The Story Behind Homer's Epics The false assumption that Troy
and the Trojan War was waged near Hissarlik in Asia Minor
(Turkey), where no traces of the Trojan war are found, dates
back to the eighth century BC when the first Greeks settled on
Turkey's west coast. The Greeks did not know that the Trojans
who once lived in that area were migrants, as the collective
memory of this fact was lost during the Dark Ages (1200-750 BC).
The great migrations of the second millennium BC brought the
Achaeans, Troy's enemies, from regions along the Atlantic coast
of the Continent to the Mediterranean where they caused the
collapse of many civilisations. The name 'Achaeans' means
'Watermen' or 'Sea People' (the Gothic 'acha' for 'water' or
'stream' is cognate with Latin 'aqua'). The Greek historian
Herodotus (fifth century BC) confirms that Pelasgians ('Sea
Peoples') had settled in Greece long before his time. They
founded Athens, renamed places, merged with the local population
and adopted their language. The transfer of