NKUA Professor Dimitris Plantzos Delivers Keynote at International Congress on Homeric Troy

Dimitris Plantzos, Professor of Classical Archaeology at NKUA, was the keynote speaker at the International Troy Congress, an international conference on Homeric Troy held from 24 to 26 September 2026 at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (ÇOMÜ) in Çanakkale, Turkey. The opening ceremony took place on Thursday, 24 September, at the Troia Culture Centre. It was attended by the Governor of Çanakkale, Ömer Toraman; the Vice-Rector of ÇOMÜ, Arda Aydın; the Chair of the Organising Committee, Professor Tülay Güzel; and the Provincial Director of Culture and Tourism, Çağman Esirgemez.

The congress approached Troy from an interdisciplinary perspective. Its themes included archaeology, mythology and literature, art history, cultural heritage management and museology, tourism, digital humanities, economics, geography and climate change. Participants included academics and researchers from Turkey, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria and Greece.

Professor Plantzos’s lecture, titled “Whose Troy? Archaeology, Myth, and the Politics of the Ancient Past”, examined the relationship between archaeology and myth and the political uses of the ancient past. At its centre was the question of who “owns” Troy today.

The congress poster

D. Plantzos at the podium

From the congress promotional material