Snippets from the Ancient World: Trojan Horse, Gates of Hell, and Angamuco
History and archaeology fascinate me, though I have no professional background in either field. Most recently, I have been reading the works of Homer and learning more about ancient Greece. This week, I encountered some speculation that I had never heard before and it seemed to be a worthy subject for a post. However, it wasn’t enough for a full post, so I decided to write about three separate things I've learned lately about the ancient world. These brief snippets take us from Ancient Greece to Ancient Rome to pre-colonial Mexico.
No Trojan Horse?
The Trojan horse is such an important myth and metaphor that I was surprised to learn it may never have existed. The popular story is that the Greeks built a giant wooden horse and left it for the Trojans to take into their city after the Greeks had abandoned the battlefield where it sat. Hidden inside the wooden horse were elite soldiers. So once it was taken into the city (as an offering for a goddess, perhaps), the soldiers crept out at night and opened the gates so the Greek army could take Troy, a walled city which had been impenetrable to them.
Wooden horse. Creative Commons via Wikimedia by Tevfik Teker.
History relies on people recording their observations. It turns out that some accounts of a Trojan horse filled with soldiers came later from oral historians, while the earlier accounts (which should be more reliable) used words that could be interpreted to describe a different wooden structure. It may have been a siege tower, which was used to make a breach in the walls of the city of Troy after the Greeks had battled outside it for years.
A siege tower would have brought the Greeks closer to the top of the walls, making it easier to clear defenders from the fighting platform. A battering ram could have been used on the gate. The term “hippos” (meaning horse) also had other potential applications and symbolic meanings. One interpretation suggests the Trojan horse could have been a ship or a galley used to pay tribute.
Siege towers were temporary (sometimes mobile) structures that raised the level of the attackers so that they could assault at the same level as the soldiers defending a fort or walled city. Sometimes, a battering ram was used also to knock down the gate, once the attackers' archers could neutralize any defense from the walls above. Public domain.
The Greek geographer Pausanias, in the Second Century A.D., wrote “That (the Trojan horse) was a contrivance to make a breach in the Trojan wall was known to everybody who does not attribute utter silliness” to the Trojans.
The idea of the Trojan horse has become a metaphor for the stealthy entrance of something that’s often dangerous to the larger host. For instance, malicious computer programs that are let into computers and opened by their users under benign pretenses are called Trojans. Wouldn’t it be funny if the horse never existed and this wooden structure was simply a wooden siege tower or ship?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse
Scientists Find Amazing Explanation for One of the Roman Empire’s “Gates of Hell”
In ancient Roman times, the “Gates of Hell” were thought to be portals to another realm. There were a number of them scattered around the Mediterranean region. Some were used to make sacrifices (animal and perhaps human ones) to the Gods. Often, the animals (such as cattle) were killed instantly as they were led into these gates, but the priests walked out again without any injury.
How was this possible?
Divine geothermal intervention may be the answer. At the ancient city of Heirapolis in modern-day Turkey (then within the Roman Empire), archaeologists discovered one of these “Gates of Hell” in the form of a stone doorway leading to “a small cavelike grotto”. There was a theater with stone seating and the “gate” was built into the rock face.
The necropolis at the ruins of Hierapolis. Creative Commons via Wikimedia by Dezidor.
Geothermal springs at Hierapolis. Public domain from Pixabay.
Underneath that rock? Hell itself. There are thermal springs in the area. Directly beneath the stone “gate”, a fissure emits pure carbon dioxide. Even today, the carbon dioxide emitted from the earth is so strong that it looks like a small cloud of mist. It can kill birds which come too close to it.
Scientists determined that if a human walked into it, they could breathe above the cloud. But if that human priest was leading an animal such as a bull for sacrifice, that animal might breathe the CO2 cloud and be killed instantly. And so, the Gods accepted the sacrifice and the priests escaped unscathed.
Furthermore, the scientists believe there may be more of these geothermal features in other parts of the former Roman Empire, where there were several portals known as the “Gates of Hell”.
An old Purepecha city (top, from michoacan.travel) and artwork (below, from cultura10.org).
Ancient City in Mexico Had as Many Buildings as Manhattan
LiDAR certainly is changing our understanding of some ancient civilizations. It is a laser mapping tool; the name stands for light detection and mapping. In what would have taken archaeologists a lifetime to discover, a few passes over the area with laser imaging provides maps of ancient structures in stunning detail. It even works in the jungle, where vegetation reclaimed and obscured many ancient Mesoamerican structures centuries ago.
In 2007, the city of Angamuco was discovered in the province of Michoacan in western Mexico, dating back to about 900 A.D. But researchers had no idea how large it was or how many structures it contained. Thanks to the LiDAR scans, they pinpointed some 40,000 structures over an area of 10 square miles. Of course, these were not as big as the buildings in Manhattan. At its peak, the city may have been home to 100,000 people of the Purepecha (also known as Tarascan) civilization, which once rivaled that of the Aztecs.
Here is a video showing the LiDAR results. It has had similarly spectacular results discovering ancient structures beneath the jungles of Guatemala and the sands of Egypt. Amazing.
Sources:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/laser-mapping-reveals-ancient-mexican-city-once-had-many-buildings-manhattan-180968202/
http://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2017.132
Top image: Vase picture shows Odysseus lashed to the ship's mast to escape the lure of the Sirens. Public domain.
I'm also a non-academic with interest in the ancient world, especially Greece. First, it wouldn't surprise if there was never in fact a "Trojan horse". A lot of mythology fails to correlate with fact.
The possibility that it was instead a siege tower, and later changed to a wooden horse, is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it holds up to scrutiny.
Most historians place the Trojan War into the Mycenaean Period of Greece - which lasted from about 1600 BCE to 1100 BCE - and the battle with Troy was probably the later part of that period. Let's say 1200 BCE. But according to Wikipedia, the earliest siege towers weren't being used until around 900 BCE. So I'd say it's unlikely.
A Trojan horse just makes one helluva story, so the oral and written traditions had no problem passing it down through the years. :)
By the way - I happen to be writing/producing a graphic novel about ancient Greece - the end of the Golden Age/5th century BCE - where we'll see the events in Athens which led to Socrates' trial and execution. Working with an artist to create the pages - take a look if you have any interest! Polis: The Trial of Socrates, lates page. I'd love to know what you think.
That post is great! You're very talented. Regarding siege towers, something like a covered battering ram may have been possible, even if it were not as high as the top of the walls. I love the Trojan horse story, though, and since we may never know, I'd rather believe it happened.
Surely it's more fun if Trojan horse story is true! But if a Trojan horse actually had warriors inside of it that kind of feels like people would have noticed. And even if they would have been elite how many would you be able to put inside a Trojan horse and keep it quiet. Maybe they didn't need that many if they would just open the gates for the Greek army. I also consider that if they took in the Trojan horse inside the city that it would not be close to the gates since they probably would take it to their best location away from the gates so it would be very hard to exit the Trojan horse and navigate to the gates without being noticed. Since clearly there would be guards out even at night time. A battering ram with a wooden horse head at the front seems very likely.
On the other hand I think you may be right that they may have pulled this off since the longer back we go in history the smarter people seems to have been. Considering the amazing pyramids that was built with amazing precision. As well as all the amazing knowledge written in various books. For example The Bible is very interesting how we still don't know the full detail what people who wrote it and how they put it together. But clearly people were extremely smart.
Probably easier to think deeper with less humans around in terms of distraction! These days with billions of humans on earth there is so much more distraction so it becomes less deep thinking for majority. Unless they isolate themselves of course! Something that Goethe said was the highest artistic thing you could do. And focus yourself in 1 area and avoid distraction. Also when they put down words on paper it was harder to erase so I guess that made people think even deeper on trying to put down only their best ideas.
If they built a giant horse in wood then they would have to make sure that there was no holes where you could see the interior. Seems like amazing gifts was a major thing back in those days to try to impress other emperors. I guess people lived more in the moment and knew their life may be short so when they did something they truly wanted it to be glorious.
Curious what you think of the writings of Aristotle I downloaded his complete works on my Amazon Kindle and it's truly amazing the depth the Greeks went into explaining daily life. And how deep especially Aristotle went to even explain words in precise detail. Very artistic. Really amazing stuff to read when you got some free time. Since it's so original and thought provoking.
Just for some perspective: the (likely) difference in time from the Trojan War to Aristotle was about 900 years. That's the difference between our time and the Crusades.
The Mycenean era - which is when the Trojan War would have occurred - is separated by several centuries of "dark age" before the ancient Greeks that most of us are familiar with began to develop.
Dark ages sounds kinda fascinating. Also very curious how ancient people could start to develop magically! The genepool I'm very curious on since there are major difference between various people.
Thanks for that 900 year range yes that is a lot of years. Very hard for us to grasp who can barely remember 50 years in our head. That we are just at the beginning of knowledge sharing on a global scale! Clearly we may get hit with a dark age again if we produce deep intelligence that perhaps see humans as obsolete.
Either our society gets dumber because smarter people get a major advantage by latest technology and use it on the rest. Or everyone gets empowered and we all work together towards a better future! Clearly we now empower humans with very smart machines. But how will people use them that's an interesting question. Especially now with the Blockchain technology!
When I say "began to develop" I meant the culture, rather than the people. One of my points is that the culture of the ancient Greeks was very different from the Mycenaeans - though much of their mythology was built on stories from that age.
Right. That makes much more sense.
Me too.
nice history...!!
@riad420
Awesome !!
Great and educational article of Trojan Horse, Gates of Hell, and Angamuco.
Now, thanks to your post I have an idea what this Trojan Horse was actually used for. I found it very interesting. I also like the way the scientists had reasonable explanation why the animals died, but priest walked out without any injury. However, how did the priest walked out without the animal, wasn’t that the reason he was higher above the ground while riding the animal? Anyway the ancient city of Angamuco was as big as Manhattan with buildings all over and as many as 40K structure, which is unbelievable since it was centuries ago, I guess humans were an excellent builders afterall.
My father was telling me about the use of LiDAR to 'unearth' ancient Mayan ruins just yesterday. He is currently using this technology here, in South Africa, at a site where people called the Kgatla used to live (in the 1700s).
What's cool about the LiDAR is that they can see other ruins underneath these old cities, from a completely different group of people. Without excavating they can tell whether this civilization might have conquered another, and settled on their ruins. I'm keen to see the results of this. I used to join him on archaeological excavations as a boy using shovels and picks, never heard of LiDAR until he told me.
I find it interesting that the Roman's crafted these 'gates to hell'. In their debaucherous society, one would imagine you'd try to deny any ideas of realm which entails eternal damnation and suffering.
Thanks for the post.
That's amazing. Thanks for sharing that story. As I understand it, they can image the various layers and essentially peel off the ones that cover the ruins they want to see. It's groundbreaking (perhaps literally!).
Great and educational article of Trojan Horse, Gates of Hell, and Angamuco.
Now, thanks to your post I have an idea what this Trojan Horse was actually used for. I found it very interesting. I also like the way the scientists had reasonable explanation why the animals died, but priest walked out without any injury. However, how did the priest walked out without the animal, wasn’t that the reason he was higher above the ground while riding the animal? Anyway the ancient city of Angamuco was as big as Manhattan with buildings all over and as many as 40K structure, which is unbelievable since it was centuries ago, I guess humans were an excellent builders afterall.
This is the first time i visited your blog . Your blog is amazing man .
" The popular story is that the Greeks built a giant wooden horse and left it for the Trojans to take into their city after the Greeks had abandoned the battlefield where it sat. " That's a brilliant idea . It's remarkable that wars were fought with strategies and intelligence too at those time instead of just firepower .
I find this very interesting and insightful cos history is something I find very enthralling. I still recall how the movie "Troy" helped with the visual understanding of the story and it was quite fascinating. I really can't help but connect this to the computing world. The adoption of Trojan Horse as the name of a malicious computer program which is designed to disguise as a legitimate program, tricks the unsuspecting user to load and execute it on his/her PC. Once loaded, it create a backdoor and paves the way for the cyber thief to creep in, spy on the user, steal data and most of all disrupt the performance of the system. Great Post, Very well penned!
I loved reading Homer's Odyssey. So much weeping and rubbing with olive oil :D
Well, I don't think that the Trojan horse existed but can be part of the legendary history of Greek empire. Do you remember the hericulus story, where by some people where half human and half animals. Some of them were granted with Devine power and fight against the evil spirit.
I got amazed when you talk about Mexico ancient by relating it with manathan . Actually, those people had wonderful structure and some of them were tall just made by a combination of stones, sand and some few wooden materials. These structures were durable though not as manathan to day.
About the Roman empire and their religion belief. I always say that the only countries which have rich spiritual historical background are Israel and Roman. I got amazed when you talked about Gates of hell and how the priest could bring their sacrifices to the gods. This place looks terrific and I believe if animals could die on a way, then how come priests couldn't? I think they could make sure sure they are clean before entering and the unclean ones could die.
Thanks for the great knowledge and your contribution towards enhancing and instructing us about the ancient historical insights.
Greetings from Uganda/
@jona12
I really geek out over stuff like this. This is the first time I'd ever heard anyone questioning the Trojan Horse story, and the first time I'd ever heard about to the "Gates of Hell" during the Roman Empire. I'll have to check into that some more.
The early history of the Mesoamericans fascinates me. I live in North America where there is a connection between the Mesoamerican culture with the native North American culture. I've actually visited several North American pyramids, but there is so much more to learn. I hope the LiDAR imagery will enable archaeologists to get in and poke around in specific areas. I'd really be interested in comparing artwork from there to the artwork of other civilizations that built pyramids.
After watching the movie "Troy" i came to know many historic facts including Trojan Horse and after reading your blog i also learnt many new things. Thank you so so very much for the valueable information the beautiful soul @donkeypong
It really means lot to me being a student of Cultural Studies :-)
What an awesome post; I love that you've just taken on the idea of teaching yourself all of this history. I taught high school English and History for years, and the ancient history I always found so fascinating...I don't think most people give the ancients enough credit for their ingenuity. In ancient Greece and Rome, when things couldn't be explained (like the geothermal springs), they created myths to help understand all the unexplained natural phenomenon surrounding them. Pretty cool that you're reading Homer too. Again thank you, I love this! Cheers:)
Thank you. Learning is a lifelong obsession. :)
It really is...keeps the mind young! :)