During the first three years of excavation Schliemann had a deep north-south trench, 40 metres wide and seventeen deep, dug through the centre of the mound. It was conceived as a test-trench, reaching down to bedrock, by means of which Schliemann hoped to find at what depth “Priam’s citadel” lay. In the course of this operation important building-remains from overlying layers were partially or whole destroyed. At the bottom of the trench Schliemann found remains of walls belonging to the Early Troia period (c. 2920 BCE). These you can see in front of you. It was only in the American excavations of the 1930’s, and in the work carried out since 1988, that the Troia I period was more closely studied.

Directly below the spot where you are standing are the remains of a sloping stone wall backed by a rubble fill. This is thought to be a rampart-like Early Troia I fortification. The rows of parallel, rough stone walls which you can see beyond are the foundations of relatively large, close-set houses of the Early Bronze Age (c. 2920 BCE).

Some of these elongated houses had porches. Of particular interest is the “herringbone” technique in masonry in which stones are laid diagonally.

The superstructure of the houses presumably consisted of sundried mudbrick or of timbers with mud-plastered wattle. The roofs, of which nothing survives, were flat and covered with mud.

Several infant-burials were discovered in the northern part of the trench, all in the crouched position. But at this date the burial of infants within settlement areas was not uncommon.