4,500-Year-Old Artifact Discovered in Ancient Troy Resets the City’s Timeline

The past metropolis of Troy, present-day Turkey. Credit: Sonse / CC BY 2.0

Archaeologists excavating the ancient metropolis of Troy (Greek: Τροία oregon Ἴλιον) person uncovered a remarkably preserved golden ringing brooch and an imported jade stone, some dating to astir 2500 BCE. The find of this artifact is reshaping however scholars admit Troy’s relation during the Early Bronze Age and its transportation to Greek past and myth. More importantly, it resets Troy’s timeline, pushing it backmost by respective centuries.

The artifacts were unearthed during excavation enactment adjacent the 6M Palace. The squad besides recovered a bronze pin and respective bony tools from the aforesaid layer. Together, these finds firmly spot the discourse successful the Troy II phase, a captious play successful the city’s aboriginal development.

Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, said, “These unsocial artifacts volition beryllium exhibited astatine the Troy Museum precise soon.” The depository is located successful Çanakkale, the closest metropolis to the Troy site.

Turkey unearths a 4500-year-old aureate brooch successful past metropolis Troy successful Çanakkale pic.twitter.com/lMtlCEVeWo

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) September 27, 2025

Rare brooch raises planetary interest

Scholars person drawn attraction to the rarity of the golden brooch. Only 2 akin pieces are known worldwide, but neither matches the prime and preservation of the Troy find. Experts accidental its information makes it 1 of the astir important discoveries successful caller decades.

Professor Reyhan Körpe of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University noted that the brooch bears a striking resemblance to items from Heinrich Schliemann’s celebrated “Treasure of Troy“. He described it arsenic “the astir important uncovering successful Troy aft Schliemann.”

Schliemann’s excavations, inspired by Homer’s Greek epics, archetypal brought Troy into modern archaeological debate, linking the legendary metropolis of the Iliad to a existent settlement.

Resetting Troy’s timeline

The find has besides resolved a long-running scholarly statement implicit the opening of the Troy II phase. Researchers present day its commencement to astir 2500 BCE, moving earlier estimates backmost by respective centuries. This accommodation changes the timeline of Troy’s development, placing the city’s maturation earlier successful the Bronze Age than antecedently believed.

Körpe emphasized the value of the jade stone, which apt came from thousands of miles to the east. Its beingness successful Troy demonstrates that the metropolis was already portion of long-distance commercialized networks. “This shows that Troy was an important commercialized halfway successful the satellite during the Bronze Age,” Körpe explained.

Scholars enactment that specified connections would person linked Troy not lone to Asia but besides to the wider Aegean world.

Heading to a nationalist display

The brooch, jade stone, and bronze pin volition beryllium prepared for nationalist accumulation astatine the Troy Museum. The museum, located successful Çanakkale, already houses galore of the site’s astir celebrated finds, and the caller show is expected to gully planetary attention.

For Greece, Troy has ever been much than a city. In myth, it was the signifier of the Trojan War, immortalized successful Homer’s Iliad. For archaeologists, discoveries similar this brooch supply uncommon grounds that grounds fable successful history.

For researchers, the discoveries supply factual grounds of Troy’s aboriginal relation successful planetary commercialized and craftsmanship. For visitors, they connection a uncommon accidental to witnesser artifacts that not lone embody past artistry but besides reshape the communicative of 1 of history’s astir legendary cities.