In Search of the Trojan War

Book excerpt: For 3,000 years, tales of Troy and its heroes - Achilles and Hector, Paris and the legendary beauty Helen - have fired the human imagination. With In Search of the Trojan War, Michael Wood brings vividly to life the legend and lore of the Heroic Age in an archaeological adventure that sifts through the myths and speculation to provide a privileged view of the riches and the reality of ancient Troy. This edition includes a new preface, a new final chapter, and an addendum to the bibliography that take account of dramatic new developments in the search for Troy with the rediscovery, in Moscow, of the so-called Jewels of Helen and the re-excavation of the site of Troy which began in 1988 and is yielding new evidence about the historical city.