For hundreds of years, people read the Iliad and saw the city of Troy and characters like Achilles, Hector, and Agamemnon as fictional creations. Thus, supporting the popular notion that myths are not based on reality. However, in the late 19th century, Heinrich Schliemann excavated a city in Northwest Turkey and discovered the ruins of a massive fortified city. Through extensive excavation and carbon dating, it was determined that the city could be dated back to the Bronze Age, which would have been an approximation of when the Trojan War would have occurred in Homer's epic poem.
This is a good example of what Leonard & McClure referred to in Myth and Knowing, with the mythic world crossing over into our own. Why are ancient sites such as Troy important, and what makes them sacred?