File:Troy Palatial Residence (VI M) 2686.jpg

English: A notice explaining what we see: The impressive inward-leaning retaining-wall of House VIM, 27 m. long. This building stood on the lowest terrace of the great citadel mound and surely formed a part of the Troia VI palace-complex. The ceramic finds of this period display not only an advanced, independent style, but also a taste for Mycenaean imports. Immediately noticeable are four vertical offsets in the wall. The stones here are carefully cut. This detail, which is not purely stylistic, occurs on other Trojan facades of the same period. It indicates, on the one hand, the taste of the occupants of the palace and their desire for prestige; on the other, it could have a functional basis in relation to the presumed superstructure of timber and mudbrick. The precisely-cut stones fit one another without and without mortar, as the less weathered stoned in the lower part of the wall show.

This achievement is all the more impressive when one considers that iron tools were not available in this period. Homer repeatedly mentions the “beautiful” walls of Troia/Ilios. Between house VIM and the citadel ran a broad alleyway. Where it continues beyond house VIM there are now visible in the background remains which have been exposed by the recent excavations.

Inside the L-shaped layout of House VIM were several rooms about whose function little is known. Storage-vessels (pithoi) have been preserved, so there was storage here. A few steps show that there was a second storey, but none of it survives. Just as with the other buildings of the Troia VI period, the outer side-walls of House VIM are both oriented towards the central point of the citadel. This is evidence of a unified architectural plan, which guaranteed that streets of uniform width could run between the buildings, up to the centre of the citadel. House VIM continued in use and was enlarged during the succeeding phase of Troia VIIa. Narrow houses were built directly against the inner face of the citadel wall.