Christopher Nolan鈥檚 new film adaptation of the Odyssey is an exciting development, since it will introduce new audiences to a classic epic reimagined for our time. This not only sparks interest in the ancient world but also continues a tradition of how people have encountered and reinvented this story over the past three thousand years.

The Odyssey is a work of historical fiction set in the Late Bronze Age, around 1200 BCE. The events take place in the eastern Mediterranean, including coastal areas of Greece and Turkey. The narrative follows the wily Odysseus, a veteran of the Trojan War, who, after 10 years of conflict, spends another decade wandering at sea, longing to return home to his island kingdom of Ithaca. During his absence, his queen, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, must contend with persistent suitors who wish to seize his throne.

The epic is part of a broader tradition about the Trojan War and its aftermath, including the Iliad. Set before the events of the Odyssey, the Iliad focuses on the conflict between the Greek warrior Achilles and his commander, the Mycenaean king, Agamemnon, during the final year of the 10-year siege led by Greek allies. Related works, like Aeschylus鈥檚 Agamemnon, a Greek tragedy, and the Roman epic the Aeneid, reimagine familiar characters in new stories, ancient versions of fan fiction set in the Trojan War universe. Even in antiquity, people shaped these traditions for their own times, just as we do today.

A Song of Times Long Past

When a modern reader picks up a printed copy of The Odyssey, it is important to understand what the book represents, since it provides an illusion of more certainty than exists.

It is not known exactly when the stories were originally composed, but they were transmitted for centuries before being written down. Scholars generally believe that the compositions were passed along by singer-storytellers in a folk tradition, with each performance reshaping the lyrics, even after written versions appeared.

The epic represents the collective voices of countless ancient people still singing to us from the past.

Medieval manuscripts from the Byzantine Empire, the Greek-speaking continuation of the eastern Roman Empire, carried forward texts shaped by earlier editions from the Hellenistic period, the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BCE. The Odyssey is a product of centuries of retelling, variation, copying and selection rather than a straightforward literary composition produced at a specific time in the past.

Modern books of the epic are printed with the name Homer on the cover, but ancient and modern understandings of authorship can be quite different. This is a curious tradition because, even if a historical Homer existed, he did not write the stories printed on the pages. Instead, the epic represents the collective voices of countless ancient people still singing to us from the past.

The Late Bronze Age Collapse and the People of the Sea

The film adaptation contains multiple references to a terrifying threat lurking just beyond the frame. 聽Here, the script draws on historically attested seafaring raiders and migrants collectively known by scholars as the 鈥淪ea Peoples.鈥�

Scholars debate their origins and identities, but there is historical support for these raiders. Around 1200 BCE, they roamed the region and were blamed for widespread mayhem in royal inscriptions and reliefs at Medinet Habu, the Egyptian mortuary temple where pharaoh Ramses III claimed victories over them. With enigmatic names such as the Peleset and Tjeker, scholars have tentatively proposed connections with known groups, including the Philistines or the Mycenaean Greeks.

The activities of the so-called Sea Peoples coincided with regional collapse at the end of the Bronze Age.

No one knows precisely what led them to migrate or raid coastal cities. The activities of the so-called Sea Peoples coincided with regional collapse at the end of the Bronze Age, a catastrophic period during which great states, including those of the Mycenaean Greeks and the Hittites, who ruled a major empire in modern-day Turkey, disintegrated 鈥� ushering in what has traditionally been described as a civilizational 鈥渄ark age.鈥�

As echoed in the film, the Trojan War traditions themselves cast the returning Greek victors as lawless, seaborne raiders. For example, Odysseus and his crew traditionally begin their voyage with an unprovoked attack on Ismarus, a coastal city whose wealth and women they attempt to carry away. The returning heroes are mobile bandits, evoking the upheavals of the age.

Digging Up Troy

Archaeological research has revealed that the literary landscape of the听翱诲测蝉蝉别测 is not purely mythological. In the late 19th century, a wealthy German businessman and amateur archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann set out to find the legendary places of the Trojan War. A man of his time, he unsystematically excavated Hisarlik, ancient Troy, in northwestern Turkey beginning in 1870, before turning his attention to Mycenae in Greece in 1876.

At both locations, Schliemann鈥檚 local collaborators discovered extraordinary Bronze Age artifacts. Ever the showman, he gave the golden artifacts sensational names like 鈥淧riam鈥檚 Treasure鈥� and the 鈥淢ask of Agamemnon.鈥� While later research showed that the gold artifacts didn鈥檛 date to the traditional timing of the Trojan War, the truly contemporaneous remains are significant and informative. Subsequent research confirmed what many once considered the realm of myth: Troy and Mycenae were powerful cities that flourished during the Late Bronze Age.

Setting Sail Into the Unknown

Scholars don’t know if there was a real Trojan War, although it seems plausible that it is a literary construction of ongoing conflicts, dramatized as a single war. Siege warfare is well documented in the Late Bronze Age, and 13th-century BCE diplomatic records from the Hittite Empire appear to record Mycenaean involvement in western Anatolia, supporting the idea that the war is a literary composite.

Equally, the historical identity of Helen, whose face launched a thousand ships, is unknown.

Equally, the historical identity of Helen, whose face launched a thousand ships, is unknown. In Trojan War accounts, she is an ideal, mythologically beautiful woman who provoked the war. Some traditions identify her as the Spartan queen who fell in love with Paris, a Trojan prince, and chose to leave everything behind for a new life across the sea. Others portray her as abducted, with the war an effort to free her.

Skeptics doubt the stories about Helen having inspired a war, dismissing them as romantic or far-fetched. They instead theorize about real motives, such as political strategy, trade interests and regional dominance. But history also shows that wars have been fought over far less.

Why the Odyssey Still Matters

This summer鈥檚 popular film adaptation is introducing new audiences to Odysseus鈥檚 adventures through its stunning visuals and fresh take on some of humanity鈥檚 oldest stories. Among the gods, heroes, and magic of the texts, originally performed as songs, history and archaeology recover traces of a distant past.

An ancient epic like the Odyssey still matters not because it is faithful to an 鈥渙riginal鈥� or older story, but because we continue to make it part of our own.

An ancient epic like the Odyssey still matters not because it is faithful to an 鈥渙riginal鈥� or older story, but because we continue to make it part of our own. It is living art that keeps us in conversation with real people in the past, who also struggled with war, loss and longing and expressed themselves through art.

By reinterpreting their stories to meet the challenges of our own time, we continue an enduring tradition. As a final thought, if faithfulness to the original Odyssey had been desirable 鈥� or attainable 鈥� as a goal, the film should have been a musical.

At Kurd Qaburstan, an ancient site in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, a 性视界传媒-led team has uncovered the first substantial group of cuneiform tablets found in the Erbil region, along with evidence of large-scale destruction, mass graves and citywide fortifications. Together, the discoveries are providing one of the clearest archaeological records yet uncovered of siege warfare and urban life during the Middle Bronze Age.

鈥淥ur 2025 research produced clear archaeological evidence linking the site to the siege of Qabra, beginning with the first significant group of cuneiform tablets found on the Erbil Plain,鈥� says Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, associate professor of history at 性视界传媒 and director of the Kurd Qaburstan project. 鈥淪everal tablets are dated within days of each other, matching the timeline of the city鈥檚 fall.鈥�

The project is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and conducted in partnership with the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Heritage in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The funded excavations took place during two summer seasons in 2024 and 2025.

A Lost Archive Emerges

Researchers recovered 20 cuneiform tablets and more than 100 administrative sealings from destruction layers within the Lower Town East Palace. The artifacts are being studied by epigraphers Paul Delnero (Johns Hopkins University) and Parker Zane (Yale University), along with art historian Marian Feldman (Johns Hopkins University).

The texts include palace administrative records and a letter that may reference a high-ranking official connected to Qabra. Some inscriptions may also correspond to the destruction described on the Victory Stele of Dadusha.

鈥淢ost of the tablets are administrative and provide a snapshot of palace life and the economy of the ancient city,鈥� Earley-Spadoni says. 鈥淥ne tablet appears to have been written by a high-ranking official in ancient Qabra.鈥�

Evidence of Siege Warfare

Collapsed structures, burned layers and concentrated debris suggest a coordinated and possibly prolonged assault.

鈥淭he two superimposed destructions match the historical sequence of the siege of Qabra and its conquest by Shamshi Addu,鈥� Earley-Spadoni says. 鈥淭he charred debris, the large number of ceramic vessels and individuals who met untimely deaths and were buried in the destruction layers, provide the clearest archaeological case of Middle Bronze Age siege warfare yet discovered in northern Mesopotamia.鈥�

The Human Toll of Conflict

Within the palace destruction layers, researchers discovered the remains of 17 individuals, studied by bioarchaeologist Andrea Zurek-Ost at Michigan State University.

鈥淭he individuals were not formally buried and had no associated grave goods,鈥� Earley-Spadoni says. 鈥淪ome appear to have been left where they died, including possible palace workers. One individual was found face down over a stone basin.鈥�

Researchers also uncovered a preserved street with an engineered drainage system and domestic spaces used for food processing and textile production, pointing to sophisticated infrastructure and economic activity.

Mapping an Ancient City at Scale

鈥淭he evidence from Kurd Qaburstan shows that northern cities could be large, complex, and politically significant, with administrative systems, fortifications, and infrastructure comparable to those of the best-known southern sites.鈥濃�擳iffany Earley-Spadoni, director of the Kurd Qaburstan Project

The team also completed a magnetometer survey covering more than 80 hectares (about 180 acres). The survey, which measures changes in Earth鈥檚 magnetic field to detect buried structures, was led by Andrew Creekmore III at the University of Northern Colorado. The survey revealed a monumental wall with bastions encircling the site.

The fortifications correspond with those depicted on the Victory Stele of Dadusha and support the identification of Kurd Qaburstan as the ancient city of Qabra.

Rewriting the Story of Northern Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is often associated with southern cities like Uruk, long viewed as the center of early urban civilization. Discoveries at Kurd Qaburstan are helping highlight the value of northern cities, Earley-Spadoni says.

鈥淭he evidence from Kurd Qaburstan shows that northern cities could be large, complex, and politically significant, with administrative systems, fortifications, and infrastructure comparable to those of the best-known southern sites,鈥� she says.

These discoveries build on a decade of prior excavation at Kurd Qaburstan by Johns Hopkins University, revealing a city long absent from the historical record.

鈥淟aboratory investigations are underway, including isotopic and ancient DNA analyses of the 17 individuals,鈥� Earley-Spadoni says. 鈥淭his work will help researchers understand their origins and relationships.鈥�

Each discovery brings researchers closer to understanding how this ancient city functioned and how it ultimately fell.

This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under Award No. 2344957. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. Work was conducted with the permission, support, and collaboration of the Directorate-General of Antiquities of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Director-General Kak Kaify Mustafa Ali, and the Erbil Department of Antiquities, Director Kak Nader Babakr.