Archaeologists excavating the ancient site of Troy in northwestern Turkey have unearthed the structural remains of a 2,800-year-old public square, or agora. The architectural discovery confirms that the legendary settlement was not left deserted for centuries following its Late Bronze Age collapse, but was instead resettled within mere decades by incoming populations.
The marketplace represents the oldest identified agora in the history of Troy, establishing physical evidence of civic continuity that challenges traditional historical narratives. “We believe there was a marketplace, an agora, here in the Late Bronze Age,” stated Reyhan Körpe, vice head of the Troy excavations and professor in the Department of History at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. “This agora was revived by settlers who came here about 80 to 90 years after Bronze Age Troy was abandoned. So we can say that the place we are excavating is Troy’s oldest agora.”
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What did researchers find at the southern gate of Troy?
The archaeological team positioned its trenches directly in front of the southern gate belonging to the defensive wall circuit of Troy VI, one of the primary urban layers of the Bronze Age citadel. Fieldwork in this specific sector uncovered preserved segments of ancient defensive walls, residential dwellings, and a stone-paved entrance route linking the lower town directly to the upper fortification gate.
Excavations revealed dense concentrations of ceramic sherds, domestic vessels, and transport amphorae embedded inside the architectural stratum of the Early Iron Age. Rather than leveling the collapsed fortifications, the incoming inhabitants constructed their houses directly on top of the older Bronze Age ruins and integrated sections of the standing Troy VI stone walls into their new buildings, proving that the civic layout retained its functional value across cultural transitions.
“This means that Troy was not abandoned for a long period after the Bronze Age,” Körpe explained during the project presentation on September 10, 2026. The physical stratigraphy demonstrates that urban activity resumed far earlier than the classical Greek colonization phases previously assumed to have initiated the rebirth of the settlement.
Reyhan Körpe details the transition between Wilusa and Ilion
The linguistic and geographical continuity of the city also emerged as a central focus of the recent campaign in Çanakkale province. Historical records from the Hittite Empire referenced the regional stronghold under the name Wilusa during the second millennium BC, while later Greek populations established the city known as Ilios or Ilion on the exact same ridge above the Dardanelles strait.
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Researchers established that the post-collapse settlers recognized the pre-existing urban footprint and purposefully revitalized the ancient open-air commercial center. The preservation of the site’s role as a trading venue allowed the regional memory of Wilusa to transition into the archaic settlement of Ilion without enduring an archaeological gap of several centuries.
Key excavation data and historical timeline of Troy
- Location: Tevfikiye, Çanakkale, Marmara region, Turkey
- Estimated age of the newly identified agora: 2,800 years
- Documented gap between collapse and reoccupation: 80 to 90 years
- Span of human settlement documented at the site: 5,000 years
- Start of targeted southern gate excavations: 2014
- UNESCO World Heritage List inscription: 1998
- First systematic archaeological excavations: 1871, initiated by Heinrich Schliemann
- Official announcement of the agora findings: September 10, 2026
Rüstem Aslan leads systematic fieldwork across the Troy VI citadel
The ongoing excavation program operates as a joint scientific initiative between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey and Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, under the direction of Rüstem Aslan, professor and head of the Troy Excavations Committee. Since 2014, the expedition has maintained targeted stratigraphic soundings around the southern gate to establish precise chronologies connecting the Bronze Age citadel to the later archaic and classical city levels.
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Earlier investigations carried out at the site, beginning with the broad trenching initiated by businessman and amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1871, focused heavily on the central mound and often removed complex upper strata without modern stratigraphic recording. In contrast, the current methodology relies on micro-trenching, ceramic seriation, and strict spatial recording to reconstruct the precise sequence of destruction, abandonment, and resettlement that shaped the ancient city across its 5,000-year history.
The precise cultural and ethnic origin of the settlers who arrived 80 to 90 years after the fall of Bronze Age Troy remains unconfirmed, with specialists continuing laboratory analyses on the recovered Iron Age ceramics and building materials. Excavation teams will resume systematic soundings outside the southern gate to establish the full perimeter of the agora and determine the commercial links maintained by the reoccupied settlement.