Great changes took place in Ilion (Troy) in the second half of the first century C. E. The agora (the marketplace) of the city started to be used as a cemetery, and the stonework of the main street that connected the acropolis (the castle) and the theater was destroyed. After these events, the two subsequent earthquakes that took place in the 500s C. E. brought the end of the city. While the entrance in the northeast of the city was repaired after the first earthquake, in the subsequent earthquake that took place only ten years after the first one, this place was completely destroyed; consequently the acropolis (the castle) was completely abandoned. There were still people living in the lower city in the sixth century C. E.; however Ilion was indeed in ruins. Between the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries C. E. there are no indications of a new settlement in the area; however, cemeteries were built in the area near the Great Theater (Theater A) and the upper parts of the cave in its southwest. While there are some pots and jugs unearthed and dated back to the early Ottoman period by some specialists, there is no indication of an Ottoman settlement that belonged to the period when the Ottomans took control of the Dardanelles in the fourteenth century.
