Sarah Morris, Steinmetz Professor of Classical Archaeology and Material Culture, University of California, Los Angeles, will be presenting Out of Anatolia: The Trojan War from Hatti to Hissarlik for the Department of Classics' 2024 Townsend Lecture Series.

I. Out of Anatolia: The Prehistory of the Trojan War

The epic story of the Greek expedition to attack Troy and recover Helen, best known from Homer’s Iliad, was embedded in a long history of military encounters and poetic memories. The origins of the narrative stretch back to the Late Bronze Age, when Anatolia was dominated by the Hittite Empire and engaged with rulers and peoples in cities and islands along its western coastline, including some which featured Hellenic names and Aegean material culture.

Reception to follow in History of Art Gallery.

Lecture II: The Parallel Lives of Homeric Heroes: Epic Adventures Beyond Troy and Athens

Lecture III: From Ilion to Hissarlik: The Evolution of Troy as a Sacred Space