Synopsis:

The Trojan War was the greatest catastrophe of the ancient Hellenic world. We are told that it devastated Europe and Asia and plunged the known world into a Dark Age that lasted 500 years.

Thirty years of painstaking investigative research has finally resolved this 3,000-year-old mystery as author and historian Bernard Jones uncovered the evidence, piece by piece, separating fact from fiction, and unlocking the secrets of the past. Unbelievably, Bernard's research showed that the Trojan War could not have taken place in the Aegean area, or even in the Mediterranean world. This evidence turns our accepted geography on its head and leads us on a fascinating journey of discovery back to the real world in which the Trojans lived. Here, we discover who the Greeks and the Trojans really were, and the parts they played in Homer's Bronze Age world.

Secret knowledge concealed in the "Iliad" reveals Homer's work to be a genuine historical record. Yet, only in the corrected Bronze Age environment can it be understood. Deciphering Homer's coded information becomes the key to finding the location of the Trojan War and the Bronze Age city of Troy itself. Lost histories also tell the whole story of the migrations that took place following the Trojan War and the nations that arose out of the ashes of Troy. The records of these nations independently verify the author's findings, and they overturn the theory of a 'Dark Age'.

Critique:

An absolutely fascinating and iconoclastic read from beginning to end, "The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History" is exceptionally well written, organized and presented. Impressively informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking, "The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History" is unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library Ancient History collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject

Note:

This review will also appear in the Cengage Learning, Gale interactive CD-ROM series "Book Review Index" which is published four times yearly for academic, corporate, and public library systems.

Additionally, this review will be archived on our Midwest Book Review website for the next five years at http://www.midwestbookreview.com

“The Discovery of Troy and Its Lost History” is a comprehensive historical reference about the city of Troy resulting from a thirty-year investigative journey by author and historian, Bernard Jones. 

The first image conjured by most upon mention of the city of Troy is The Trojan War. On the very first page of his book, the author notes that, “The Trojan War is one of the most fascinating events in human history, yet no-one knows if it is really true. Was it the greatest catastrophe of the ancient world? If not, then it is certainly the greatest story ever told.” For many years I was in belief of the latter – it’s a great story. A great love story to be more specific – Paris steals Helen from her husband, the King of Sparta, resulting in a ten-year war. You know, your typical battle of male domination where the winner gets the girl. 

In “The Discovery of Troy and Its Lost History,” Jones dispels the myth providing meticulous work that takes readers on a journey that, to coin a phrase, leaves no stone unturned. The level of detail and the amount of research that must have gone into this project is mind-boggling. I cannot even comprehend how the author kept it all straight, especially given that he started this project before the age of computers! 

One of the many things that delighted me while I was reading was the realization that Jones is a remarkable storyteller. I found myself picturing him standing on a stage addressing the audience directly and with passion. With Jones, you get every angle of the story. There’s even one section in the book where he gets frustrated on a point after identifying Thrace. He “talks” the reader (and himself) through the predicament, as if by sharing it with us while he’s working through the problem right then and there. He soon discovers through this process that he can just accept the data he has and fill in the missing information at a later point. The long about trail I’m taking to make a point basically comes down to the fact that Bernard Jones is personable and creates an experience “with” the reader as opposed to dictating to the reader. You are on the journey of discovery with him and it’s a very engaging method of writing. 

Additional use of references such as maps add significance and meaning to the big picture, especially for the geographically challenged (we won’t mention any names, but hey some people just need a map). I found the maps most beneficial, detailing routes and other information to support the research. There are also numerous flow charts and pictures of interest to fully bring this journey to life. Of course, as a dedicated bibliophile, I was excited to learn that the works of Homer’s Iliad, and Virgil’s Aeneid, were key references in the research. - 2 - 

If one holds to the theory that the truth is indeed stranger than fiction then, “The Discovery of Troy and Its Lost History” by Bernard Jones is the compelling truth that replaces the ancient myth. The book is a piece of literary art, stunning in both visual and textual representation. It is a captivating and intellectual read that will be revered by historians, academics, and students of geography and history. It also makes a fascinating read for those interested in the works of Homer and Virgil. 

The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History, by Bernard Jones, published by Trojan History Press. Book received free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I was enthralled by this book. The usual dryness of History texts was not present in this book. I was hooked from the first word to the last. 

The was Bernard Jones went about writing this is something I have never come across before, he was engaging but still 100% factual. I also found it refreshing to read this book as I thought I already knew all there was to know about Troy and its lost history, however I was wrong. 
I enjoyed reading this text and will definitely refer to it when I am researching my term paper.

Further more I enjoyed Jones' use of other texts such as the Illiad used as reference and stand alone facts. I found the fact that it refered to texts that I have read multiple times a source of pride for me as I knew exactly what he was refering to. 

17^TH JULY 2019

This book is exceptional work and it is clear from the get-go that the author has done their research. What I usually find with these types of books is that they are mostly all facts with nothing to break it up so we lose interest and focus easily. Not with this book. This book is well-informed and well researched. The paragraphs are broken up with intricate images, maps, and photos that support all the information in this book. This book is stunning and I know for a fact that I will be looking forward to the author's next work of art. 

Truly Exceptional.

15^TH JUNE 2019

There comes a time when one must question conventional wisdom and that is exactly the approach that independent researcher and author Bernard Jones has taken. Fascinated by the entire Trojan Cycle (e.g. the stories involving the Trojan War and the events that followed it) and coupled with his desire to learn more about the history of Britain, Jones makes a bold move and challenges what we know or claim to know about these stories and events. The result is thirty-five years worth of published research: The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History.

It has long been thought, as tradition would have it, that the entire events of the Trojan War took place on the shores of Anatolia in the Dardanelles, just outside of the Bosphorus. According to Jones and his research, this was not the case. Finding a lack of evidence proving without a doubt that this was indeed where the events took place and no evidence of a Western migration (Aeneas into Western Italy), he is able to identify the actual location that inspired both Homer’s and Virgil’s epics.

Using written ancient and Medieval written evidence preserving place names, bloodlines and more, Bernard Jones is able to identify key locations and peoples highlighted in these narratives.

Although, while the main focus of this research centers around the Trojan War, Jones expands beyond that to some of the stories that predate Homer. He ventures into the mythologies surrounding Jason and Argonauts as he attempts to re-identify his actual location of the Black Sea and more.

But what happened? At some point, these narratives moved Eastward and South, into the Mediterranean. The later historians such as Herodotus would later rewrite these stories and reposition them into the world most familiar to them: the Aegean.

By the end of it all, the book opens up to a much larger line of his research which he saves for the next installment of this series. And that is the voyages of Aeneas, as he flees Troy with the Trojan refugees, looking for a new place to call home. It would be Aeneas’ bloodline that would lead to the infamous Brutus, founder of Britain.

Bernard Jones has challenged what we have come to know about these heroic tales and if this is something that piques your curiosity, be sure to pick up a copy of this publication.

I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This Discovery of Troy and Its Lost History is a book that takes us back to ancient times to locate the actual location of Troy and the Trojan War. Compiled of over 30 years of research and dedication, this text seeks to provide evidence of the true location of Troy and the Trojan War. Using ancient texts, such as Homer's Iliad, as a guideline Jones takes us back to the Bronze Age to decipher the clues recorded in what has now been realized as a historical record. Jones takes information on landscapes and climates to piece together the actual voyage to Troy. He also uses astrological clues in his search to further confirm the voyage.

The visuals Jones uses throughout the text help create a visual of life back in the Bronze Age. Included in the visuals are photos of places that were believed to have been part of the journey to Troy. Also included in the visuals are maps and diagrams that allow the reader to easier understand the information of the text.

I was able to learn so much from this book. In the text Jones uses a variety of different forms of communication that allowed the information in the text to be followed and understood easier. There were a lot of interesting facts within the book, some of which were quite surprising. I really enjoyed how Jones was able to add in the myths and legends from that time period to further express what he has1 learned.

The text itself was well written and easy to understand. I recommend this text to anyone who is interested in learning more about Trojan History or anyone who has an interest in history in general.

April 29^th, 2019.

A hook was baited by a suggestion that Bernard Jones’ book, The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History, had great historical significance for my particular corner of the world. Troy, the Trojan war? What connection with ? (I won’t say where so I don’t spoil the surprising conclusions) could there possibly be? But my interest was sufficiently whetted.

The Trojan War devastated the ancient world and plunged it into a Dark Age lasting 500 years. Myth and legend or fact? Bernard has spent 30 years investigating and researching all available evidence, and arrived at startling conclusions turning centuries of accepted history and geography on its head. On their own his findings, without being unkind to him, appear unbelievable. But his painstaking dissection of ancient Greek and British historical and geographical and topographical records, in-depth analysis of language, religion, architecture, and a process of elimination and more besides gently persuades.

Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Voyage of Aeneas, who fought the Greeks at Troy, come under Bernard’s scalpel. He poses and then seeks to prove, using anomolies of wind direction, currents, star formations, described locations and descriptions of the natural world that the ten-year Trojan battleground was not in the Mediterranean, but much, much closer to home.

And then goes a step further to relocate Troy – not in Turkey, not in Greece, not even in the Mediterranean or the Agean.

He discovers a Grecian and Trojan thread running through the ancient tapestry of the British Isles.

The evidence builds and focuses – construction of bronze-age dwellings, woad, dykes, embankments, unexplained man-made structures, Bronze Age sea levels, environmental and coastline changes - until half way through the book when Bernard begins to remove the cloak for his big reveal – the EXACT location of the Trojan War and the ancient city of Troy.

You won’t read anything more startling than this outside of a Dan Brown novel.

I was gifted a copy of this book by the Author, on the proviso that I reviewed it. It was, for me too deep a book to read, digest, and comprehend at this time, so my husband took up the mantle. ****

Be prepared to put aside anything you know about Troy. This immensely researched book, 30 years by the author, makes for a rich attempt to penetrate the story of that City on the hill of Hissarlik. The surprise is that the author believes that Troy was situated elsewhere, and this book attempts to prove that.

 Fascinating, intriguing an insight into early British history, but is it true? 
The writer uses astronomical, geological, and meteorological evidence and other 'facts' from the Illiad to establish his belief that Troy was not in modern day Turkey, but elsewhere. A theory so outrageous, so bold that it will (hopefully) spur on other Historians to contribute to the debate which must surely follow.

14^TH MAY 2019

The house system at my secondary school was named after ancient cities. Ever since being put into 'Troy' I have felt an affinity with the lost city and I'm sure this inspired my love of Greece. Like most scholars, I accepted the excavations by Schliemann in the 19th century to be those of the ancient city. Having read 'The Odyssey' and 'The Aeneid' there were inconsistencies that perhaps didn't fit with this discovery but I put those down to artistic licence or the writer's imagination. Bernard Jones, however, has made it his life's work to prove that Troy was never situated in what is now Turkey but is located somewhere else entirely.

When you read this book, you will begin to read his theory with total incredulity as it turns everything we have come to know about Troy and the Ancients on its head. Little by little Bernard Jones builds on his theory with intricate linguistic and geographical research yet his findings seem almost impossible to believe. If his theory is correct, and he has spent thirty years researching it, then it rewrites history. There are so many things which suddenly ring true if you believe his theory yet even then it feels like the reader is suspending truth in mid-air.

There are a couple of questions that occurred to me as I read this book. If Bernard Jones is correct - and his theory seems to lack any significant archaeological evidence - why are there no physical remains of such an important city? Even in the area that Bernard Jones has stated as the location of Troy, surely there would be some physical evidence to support the theory? Secondly, if Schliemann didn't discover Troy, then what archaeological site did he discover? 

Historians have wondered for centuries about the location of the city of Troy; some arguing that the city never existed at all.  Bernard Jones is not the first to question Schliemann's findings but whatever you believe, this book will make you question what we know and you will read the Iliad with new eyes.

6^TH APRIL 2019

Bernard Jones’ new book The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History uncovers many surprising but viable theories about the Trojan War, particularly its location. At first, the idea that Troy could not have been in the Aegean, as Jones argues, may seem surprising, but Jones presents numerous details to make his argument plausible. I do not want to get into too many details because I don’t want to give away the epic journey Jones takes readers on, but while I admit I am no expert on Troy, I thought his arguments appeared very plausible overall.

For example, one argument is simply that scholars have never been able to understand the chariot warfare that takes place in Homer’s Iliad because the landscape would not have warranted it—however, such warfare could have taken place in North Western Europe. Jones goes into detail about chariot warfare and the specific location where the battles likely took place that made up the Trojan War, and with just as much detail, he discusses a myriad of other clues that reveal the location of Troy, the Trojan War, and even Aeneas’ journeys, clues taken from the Iliad that relate to such details as tides, constellations, music, and many other references made by Homer.
The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History at first might seem like a daunting book since it runs to 388 pages, but the main text is only about 296 pages (the rest is appendices of genealogy charts, photographs, a bibliography, and index) and the main text is in a fairly large print and also filled with pictures. I was able to read it in about six hours, so it was not overly daunting, but I have to admit it’s a book that deserves repeated readings to grasp fully all the fine points of Jones’ argument.
The overarching argument works well, and begins early on with the argument that Troy could not have been in Turkey and then the revelation about its exact location. The rest of the book provides the evidence, most of it directly referencing Homer’s Iliad, to explain how a setting in what is today’s Turkey would be impossible. I found the arguments compelling throughout, and I was also grateful when Jones would stop to recap the arguments to make sure the reader was keeping up with him. Ultimately, he leads us to the exact location of ancient Troy.

In a few places, I have to admit I thought the argument went off into tangents for a few sentences or paragraphs, or more information was presented than needed, such as in explaining druidism, but overall, I found the argument interesting. Readers less familiar with ancient European history will find these additional details probably more helpful than I did since I’ve read so much about British history in particular.

Of most interest to me, because I have long been interested in King Arthur as well as the British claim to be descended from Brutus, who was a descendant of the Trojan Aeneas, was Jones’ argument for valuing the ancient and classical traditions that have come down to us. Unlike the fairly recent book Brutus of Troy by Anthony Adolph, which argues that the various nations that claim descent from biblical and Trojan people created falsified genealogies to link themselves to these records after they were Christianized, Jones argues that many ancient literatures and indeed an entire history of Western Europe that dates back to about 2000 BC exists that has been largely lost to us, largely because people like St. Patrick destroyed pagan records and the English forbid the Welsh language to be spoken so many of its traditions were lost. Jones argues that based on what remains from these traditions, we can see that they were accurate, as was Homer, in what they depict. I have heard these compelling but questionable arguments before, but while Jones does not go into great detail about them, he gives a few examples from pre-Christian sources to back up the statements, and his uses of genealogical, historical, and geographical clues from these ancient Western European traditions to determine the location of Troy make his argument convincing.

In the end, Jones is correct in agreeing that his discoveries do not change anything we know about Troy’s history, simply its geography. While I am usually somewhat skeptical of such arguments that attempt to assert a particular country’s superiority as a sort of chosen race/promised land emblem—the poorly researched yet popular book Drama of the Lost Disciples of Christ by George Jowett, which claims Christianity arrived in England before Rome, comes to mind—Jones backs up all his arguments and provides sources.

Everyone is not going to agree with Jones’ argument, or at least will find various points in it to disagree with. But that is all right. The book is a monumental achievement of years of hard work, and even if some of Jones’ argument in time is proven to be wrong or to need more research, The Discovery of Troy and Its Lost History is a groundbreaking book that will hopefully lead to archaeological efforts to support his educated theories and inspire continued research into the field. After all, King Priam and his people deserve to have the truth known.

5TH APRIL 2019

I liked reading “The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History” by Bernard Jones who put 30 years of research into this excellently organized and scholarly work which is heavily documented in endnotes, maps, and other resources.  This brilliant author has a lifelong passion to study the ancient city of Troy and he reveals novel discoveries which make this book an interesting and amazing read.

Enjoyed it very much!

We were given a free copy of this book by the publisher.  This review, however, is our opinion made irrespective of being given a free book.

14^TH APRIL 2019