Superstition of the Greeks about saints’ days--Further engineering
works--Narrow escape of six men--Ancient building on the western
terrace--The ruins under this house--Old Trojan mode of
building--Continued marks of higher civilization--Terra-cottas
engraved with Aryan symbols: antelopes, a man in the attitude of
prayer, flaming altars, hares--The symbol of the moon--Solar
emblems and rotating wheels--Remarks on former supposed
inscriptions--Stone moulds for casting weapons and
implements--Absence of cellars, and use of colossal jars in their
stead--The quarry used for the Trojan buildings--“Un Médecin malgré
lui."--Blood-letting priest-doctors--Efficacy of
sea-baths--Ingratitude of the peasants cured--Increasing heat.
On the Hill of Hissarlik, May 23rd, 1872.
Since my report of the 11th instant there have again been, including
to-day, three great and two lesser Greek church festivals, so that out
of these twelve days I have in reality only had seven days of work. Poor
as the people are, and gladly as they would like to work, it is
impossible to persuade them to do so on feast days, even if it be the
day of some most unimportant saint. Μᾶς δέρνει ὁ ἅγιος ("the saint will
strike us”) is ever their reply, when I try to persuade the poor
creatures to set their superstition aside for higher wages.
In order to hasten the works, I have now had terraces made at from 16 to
19 feet above the great platform on its east and west ends; and I have
also had two walls made of large blocks of stone--the intermediate
spaces being filled with earth--for the purpose of removing the
_débris_. The smaller wall did not seem to me to be strong enough, and I
kept the workmen from it; in fact, it did not bear the pressure, and it
fell down when it was scarcely finished. Great trouble was taken with
the larger and higher wall: it was built entirely of large stones, for
the most part hewn, and all of us, even Georgios Photidas, thought it
might last for centuries. But nevertheless on the following morning I
thought it best to have a buttress of large stones erected, so as to
render it impossible for the wall to fall; and six men were busy with
this work when the wall suddenly fell in with a thundering crash. My
fright was terrible and indescribable, for I quite believed that the six
men must have been crushed by the mass of stones; to my extreme joy,
however, I heard that they had all escaped directly, as if by a miracle.
In spite of every precaution, excavations in which men have to work
under earthen walls of above 50 feet in perpendicular depth are always
very dangerous. The call of “guarda, guarda” is not always of avail, for
these words are continually heard in different places. Many stones roll
down the steep walls without the workmen noticing them, and when I see
the fearful danger to which we are all day exposed, I cannot but
fervently thank God, on returning home in the evening, for the great
blessing that another day has passed without an accident. I still think
with horror of what would have become of the discovery of Ilium and of
myself, had the six men been crushed by the wall which gave way; no
money and no promises could have saved me; the poor widows would have
torn me to pieces in their despair--for the Trojan women have this in
common with all Greeks of their sex, that the husband, be he old or
young, rich or poor, is everything to them; heaven and earth have but a
secondary interest.
Upon the newly made western terrace, directly beside my last year’s
excavation, we have laid bare a portion of a large building--the walls
of which are 6¼ feet thick, and consist for the most part of hewn
blocks of limestone joined with clay. (_No. 24 on Plan II._) None of the
stones seem to be more than 1 foot 9 inches long, and they are so
skilfully put together, that the wall forms a smooth surface. This house
is built upon a layer of yellow and brown ashes and ruins, at a depth of
6 meters (20 feet), and the portion of the walls preserved reaches up to
within 10 feet below the surface of the hill. In the house, as far as we
have as yet excavated, we found only one vase, with two breasts in front
and one breast at the side; also a number of those frequently mentioned
round terra-cottas in the form of the volcano and top, all of which have
five or six quadruple rising suns in a circle round the central
sun.[134] These objects, as well as the depth of 6 meters (20 feet), and
the architecture of the walls described above, leave no doubt that the
house was built centuries before the foundation of the Greek colony, the
ruins of which extend only to a depth of 6½ feet. It is with a
feeling of great interest that, from this great platform, that is, at a
perpendicular height of from 33 to 42 feet, I see this very ancient
building (which may have been erected 1000 years before Christ) standing
as it were in mid air. To my regret, however, it must in any case be
pulled down, to allow us to dig still deeper. As I said before, directly
below this house there is a layer of ruins consisting of yellow and
brown ashes, and next, as far as the terrace, there are four layers more
of ashes and other _débris_, each of which represents the remains of one
house at least. Immediately above the terrace, that is 13 feet below the
foundation of that very ancient house, I find a wall about 6 feet thick,
built of large blocks of limestone, the description of which I must
reserve for my next report, for a large portion of the building I have
mentioned, and immense masses of the upper strata of _débris_, as well
as the high earthen wall of the terrace (26 feet thick and 20 feet high)
must be pulled down, before I can lay bare any portion of this wall and
investigate how far down it extends. If it reaches to or even
approaches the primary soil, then I shall reverently preserve it. (See
No. 25 on Plan II.) It is a very remarkable fact, that this is the first
wall built of large stones that I have hitherto found at the depth of
from 10 to 16 meters (33 to 52½ feet).[135] I cannot explain this,
considering the colossal masses of loose stones which lie irregularly
beside one another (especially at a depth of from 36 to 52½ feet), in
any other way than by supposing that the houses of the Trojans were
built of blocks of limestone joined with clay, and consequently easily
destroyed. If my excavations are not interrupted by any accident, I
hope, in this at all events, to make some interesting discoveries very
soon, with respect to this question.
Unfortunately during the last twelve days I have not been able to pull
down much of the lower firm earth-wall, for, in order to avoid fatal
accidents, I have had to occupy myself especially in making and
enlarging the side terraces. I have now, however, procured enormous iron
levers of nearly 10 feet in length and 6 inches in circumference, and I
thus hope henceforth to be able at once to break down, by means of
windlasses, the hardest of the earth-walls, which are 10 feet thick, 66
broad, and from 16 to 26 feet high. In the small portion of the
earth-wall pulled down during these last days, I repeatedly found the
most irrefutable proofs of a higher civilization; but I will only
mention one of these, a fragment of a brilliant dark grey vessel which I
have at present lying before me, found at a depth of 15 meters (49
feet). It may probably have been nearly 2 feet in diameter, and it has
decorations both outside and inside, which consist of engraved
horizontal and undulating lines. The former are arranged in three sets
in stripes of five lines, and the lowest space is adorned with eight and
the following with five undulating lines, which are probably meant to
represent the waves of the sea; of the next set no part has been
preserved; the thickness of the clay is just 3/5 of an inch.
[Illustration: No. 79. Fragment of a brilliant dark-grey Vessel, from
the Lowest Stratum (15 M.). _a_ Inside; _b_ Outside.]
In my report of the 25th of last month,[136] I mentioned the discovery
of one of those terra-cottas upon which were engraved three animals with
antlers in the circle round the central sun. Since then four others of
these remarkable objects with similar engravings have been discovered.
Upon one of them, found at a depth of 6 meters (20 feet), there are only
two animals with antlers in the circle round the sun, and at the end of
each antler, and connected with it, is an exceedingly curious sign
resembling a large candlestick or censer, which is certainly an
especially important symbol, for it is repeatedly found here standing
alone.[137] Upon a second, there is below a rough representation of a
man who seems to be praying, for he has both arms raised towards heaven;
this position reminds us forcibly of the two uplifted arms of the
owl-faced vases; to the left is an animal with but two feet and two
trees on its back.[138] Indian scholars will perhaps find that this is
intended to represent the falcon, in which shape the sun-god stole the
sacred sôma-tree from heaven. Then follow two animals with two horns,
probably antelopes, which are so frequently met with upon ancient Greek
vases, and which in the Rigvêda are always made to draw the chariot of
the winds. Upon a third terra-cotta there are three of these antelopes
with one or two rows of stars above the back, which perhaps are intended
to represent heaven; then five fire-machines, such as our Aryan
ancestors used; lastly, a sign in zigzag, which, as already said, cannot
represent anything but the flaming altar.[139] Upon the fourth whorl are
four hares, the symbols of the moon, forming a cross round the sun. They
probably represent the four seasons of the year.[140]
At a depth of 14 meters (46 feet) we found to-day two of those round
articles of a splendidly brilliant black terra-cotta, which are only 3/5
of an inch in height, but 2-1/3 inches in diameter, and have five triple
rising suns and five stars in the circle round the central sun. All of
these decorations, which are engraved, as in every other case, are
filled in with a very fine white substance. When looking at these
curious articles, one of which is exactly the shape of a
carriage-wheel,[141] the thought involuntarily strikes me that they are
symbols of the sun’s chariot, which, as is well known, is symbolized in
the Rigvêda by a wheel, and that all and each of these articles met with
in the upper strata (although their form deviates from that of a wheel
on account of their greater thickness) cannot be anything but
degenerated representations of the sun’s wheel. I conjecture this all
the more, because not only is the sun the central point of all the
round terra-cottas, but it is almost always surrounded by one, two,
three, four or five circles, which may represent the nave of the wheel.
At a depth of 16 meters (52½ feet) we found a round terra-cotta,
which is barely an inch in diameter, and a fifth of an inch thick; there
are five concentric circles round the central point, and between the
fourth and fifth circle oblique little lines, which are perhaps meant to
denote the rotation of the wheel.
[Illustration: No. 80. Whorl with pattern of a moving Wheel (16 M.).]
I must here again refer to the round terra-cotta mentioned in my report
of the 18th of November, 1871,[142] and to my regret I must now express
my firm conviction that there are no letters upon it, but only
symbolical signs; that for instance the upper sign (which is almost
exactly the same as that upon the terra-cotta lately cited)[143] must
positively represent a man in an attitude of prayer, and that the three
signs to the left can in no case be anything but the fire-machine of our
Aryan ancestors, the 卐 little or not at all changed. The sign which then
follows, and which is connected with the fourth and sixth signs, I also
find, at least very similar ones, on the other, cited in the same
report, but I will not venture to express an opinion as to what it may
mean.[144] The sixth sign (the fifth from the figure in prayer) is very
like the Phœnician letter “Nun,” but in my opinion cannot be a letter,
for how would it be possible to find a single Semitic letter, between
Aryan religious symbols? Its great resemblance to the zigzag sign of
other examples,[145] which I recognise to be lightning, leads me to
suppose that it likewise can only represent lightning.
All the primitive symbols of the Aryan race, which I find upon the
Trojan terra-cottas, must be symbols of good men, for surely only such
would have been engraved upon the thousands of terra-cottas met with
here. Yet these symbols remind one forcibly of the “σήματα λυγρά” and
“θυμοφθόρα,” which King Prœtus of Tiryns gave to Bellerophon to take to
his father-in-law in Lycia.[146] Had he scratched a symbol of good
fortune, for instance a 卐, upon the folded tablet, it would assuredly
have sufficed to secure him a good reception, and protection. But he
gave him the symbol of death, that he might be killed.
[Illustration: No. 81. Whorl with Symbols of Lightning (7. M.).]
The five [six] characters found on a small terra-cotta disc at a depth
of 24 feet, and which in my report of November 18th, 1871,[147] I
considered to be Phœnician, have unfortunately been proved not to be
Phœnician, for M. Ernest Renan of Paris, to whom I sent the small disc,
finds nothing Phœnician in the symbols, and maintains that I could not
find anything of the kind in Troy, as it was not the custom of the
Phœnicians to write upon terra-cotta, and moreover that, with the
exception of the recently discovered Moabite inscription of King Mesha,
no Phœnician inscription has ever been found belonging to a date
anterior to 500 years B.C.
[Illustration: No. 82. Two fragments of a great Mould of Mica-schist for
casting Copper Weapons and Ornaments (14 M.).]
I may also remark, with regard to my last year’s excavations, that I
have now found quadrangular pieces of mica-schist and chlorite slate,
from nearly 6 inches to nearly 11 inches long, and from about 1¼ to
3½ inches thick, which have on all four sides, and several of them on
six sides, forms or moulds for casting weapons and instruments; and
further, that the channelled pieces, spoken of in the report of November
18th, 1871,[148] are nothing but fragments of similar stone-moulds; the
brilliant, glossy appearance of the slate seems to have been produced by
simple polishing.
Of cellars, such as we have in civilized countries, I have as yet found
not the slightest trace, either in the strata of the Hellenic or in
those of the pre-Hellenic period; earthen vessels seem everywhere to
have been used in their stead. On my southern platform, in the strata of
Hellenic times, I have already had ten such vessels dug out in an
uninjured condition; they are from 5¾ to 6½ feet high, and from 2
to 4½ feet in diameter, but without decorations.[149] I sent seven of
these jars (πίθοι) to the Museum in Constantinople.
In the strata of the pre-Hellenic period I find an immense number of
these πίθοι, but I have as yet only succeeded in getting two of them out
uninjured, from a depth of 26 feet; these are about 3½ feet high and
26¾ inches in diameter; they have only unimportant decorations.
In my last communication, I was able to speak of a lesser number of the
blocks of stone obstructing the works upon the great platform; to-day,
however, I have again unfortunately to report a considerable increase of
them.
At a distance of scarcely 328 yards from my house, on the south side,
and at the part of the plateau of Ilium in a direct perpendicular line
below the ruined city wall, which seems to have been built by
Lysimachus, I have now discovered the stone quarry, whence all those
colossal masses of shelly limestone (_Muschelkalk_) were obtained, which
the Trojans and their successors, down to a time after the Christian
era, employed in building their houses and walls, and which have given
my workmen and me such inexpressible anxiety, trouble, and labour. The
entrance to the quarry, which is called by the native Greeks and Turks
“lagum” ("mine” or “tunnel,” from the Arabic word لغم, which has passed
over into Turkish), is filled with rubbish, but, as I am assured by all
the people about here, it was still open only 20 years ago, and, as my
excavations have proved, it was very large. The town, as seems to be
indicated by a continuous elevation extending below the quarry, had a
double surrounding wall at this point, and this was in fact necessary,
for otherwise the enemy would have been able, with no further
difficulty, to force his way into the quarry below the town-wall, as the
entrance to the quarry was outside of the wall.
Unfortunately, without possessing the slightest knowledge of medicine, I
have become celebrated here as a physician, owing to the great quantity
of quinine and tincture of arnica which I brought with me and
distributed liberally, and by means of which, in October and November of
last year, I cured all fever patients and wounds. In consequence of
this, my valuable time is now claimed in a troublesome manner by sick
people, who frequently come from a distance of many miles, in order to
be healed of their complaints by my medicine and advice. In all the
villages of this district, the priest is the parish doctor, and as he
himself possesses no medicines, and is ignorant of their properties, and
has besides an innate dislike to cold water and all species of washing,
he never uses any other means than bleeding, which, of course, often
kills the poor creatures. Wrinkles on either side of the lips of
children from 10 to 12 years of age show that the priest has repeatedly
bled them. Now I hate the custom of bleeding, and am enthusiastically in
favour of the cold-water cure; hence I never bleed anyone, and I
prescribe sea-bathing for almost all diseases; this can be had here by
everyone, except myself, who have no time for it. My ordering these
baths has given rise to such confidence, nay enthusiasm, that even
women, who fancied that it would be their death to touch their bodies
with cold water, now go joyfully into the water and take their dip.
Among others, a fortnight ago, a girl of seventeen from Neo-Chori was
brought to me; her body was covered with ulcers, especially her face,
and one terrible ulcer on the left eye had made it quite useless. She
could scarcely speak, walk or stand, and, as her mother said, she had no
appetite; her chest had fallen in, and she coughed. I saw immediately
that excessive bleeding and the consequent want of blood had given rise
to all her ailments, and therefore I did not ask whether she had been
bled, but how many times. The answer was, the girl had taken cold, and
the parish priest had bled her seven times in one month. I gave her a
dose of castor oil, and ordered her a sea bath every day, and that, when
she had recovered sufficient strength, her father should put her through
some simple passive gymnastic exercises--which I carefully described--in
order to expand her chest. I was quite touched when early this morning
the same girl appeared on the platform, threw herself on the ground,
kissed my dirty shoes, and told me, with tears of joy that even the
first sea bath had given her an appetite, that all the sores had begun
to heal directly, and had now disappeared, but that the left eye was
still blind, otherwise she was perfectly well, for even the cough had
left her. I, of course, cannot cure the eye; it seems to me to be
covered with a skin which an oculist might easily remove. The girl had
come on foot from Neo-Chori, a distance of three hours, to thank me, and
I can assure my readers that this is the first case, in the Plain of
Troy, in which I have received thanks for medicines or medical advice;
but I am not even quite sure whether it was a feeling of pure gratitude
that induced the girl to come to me, or whether it was in the hope that
by some other means I might restore sight to the blind eye.
The heat has increased considerably during the last few days; the
thermometer stands the whole day at 25° Réaumur (88¼° Fahrenheit) in
the shade.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.
_Page 143._
TROJAN BUILDINGS ON THE NORTH SIDE, AND IN THE GREAT TRENCH CUT THROUGH
THE WHOLE HILL.]