Evidence tagged posts

No word is perhaps so abused in our modern world as is the word truth. Politicians bend it to suit their agendas while they pound their podiums, news columnists promise to reveal it while they trade in gossip, and religious groups praise it as their central concern while they redefine it to be synonymous with charismatic personalities and inspiring texts. Like it is to the fittingly-named Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984, truth may sometimes appear as little more than a label used to give the illusion of certitude to partisan propaganda...

In 1868, a German businessman named Heinrich Schliemann published a book arguing for a historical Troy, located at a place called Hissarlik (in modern Turkey). As a boy, Schliemann was greatly fascinated by the epic tales of the ancient Greeks, particularly Homer’s classic writings, The Iliad and The Odyssey, and when he had made enough of a fortune to retire at the young age of 36, he devoted himself to finding the legendary city of Troy mentioned in Homer’s Iliad. Despite having no training or formal education in archaeology, he began excavating the site of Hissarlik in 1871.

Although a num...