we went home with angry hearts, wroth for the hire he promised and gave us not. To his folk now thou showest favour, nor essayest with us how the proud Trojans may be brought low and perish miserably with their children and noble wives.” 

Although he earlier claims that both gods built the walls of Troy, here Poseidon says that he built the walls and Apollo tended Trojan flocks on Mt Ida.  At the end of a year, Laomedon, the king of Troy, refused to pay them and threatened to cut off their ears and sell them into slavery in the islands.  For this Troy received a plague from Apollo, and a sea monster from Poseidon.  The sea monster problem then leads to a sacking of Troy and the slaying Laomedon by Hercules.  

Below are pics of the famous bronze of Hercules fighting the river god Archelous who has transformed himself into a snake. 

Update: The following page indexes and quotes a bunch of different versions of the legend of Hercules and the sea monster at Troy.  https://www.theoi.com/Ther/KetosTroias.html  

Homer mentions Hercules at Troy again at Iliad 5.640f

Legends of Troy: Brutus of Troy

The story goes that the "Britain" part of "Great Britain" comes from the name of a certain Brutus, who was a Trojan. He is described as a descendent of Aeneus, who was a survivor of the war.  

The Greeks supplied Brutus with a large number of ships and the Trojans departed, landing eventually in Totnes, in Devon. Later, Brutus founded ‘New Troy’ on the banks of the River Thames. ‘New Troy’ would become the great city known today as London. It was Brutus who gave his name to the island and caused it to be called Britain. He decreed that the people would henceforth be called Britons and the language British.  https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Britains-Trojan-History/

That is an outline of the story.  Where did it come from?   

The myth of Brutus has no basis in real history but was invented in the Dark Ages to provide Britain with a noble origin linked to the great mythologies of Rome and Greece, and in about 1135 Geoffrey of Monmouth developed his story and asserted that he founded London as Trinovantum, the new Troy in the West.  https://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-guest-authors/true-origins-legend-brutus-troy-and-london-stone-005984

The Wikipedia article on Brutus relates several different genealogies and tales, and I will not repeat all of that. But I will quote them here:

Early translations and adaptations of Geoffrey's Historia, such as Wace's Norman French Roman de Brut, Layamon's Middle English Brut, were named after Brutus, and the word brut came to mean a chronicle of British history. One of several Middle Welsh adaptations was called the Brut y Brenhinedd ("Chronicle of the Kings"). Brut y Tywysogion ("Chronicle of the Princes"), a major chronicle for the Welsh rulers from the 7th century to loss of independence, is a purely historical work containing no legendary material but the title reflects the influence of Geoffrey's work and, in one sense, can be seen as a "sequel" to it. Early chroniclers of Britain, such as Alfred of Beverley, Nicholas Trivet and Giraldus Cambrensis began their histories of Britain with Brutus. The foundation myth of Brutus having settled in Britain was still considered as genuine history during the Early Modern Period, for example Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) considers the Brutus myth to be factual.
The 18th-century English poet Hildebrand Jacob wrote an epic poem, Brutus the Trojan, Founder of the British Empire, about him, following in the tradition of the Roman foundation epic the Aeneid.  Brutus is an important character in the book series The Troy Game by Sara Douglass.
Geoffrey's Historia says that Brutus and his followers landed at Totnes in Devon. A stone on Fore Street in Totnes, known as the "Brutus Stone", commemorates this.

A history of the Brits was called a brut.  And thus Brutus is thought to have have lent his name not only to the island and its inhabitants, but also to the term used to name histories of the island and its people.  

Another level of the legend involves two stones, the so-called London Stone, and the Brutus Stone in Totnes.  The latter of these is supposed to come from the place where Brutus first touched the shores of England.  Because people used to stand on this stone to make announcements, known as bruiters, its name recalls both the founder and the function.  This stone is a simple tourist attraction. 

The London Stone is another story.  It is often confused with the Brutus Stone.  The confusion might arise from their having a similar function. Both were bruiters stones. So, by the steady but mysterious laws of the transmigration of homophones, each was a Brutus Stone.  But then:

The Short English Metrical Chronicle, an anonymous history of England in verse composed in about the 1330s, which survives in several variant recensions (including one in the so-called Auchinleck manuscript), includes the statement that "Brut sett Londen ston" – that is to say, that Brutus of Troy, the legendary founder of London, set up London Stone. This claim suggests that interest in the Stone's origin and significance already existed. However, the story does not seem to have circulated widely elsewhere, and was not repeated in other chronicles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stone

There is at least this one connection between the London Stone and Brutus in the literature, beyond the mere similarity between his name and the word bruiters.  

Meanwhile, in 1798 John Carter referred to the London Stone as ‘the symbol of this great City’s quiet state … “fixed to its everlasting seat”’. Following him, Thomas Pennant said in 1793 that the London Stone was ‘preserved like the Palladium of the City’. That was no more than a metaphor, but in 1828 Edward Brayley elaborated this, commenting that the London Stone was ‘like the Palladium of Troy [and] the fate and safety of the City was argued to be dependent on its preservation’.

The Palladium, eh?  That was an ancient, wooden image of Pallas Athene which allegedly fell from heaven into Troy.  On it the fate of Troy, and later the fate of Rome, were thought to hang.  It was not long before the London Stone was thought to be not merely like the Palladium, but in fact a part of the Palladium.   

The man who effected the transformation was the Reverend R.W. Morgan in his The British Kymry: or Britons of Cambria (1857)—an amazingly imaginative work which attempted to reclaim London for Welsh culture. Morgan seized on the idea that the London Stone had been the pedestal of the original Palladium. Brutus had brought it with him from Italy and placed it in Diana’s temple, and ‘on it the British kings were sworn to observe the Usages of Britain. It is now known as “London Stone”.’ This presupposes that Aeneas had managed to lug it out of Troy during the city’s destruction, something Virgil does not mention, and that Brutus (who, in the myth, was Aeneas’s great grandson) had been able to take it with him when he was exiled from Italy – which is rather ridiculous – and that it stayed with him throughout his wanderings.

This move sees the London Stone as an actual sacred object from Troy, not just a rock associated with a person from Troy.  In 1937 Lewis Spence wrote about the stone in Legendary London.  

Unaware that Morgan had made this up less than eighty years before, Spence wrote knowingly of the stone as ‘the original communal fetish [stone] of London which represented the guardian spirit of the community’. Subsequent writings about the London Stone have built on this and have helped carry the myth of Brutus forward, wonderfully alive, into the twenty-first century. 

https://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-guest-authors/true-origins-legend-brutus-troy-and-london-stone-005984

So the legend of Brutus and the London Stone continue to grow, even though historians and researchers find the entire affair unlikely.  

 

Is this Homer's Throsmos?

I have searched the internet for pictures looking west or southwest from Hissarlik. I have not found much. 

However, there are lots of pics looking pretty much due north from Schliemann's trench. These photos do not capture the plain of the Scamander/Mendere.  

There are also a few looking northwest.  All of these northwest looking shots reveal an unexplained mound at the meeting of the two plains northwest of Hissarlik.  That mound is a good candidate for Homer's Throsmos, a swelling of the plain on which the 50k strong Trojan army camped on the night before an assault on the Greek ships. It is also the only candidate for the tell of the city in the plain of Troy.  

In the picture above, the land rises north-northwest of Hissarlik at the meeting of the two plains. 

In the photo above, the land rises at the left of the frame, before the village. 

The photo above clearly reveals a mound as the roads rise north-northwest of Hissarlik. Out beyond the northernmost road, we see the meeting of the plains as it would appear closer to Hissarlik if there were not an artificial mound in the way.  That area of the photo shows us what level things would be at, and what they should/would look like if not for human interventions.  

Is it the throsmos?  Well, at least it is in the plain. 

The interpretation above from Walter Leaf places the throsmos exactly where we have been looking in the earlier photos, NNW of Hissarlik, at the meeting of the two plains.   

If there was a lump in the plain big enough for 50k men to camp on (with their horses and chariots) then what on earth caused that lump?  

In the photo above, the ground rises in the top left of the frame, between the labels for Schliemann's Trench and The Mound of Hissarlik.  What lies between them is the mound of the city in the plain.  

Again, why does one go uphill when driving past Hisarlik to the west?  My answer: because the road is mounting a buried city.  What other plausible explanation is there? 

Ten Bullets for the City in the Plain at Troy

1. There is an anomaly in the plain directly in front of the citadel of Troy. The anomaly is a single raised earth phenomenon. It is very large. It has features that suggest human activity, for example, a turn in the earth northwest of Kalifat. To explain the anomaly requires identifying what is under the ground that is causing the ground to lay like it does. Human activity can explain the anomaly, and the anomaly is so large that no other human construction activity can explain it except that which we do when we build a city. 

2. There are several large, raised earth anomalies south of the citadel, including two large hills and a 3000 foot long berm.  There are two declivities west of Kalifat.  These anomalies also require explanation.  Human intervention in the landscape would explain them.  I have suggested that these are flood control structures.  I am willing to argue for a fourth raised earth anomaly near Kalifat, across the Mendere from the long berm. This one is very degraded but looks like it was once a massive earth work.  I have also identified two raised earth anomalies and a declivity farther up the plain, near Pinarbasi.  

3. The raised earth anomaly below the citadel is sculpted in such a way that its sharpest angle, on its southwest corner, divides the waters rushing toward it in flood conditions. 

4. So, the plain of Troy includes both a raised earth anomaly directly in front of the citadel, and a massive ancient flood control system just above it in the plain. 

5. The flood control system argues for the existence of a city nearby in the plain. After all, flood control is about safety.  So, the flood works suggest that there is someone or something to protect. What would that be other than a city in the plain? 

6. The Dumbreck valley floor raises up as it approaches the raised earth anomaly in the Mendere valley. 

7. The valley of the Ciplak rivulet also raises up as it approaches the anomaly in front of the citadel. 

8. The rising floors in the valleys on both sides of the citadel are anomalies. Tributary valleys don't usually do that. They run at roughly the same level as the valleys they enter because the two so often flood at the same time.  The raised ends of these tributary valleys argue for an advanced age for the anomaly in the Mendere valley.  It has been blocking tributary flood paths long enough to build up significant deposition in the two valleys on its eastern side.  

9. The Kesik Cut, which runs through the ridge west of Lisgar Marsh, may be a flood control device intended to drain the marsh, preventing it from overflowing into the west side of the city in the plain. 

10.

In the above diagram (looking east), raised earth anomalies are outlined in yellow. Slowed waters are blue.  Flooding waters (red arrows) are blocked above Kalifat, and diverted into the channel flowing past the city. On the east side, flood waters slow and deepen near the city, and flow around the city to the north. 

In the photo below (looking NNW), the roads rise up as they travel from right to left (east to west) and mount the tell of Troy.  The area between the mound and the village shows how the plains should look where they meet. The uprising at the meeting of the two plains is an anomaly that needs to be explained.