The Iliad, one of the earliest epic poems, is said to relate episodes in a war that allegedly took place around 1200 BCE between allied Achaean Greek kingdoms, led by the high king of Mycenae against the wealthy city of Troy, located near the northwestern coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey). The Iliad’s significance lies not only in its being one of the first works of what is termed Western literature but in its sustained influence on literature, art, and popular culture throughout twenty-eight centuries to the present day. There is a good deal of debate among scholars about how much of the Iliad reflects historical truth and how much is mythological or fictional. It is believed that the epic poem was part of an oral bardic tradition that was memorized and passed on, meant to be sung or chanted in public, and then finally put into written form around 800 BCE—some 300 to 400 years after the actual events are believed to have taken place. Once written into Greek, it became a staple for the education of the literate classes of ancient Greece and, later, Rome, through which it passed on to Europe and the Americas. Some scholars have reservations as to whether a war took place, though archaeological excavations initiated in the 1870s by Heinrich Schliemann have confirmed the existence of the cities of Troy and Mycenae, and the site of Troy VII shows some indication of destruction by fire, which might have been the result of the warfare described in the poem. (Troy VII is the archaeological name for the layer of the site that is dated from about 1300 to 950 BCE.) The British historian and documentary producer Michael Wood confirmed the contemporary accuracy of much of the Iliad and provided support for many of the story’s elements and details, though much remains inconclusive and subject to continued speculation.