TROY VII

Under this designation Dörpfeld grouped two layers of very different character, and called them VII 1 and VII 2 respectively (our VIIa and VIIb). See Fig. 1.

Settlement VIIa represents a direct continuation after the earthquake of the culture that flourished in Troy VI. The fortress walls were repaired where needed and most of the earlier gateways were re-used. Inside the citadel the old streets were cleared and new houses were erected; they were built in a characteristic masonry that, along with rough unworked material, reutilized many squared blocks that had obviously been shaken down from the structures of the Sixth Settlement. The houses themselves, for the most part small, were numerous; they were crowded closely together, often with party walls, and they seem to have filled the whole area inside the fortification, where they were superposed over the earlier buildings, as well as the considerable spaces that had previously been left open. Another distinctive feature is the presence in almost every house of large pithoi or storage jars: ranging in number from one or two to eight or ten or even twenty, they were sunk deeply beneath the floors so that the mouth, covered by a stone slab, projected only an inch or two above the ground.

The minor objects and pottery clearly attest a continuity in all branches of craftsmanship. Grey Minyan Ware, for the most part indistinguishable from that of Troy VI, occurs in abundance; alongside it are found in large quantities Red and Tan Wares closely resembling those of the preceding period, though the Tan Ware especially is often coated with a distinctive orange-tan glaze.