NEWS

Don’t let the movie just be Greek to you.

Before the May 14 release of "Troy," get the scoop on how archaeologists rediscovered the site of the legendary city in a free public lecture March 16 at UNC. .

Dr. Susan Heuck Allen of Smith College, author of "Finding the Walls of Troy: Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik" (University of California Press, 1999), will give a free public lecture and show slides at 8 p.m. in 116 Murphey Hall at UNC.

Schliemann, a German businessman and archaeologist, announced with great fanfare that he had discovered Troy in 1870, said Jeffrey A. Becker, a graduate student in the UNC classics department. "But Frank Calvert, a consular officer in Turkey, likely was the first to recognize the modern mound of Hisarlik as the site of the Troy legend," Becker said. "Susan Allen has studied the search for the site of Troy extensively, and her lecture will offer unique insights into the men who searched for, and discovered, the city of Troy."

Troy, in what is now Turkey, was made famous in Homer’s epic "The Iliad," written perhaps in the eighth or seventh century B.C., before recorded history. The Trojan War, in about 1200 B.C., was fought, according to legend, over Helen, the most beautiful woman in the Greek world, whose face "launched 1,000 ships."

In 1193 B.C., Prince Paris of Troy stole Helen away from her husband, King Menelaus of Sparta, setting the two nations at war. A description of the movie "Troy" says, "the Greeks began a bloody siege of Troy using their entire armada, led by Achilles, that lasted over a decade."

A city continued on the site through Roman times, it is believed, said Becker. But it disappeared and was forgotten until the 19^th century, "when scholars and enthusiasts began to search for the site of Troy in an attempt to validate the Homeric texts historically, by linking the Greek epic to a physical place."

Allen earned her doctorate in classics and classical archaeology at Brown University and has also taught at Clark and Yale universities. Her research has taken her to locations including Cyprus, Israel and Crete. She also wrote "Excavating Our Past: Perspectives on the History of the Archaeological Institute of America" (2002).

The lecture will be sponsored by the North Carolina Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, which is based at UNC. North Carolina’s chapter is the nation’s oldest. The institute, a nonprofit founded in 1879 and chartered by Congress in 1906, promotes archaeological inquiry and public understanding of the material record of the human past worldwide.

For more information, contact at Becker at 919-962-7663 or jabecker@email.unc.edu

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The UNC Consort of Viols and Violins, with student vocal soloists, wind players and harpsichordists, will perform in the Rare Book Room of Wilson Library at 8 p.m. March 23.

Fortuna, a Triangle-based early music vocal ensemble, also will join in the free public concert of French Renaissance music. Patricia Petersen of Durham, who teaches early music workshops nationwide, directs the ensemble.

The featured work will be the "Balet Comique de la Royne," a 1581 French court entertainment for voices and instruments.

"The ‘Balet’ has never been recorded, so this is a unique opportunity to hear a famous but unusual piece in surroundings that simulate the palace at Fontainebleau, where it was presented at its premiere," said music professor Brent Wissick, consort director.

For more information, call 962-1039.

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Contact: L.J. Toler, 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu