Archaeologists report finding the remains of the 3,500-year-old palace of Ajax -- a warrior-king said to have been a revered Trojan War fighter.
The discovery, reported on a small Greek island, is being hailed by classicists as proof Homer's Iliad was based on historical fact, The Times of London reported Tuesday.
Yannos Lolos, a Greek archaeologist, said the ruins include a large palace, measuring about 8,000 square feet and believed to have been at least four stories high with more than 30 rooms.
Lolos says the city of Troy is believed to have fallen about 1180 B.C. -- about the same time the palace he discovered was abandoned. Ajax (or Aias), therefore, would have been the last king to have lived there before setting off on the 10-year Trojan expedition, Lolos told The Times.
"This is one of the few cases in which a Mycenaean-era palace can be almost certainly attributed to a Homeric hero," Lolos said. "The complex was found beneath a virgin tract of pine woods on two heights by the coast. All the finds so far corroborate what we see in the Homeric epics."
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
