In Search of the Trojan War

Friend rented this DVD from a local eclectic video shop. The title made it sound very dry, but we started with the special feature of Michael Wood's commentary on the making of the original television series. His enthusiasm was contagious, and the series proved to be very satisfying.

Wood started in Berlin where some artifacts from Troy remained after the devastation of World War II. From there he traveled to the Mediterranean, Turkey, and Wales to explore how much truth was in the oral story told by Homer in the Iliad. Even for non-archeology buffs, Wood brings to life the heartbreak and duplicity of Schliemann, the first to excavate (and possibly destroy portions of) Troy. This is followed by Wilhelm Dörpfeld, Schliemann's heir, who explored further around the site, exposing what might be the Troy described by Homer. Thirdly discussed is the influential Britan, Arthur Evans, who unearthed Minos at Minos at Knossos. Lastly, we learn about Carl Blagan, an American who extracted further evidence from Troy.

This series includes a fascinating look into a young science, archeology, and the role that speculation and interpretation plays in archaeological investigations. It is interesting to hear that some of Wood's speculation has since become accepted as a probable historical version.

I was a little disappointed that the series did not venture further into the 'cracking' of the Linear B hieroglyphics. However, it does a great job of proving that the Iliad was based upon fact: There was a Trojan society, and that for example, Hector and Paris were real people. From the written history of the Hittites, we gain a tantalizing first- and second-hand documentation of Greek and Trojan history. Who knew that cuneiform writing could be so interesting?

Michael Wood does an outstanding job in this multi-part documentary of proving that there was some historical fact to the epic poetry of Homer. The research is meticulously done following every lead that is presented with amazing results. Wood takes us back and forth across the Aegean at a dizzying pace to uncover the truth and he does so with great thought and logic. Along the way, Wood introduces us to a world only scholars have really known with adventure, political intrigue, and epic war.

My only dismay is that it wasn't done 20 years later. How much greater the technology used to illustrate things would have been.

When I first watched "In Search of the Trojan War" I was a history graduate student, fascinated by stories of the past.

Forty years on I'm retired from University work but I watched my home-videotaped version, and now my dvds, quite often. It's a great story (though not my field) and the youthful Michael Woods does a good job of tracing down the history and archeology of the presumed site of Troy.

But neither history nor archeology has stood still and unless one reads specialized periodicals one won't know all the changes in thinking. This show was once shiny and new. Now it's decades old. It's still a great show, but a bit of an artifact.

First, Woods needs to correct a few of his own misleading mistakes. For instance, about the old Trojan treasure, he speculates that they were in the hands of a collector in the west. During the Cold War artists, intellectuals and journalists tended to blame the west for everything and sanctified the Soviet Union. In the brief thaw after the collapse of the Soviet Union the treasures were found to have been in Soviet hands since World War Two.

Also, while Woods does an excellent job much of the time, and makes it clear that in the archeological record "love leaves no trace," his search for a Helen was always doomed.

Propelling ourselves forward three thousand years from our present, let's pretend the only book surviving from our time is GONE WITH THE WIND, which I find more boring than Homer. Future peoples might wonder if there were a United States as such, if we had a Civil War, and if Scarlet O'Hara was real. Woods might have brought in a novelist to address that angle. The Trojan War and Helen are not necessarily dependent on each other. Homer, writing long after the War, was not an historian but what today we'd call an historical novelist.

Still, Woods makes the much-misunderstood and -represented discipline of history to life. That's great, especially for ancient history. Everyone should watch this show, not just for an insight into the ancient world but also for the exciting (if misguided) birth of archeology. Woods does a superb job of following those disparate but parallel trails simultaneously in a way non-professionals can comprehend.

In this update interview on the DVD Michael expressed how much he'd love to make an update. Its time only because so much has happened since, and there is so much more evidence to examine. NO REDO OF THE ORIGINAL! Its fine as it is. But the stratigraphy studies on the Plain, the marine sites of bronze age ships, the discovery of the Mycenaean funerary sites, the update on the lower town and the defensive ditch and update the location of the recently discovered Mycenaean palaces on Salamis and re-identifying Ithaca. There is material enough for at least two hours of screen time, maybe three. And there is also Fagel's exceptional translation to refer to. Michael, we're hungry for more. Lets go.

Even though this was the first in search of the book I read, I started the video series with "In Search of Shakespeare" (2003 TV series documentary). So, you can imagine my surprise at seeing a young Michael Wood. The technology is a hoot. However, the lack of a better form of graphics and either dull original recording or pour transfer can distract now and then from the message.

This series "In Search of the Trojan War" is quite extensive and they had to pack a lot of information into mere 6 episodes. Each episode is packed enough that you need to take time to digest the information and lookup peripheral matters before viewing the next.

Even though the series is a tad out of date you will not notice most of this and still have a lot to learn from what information there is. I swear that even though I read several translations of the Iliad and took in the recent movie that Michael Wood still found passages that I have missed somehow.

In any event, your video library would be lacking without this presentation, and you will find yourself periodically reviewing this series as a marathon.

The series does not say a lot about Michael and even his books seem to lack a good biography. I had to rely on Wikipedia for the most on his background and credentials.

1- The Age of Heroes 2- The Legend under Siege 3- The Singer of Tales 4- The Women of Troy 5- Empire of the Hittites 6- The Fall of Troy.