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Its population would have been between 5,000 and 10,000; during a siege it is estimated that it could accommodate up to 50,000 inhabitants of the entire region. Facing it, in 1993 and 1995, two parallel ditches of 3 to 6 feet in depth were discovered, which could have served as a defense against an attack perpetrated by war chariots; a fortified gate has also been found that starts from the walls of the lower city and a paved road that leads from the Scamander plain to the west gate of the citadel.
Its population would have been between 5,000 and 10,000; during a siege it is estimated that it could accommodate up to 50,000 inhabitants of the entire region. Facing it, in 1993 and 1995, two parallel ditches of 3 to 6 feet in depth were discovered, which could have served as a defense against an attack perpetrated by war chariots; a fortified gate has also been found that starts from the walls of the lower city and a paved road that leads from the Scamander plain to the west gate of the citadel.
Troy VI was probably destroyed by an earthquake around 1300 BC, although some researchers are inclined to indicate its end around 1250.
===Troy VII===
The city was immediately rebuilt, but had a short life (1300 - 1170 B.C.) which is referred to in archaeology as "Troy VIIa". The signs of destruction by fire led Blegen to identify this layer as the one corresponding to Homeric Troy. Dörpfeld was in favor of the thesis that the settlement of Troy VIIa, in which there is a thick layer of ash and charred remains, suddenly and violently exploded which can be dated around 1200 B.C. Among the remains found in this layer were skeletons, weapons, gravel deposits that could be the ammunition for the shooting with the harness - and, interpreted by some as very significant, the tomb of a young girl covered with a series of sheets from refueling, indicating an urgent burial due to a siege.
Moreover, the date of its end does not differ much from the dating that, according to the duration of the generations, a group of Greek scholars such as Herodotus, Eratosthenes mention, while the historian Duris of Samos and the philosopher Timaeus suggest 1334 B.C. Therefore, some scholars say that the city of Priam corresponds to Troy VII-A, despite the undoubted artistic and architectural inferiority that distinguishes it from its previous layer.
At the next level, dated to the 12th century B.C. and called "Troy VIIb1", remains of a barbarian type of ceramic were found, which was not made with the lathe but rather by hand with a coarser clay. Similar results have also been found in other areas and it is therefore assumed that at this time a foreign people from the Balkans had taken control of the territory.
In addition, the city shows a large accumulation of burned land up to one meter deep, with large and sudden changes, but do not interrupt the continuity of life on the site, where the walls and houses have been preserved; it has been deduced that during this period there have been at least two fires and that the last one produced the end of this urban settlement.
The highest evidence of a new component of social and cultural sign is represented by the level of Troy VIIb2, dated to the 11th century B.C. Recovered was pottery called "knobbed ware" (although ceramic remains have also appeared similar to that of the previous phase and also a pair of remains of Mycenaean pottery) with the horns in the form of decorative projections, mainly spread within the Balkan territory and probably the heritage of newcomers who either peacefully infiltrated in the region or followed the product of cultural exchanges between Troy and other foreign regions. The construction technique of the city varies significantly with orthostats<ref>https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/orthostat</ref> used to reinforced the walls in the lower courses with monumental megaliths.
In 1995 a document was found written in this layer consisting of a bronze seal/stamp, where the signs of a writing system appear in the Luwian language called Luwian hieroglyphics<ref>https://www.omniglot.com/writing/luwian.htm</ref>. It was deciphered in its general sense, finding that one side contains the term "scribe", while in the back part the word "woman" and, on both sides, a benevolent sign. Therefore it is assumed that the owner of the seal must have been a public official. Troy VIIb2 fell due to a fire, probably due to natural causes.
Troy VIIb3 was dated up to about 950 B.C. The differentiation of this layer with the previous one led Korfmann to argue that after the end of the urban city immediately or shortly after another colony had to be distinguished from the previous one, characterized by the use of geometric ceramics and that disappeared in turn around 950 B.C. Afterwards the place must have remained almost uninhabited up to 750-700 B.C. In contrast to this hypothesis, Dieter Hertel believes that some Greek tribes can be established on the site immediately after the end of Troy VIIb2.
===Troy VIII===
Dating back to the 8th century B.C., it is an unfortified Greek colony, yet with a flourishing architectural activity, especially of a religious nature; the first important cult building discovered at that time, called ''témenos'' (''τέμενος''), is still preserved in the solemn center of the area in which it was located the altar and another from the time of Augustus was added to it on the western side. Below is a lower ''témenos'', with two altars, perhaps dedicated to the sacrifices of two as of yet unknown divinities. The sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Athena, whose origins there could date back to the 9th century B.C., was transformed into a large temple in strict Doric style of the 3rd century B.C. For this, and for the construction of the Stoà, some buildings of the Trojan acropolis from previous eras have been demolished.
===Troy IX===
[[Julius Caesar]] played a role in the founding of the Roman period of Troy, now called "New Illium". Although he did not set foot there, his adopted son and heir Augustus made a trip there in the year 20 A.D., giving the site Roman buildings including an odion; later emperors would erect baths and an aqueduct.
===Troy X===
It was Korfmann who called the layer characterized by the few remains that belonged and correspond to the period of the Byzantine Empire - previously discovered by Schliemann and Dörpfeld - between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in which Troy was a small bishop's seat. An earthquake in A.D. 500 marked the end of Troy as an inhabited site.
==References==
==References==