1717-1771

British traveler and topographer who explored the ancient ruins of the Eastern Mediterranean in 1742 and 1750-51. He was the first person to systematically survey the supposed site of the lost city of Troy while working from the assumption that Homer's Illiad described real historical events. Wood's survey, though it did not locate the actual ruins of Troy, helped to pave the way for Heinrich Schliemann's discovery of them in the nineteenth century.