An ancient burial mound near Troy in northwestern Turkey may be the original tomb of Greek hero Ajax, according to a new study that reexamines discoveries along the Dardanelles coast. Excavations have confirmed that the site, long mistaken for a prehistoric settlement, was deliberately built as a monument. Its proposed connection to Ajax rests on its location and accounts left by ancient writers.
The site, known today as Işıldaktepe Altı, lies close to ancient Rhoiteion, where ancient authors placed Ajax’s grave. Archaeologist Fecri Polat outlined the findings in a study published in the Troy Museum Journal. He argues that the surviving mound could represent an earlier burial monument associated with the warrior of the Trojan War.
First identified in 2011, the coastal remains appeared to be a settlement damaged by waves. A roughly 40-meter-long (131 feet), 7-meter-high (23 feet) exposed section contained old pottery, leading researchers to think part of a prehistoric village had been washed into the sea.
Clues connecting the burial mound to Greek hero Ajax
That interpretation changed after the Çanakkale Museum Directorate conducted a rescue excavation from Oct. 2 to 25, 2024. Beneath soil dumped during construction of a World War II-era military bunker, archaeologists found rows of stones secured with clay. A greenish clay coating, about 20 to 25 centimeters (8 to 10 inches) thick, covered the mound and helped keep its sides from slipping.
The interior held dark soil mixed with pottery from the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods, along with spindle whorls, a bone awl, grinding stones, and a pottery handle shaped like an animal. Numerous tuna vertebrae pointed to fishing in the area’s prehistoric communities.
Polat concluded that builders had carried soil from a nearby ancient settlement to create the mound. Similar construction methods were documented at Beşik Sivritepe, another monument in the Troy region traditionally associated with Achilles. The newly examined mound was constructed after the Late Bronze Age, but its precise date remains undetermined.
Ancient accounts describe a tomb damaged by the sea
Ancient accounts provide the main historical link. Strabo placed Ajax’s tomb on a headland near Rhoiteion. Pausanias repeated a story of waves exposing bones, including kneecaps as big as an athlete’s discus. Philostratus described a tradition that Emperor Hadrian restored the damaged tomb.
The shoreline evidence offers a parallel. Excavators traced the mound’s soil below the modern beach, indicating the coast lay farther away when it was built. Waves and construction of a military bunker in the 1940s damaged the surviving remains.
Yet the excavations did not establish that Ajax was buried there. Polat treats the identification as a possibility, not a proven fact. Further examination of the mound’s central structure could help establish its age and test its connection to the ancient accounts.
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