The Lower City of (W)llios/Wilusa Late Troy VI
Before you lies the lower city of Late Troy VI and Troy VI i (14th-13th cent. BCE) located outside the citadel walls to the west. Clearly visible are the sturdy stone foundations of the densely packed houses that lined a stone-paved approach to the citadel.
Particularly of note is the nearly complete outline of the Terrace House from Troy VI i, the back rooms of which supported a second story and may have served cult purposes, judging from a bronze statuette and the ceramic image of a bull found here.
Following the earthquake that marked the end of Troy VI, the citadel Gate VI U was closed off and the course of the streets altered. Troy VII a (= VI i) was then destroyed in battle, as evidenced by the number of weapons, burnt remains, and skeletons found. In Period VII b, when immigrants from the Balkans settled at Troy, settlement was restricted to the citadel and the immediate environs. So dense was the settlement that even the earlier streets and squares were overrun, congested with houses and outbuildings, filled -as you can see- with large storage vessels (pithoi).
