Manfred Korfmann, 63, Is Dead; Expanded Excavation at Troy
NY Times
Manfred Korfmann, a German archaeologist whose excavations revived research and debate about ancient Troy, the besieged Bronze Age city that Homer immortalized in “The Iliad,” died Aug. 11 at his home near Tübingen, Germany. He was 63.
His death was reported by the University of Tübingen, where he was a professor of prehistory and archaeology and the director of an international team that since 1988 has explored ruins in Turkey widely regarded as the site of Troy. He had been ill for several months, but the cause of death was not given.
Hans G. Jansen, a colleague on the Troy project, said Dr. Korfmann’s excavations had broadened research beyond the usual questions about the historical foundation for Homer’s Trojan War in the 13th century B.C.
He uncovered new evidence that for many centuries Troy, standing at the entrance to the Dardanelles, the strait leading from the Aegean into the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, was a powerful fortress city at a crossroads for historical, ethnological and cultural interchange.
For Dr. Korfmann the epic confrontation between Greeks and Trojans, Dr. Jansen said, “was merely an illustrative and metaphoric episode in a series of many wars that undoubtedly were waged through the centuries in the power play at this strategic place.”
