Digging for Troy

Gr 6—9—Rubalcaba teams up with a noted archaeologist to make sense of the complicated, controversial, contradictory history and remains of the Turkish site called Hisarlik, better known as Troy. It has been intermittently occupied for almost 3500 years, from 2900 BCE to 550 CE, and is often thought to be the Troy written about by Homer in The Iliad. The book begins with a brief but exciting retelling of the Trojan War, giving readers a firsthand appreciation of why generations have been fascinated by this tale, and goes on to profile Heinrich Schliemann, the German businessman who spent a fortune ham-handedly digging up the site in the 19th century. After Schliemann, generations of archaeologists have excavated Hisarlik: along with the history of the excavations, readers are given an overview of technological developments in the field, from comparative dating using potsherds to noninvasive imaging. Competing theories and conclusions are objectively presented, with supporting diagrams, maps, and models. Source notes and an impressive bibliography attest to meticulous research and guide readers to journal articles, books, and online museum exhibits. Elegant illustrations mimicking Greek red-figure pottery are lovely and appropriate. Extraordinarily readable, gracefully laid out, and speckled with lines from The Iliad, this book will inspire young people interested in solving the mysteries of the past.—Paula Willey, Baltimore County Public Library, Towson, MD