3, 4, 5. After the burning of the "second city," Hissarlik ceased for a time to have any considerable population. Three small village settlements have left their traces superposed and show only slight advances of material culture.
6. The mound, however, occupied too important a site, in relation to the plain and the sea, to remain desolate, and it was occupied in the 14th or 13th century by a great fortress, while a city not yet explored, spread below. This "sixth city" was first distinguished clearly by Dorpfeld in 1882, but Schliemann's dras tic methods confused its commoner pottery and metal objects with those of lower strata; and some grey ware, to which Schlie mann gave the name "Lydian" was alone referred to this sixth or "Lydian" city, in his Troja (1884). This ware has been com pared with the "Minyan" fabric at Orchomenus, but also re sembles the "Lausitz" pottery, which originated on the middle Danube, and was intruded into Macedonia at the close of the I 2th century. For years this "sixth city" was neglected.
In 1893, however, excavations in hitherto undisturbed ground outside the earlier fortress, exposed a wall of massive ashlar masonry resembling the fortifications of Mycenae itself, and "Mycenaean", walls at Phylakopi in Melos. With this wall oc curred not only the grey ware, but painted potsherds unmistak ably "Mycenaean"; and further search showed that such sherds were characteristic of "sixth city" deposits. The inevitable in ference is that this city imported contemporary "Mycenaean" ware to supplement its own ruder products. The area of its citadel is larger than the "second city," its buildings, which include a large megaron, are of finer construction. This was the most
important city yet built on the mound. It belonged to the "Mycenaean" age, which precedes the composition of the Homeric poems, and is reflected by them. Therefore this is Homer's Troy.
Its remains, however, having been obliterated on the crown of Hissarlik, almost escaped recognition, for when, long afterwards, the Hellenistic Ilium was built, the top of the mound was cut away and the uppermost strata vanished. Thus we find them now on the southern slope of the mound only, but have no diffi culty in estimating their original extent. Tombs and the outer quarters of this city will doubtless be found eventually.
7. The "sixth," or "Mycenaean" Troy, perished by violence like the "second city," but its inhabitants reoccupied its ruins, until, in early Hellenic times, the small unfortified settlement was established which maintained itself till the Homeric enthu siasm of Alexander the Great called a city again into being on Hissarlik.
8. The Hellenistic Ilium, however, has left comparatively little trace ; fortifications erected by Lysimachus are visible on the acropolis and in the plain. A small Doric temple belongs to this city, and a larger one, probably dedicated to Athena, seems to be of Pergamene age. Fragments remain of its metopes, repre senting Helios and a Gigantomachia. Coins of this city show Athena on both faces, and inscriptions prove that Hellenistic Ilium was of some importance.
9. Lastly, about the Christian era, the Graeco-Roman city built a theatre and an ornate gateway on the south-east slope, a large building on the south-west and others to north-east. This city seems to have decayed in the 5th century A.D.