At the centre of the mound, partly cut through by Schliemann's trench, are the foundations of the megaron complex of Troy II — the large rectangular halls of the Early Bronze Age city of around 2500 BC. The megaron form is unmistakable: a long rectangular room with a porch, a central hearth, and a hipped roof supported on columns. This was the form that later evolved into the central hall of Mycenaean palaces and ultimately into the Greek temple.
The Troy II megaron is famous for a different reason. It was in or near this complex, in May 1873, that Schliemann uncovered the gold hoard he immediately named the Treasure of Priam — a remarkable cache of gold jewellery, silver vessels, and bronze weapons. Schliemann's dating was a thousand years off (the hoard is Early Bronze Age, not late Bronze Age) but the find established Troy as a wealthy and important place from a very early period. The objects themselves were smuggled out of Turkey by Schliemann, ended up in Berlin, and were taken to Moscow by the Red Army at the end of the Second World War, where they remain today. The Troy Museum displays high-quality replicas.