Abstract
Although the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann, Wilhelm Dörpfeld and Carl Blegen supplied considerable information about the architecture and other aspects of material culture of the Late Bronze Age at Troy, even at the time of Blegen's final publication in the 50s, it was not possible to understand its role in a regional and interregional perspective. The reason for that was the lack of information on the rest of western Anatolia during the same time period.
Only thanks to the progress in fieldwork, post-excavation evaluations and publications that has taken place during recent decades in the area between Maydos-Kilisetepe on the Gallipoli Peninsula and Miletus on the southern coast is it possible to better understand Troy's position as a member of the western Anatolian socio-political and cultural landscape. In our presentation, we will first discuss the most significant results of the recent excavations, especially those results that significantly changed our understanding of the local culture, such as chronology, architecture, funerary evidence, religious practise, pottery, craftsmanship, economy, exchange and settlement patterns.
In a second step, we compare this evidence with western Anatolian settlements, cemeteries, finds or written sources and ponder Troy's changing character and role in a diachronic perspective throughout the Late Bronze Age, both within the local western Anatolian and an interregional perspective.