UW-Madison prof to lead excavation at Troy - WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports

MADISON (WKOW) -- A University of Wisconsin archaeologist will lead a new round of excavations at ancient Troy.

Professor William Aylward will head an international team of archaeologists and scientists in a series of excavations at the site in Turkey beginning next summer.

Less than a fifth of the city has been excavated. Aylward hopes new scientific techniques such as chemical residue and genomic analyses will shed more light on the city and how its people lived.

The poet Homer immortalized Troy and the Trojan War in his work "The Illiad.'' The city was abandoned in the 13th century and remained lost until the 1870s when German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann rediscovered it.