Increase of men and machinery and cost on the works: but slow
progress--Continued hurricane on “the windy Ilium” (Ἴλιος
ἠνεμόεσσα)--The great platform proves too high--New
cutting--Excavation of the temple--Objects found--Greek statuettes
in terra-cotta--Many whorls with 卐 and suns--Wheel-shaped whorls
with simple patterns in the lowest strata--Terra-cotta balls with
suns and stars--Use of the whorls as amulets or coins
discussed--Little bowls, probably lamps--Other articles of
pottery--Funnels--A terra-cotta bell--Various beautiful
terra-cottas--Attempts at forgery by the workmen--Mode of naming
the men--The springs in front of Ilium--Question of Homer’s hot and
cold spring--Course of the Simoïs--The tomb of Batiea or Myrina
identified with the Pacha Tépé--Theatre of Lysimachus--Heat and
wind--Plague of insects and scorpions--Konstantinos Kolobos, a
native genius without feet.
On the Hill of Hissarlik, July 13th, 1872.
My last report was dated the 18th of June. As the great extent of my
excavations renders it necessary for me to work with no less than 120
men, I have already been obliged, on account of the harvest season, to
increase the daily wages to 12 piasters since the 1st of June; but even
this would not have enabled me to collect the requisite number of men,
had not Mr. Max Müller, the German Consul in Gallipoli, had the kindness
to send me 40 workmen from that place. In consequence of this, even
during the busiest harvest season, I have always had from 120 to 130
workmen, and now that the harvest is over, I have constantly 150. To
facilitate the works, I have procured, through the kindness of the
English Consul in Constantinople, Mr. Charles Cookson, 10 “man-carts,”
which are drawn by two men and pushed by a third. The same gentleman
also sent me 20 wheel-barrows, so that I now work with 10 man-carts and
88 wheel-barrows. In addition to these I keep six more carts with
horses, each of which costs 5 francs a day, so that the total cost of my
excavations amounts to more than 400 francs (16_l._) a day. Besides
battering-rams, chains, and windlasses, my implements consist of 24
large iron levers, 108 spades, and 103 pickaxes, all of the best English
manufacture. From sunrise to sunset all are busily at work, for I have
three capital foremen, and my wife and I are always present at the
works. But for all this I do not think that I now remove more than 400
cubic yards of _débris_ in a day, for the distance is always increasing,
and in several places it is already more than 262 feet. Besides this,
the continual hurricane from the north, which drives the dust into our
eyes and blinds us, is exceedingly disturbing. This perpetual high wind
is perhaps explained by the fact that the Sea of Marmora, with the Black
Sea behind it, is connected with the Ægean Sea by a strait comparatively
so narrow. Now, as such perpetual high winds are unknown in any other
part of the world, Homer must have lived in the Plain of Troy, otherwise
he would not have so often given to his Ἴλιος the appropriate epithet of
“ἠνεμόεσσα” (the “windy” or “stormy”), which he gives to no other place.
As I have already said, at a perpendicular depth of 12 meters (39½
feet) below the summit of the hill (on the site of what is probably the
temple built by Lysimachus) I have dug a platform, 102 feet broad below
and 112 feet wide at the top: it already extends to a length of 82 feet.
But to my great alarm I find that I have made it at least 5 meters
(16½ feet) too high; for, in spite of the great depth and the great
distance from the declivity of the hill, I am here still in the _débris_
of the Greek colony, whereas on the northern declivity of the hill I
generally reached the ruins of the preceding people at a depth of less
than 6½ feet. To make the whole platform 16½ feet lower would be a
gigantic piece of work, for which I have no patience at present, on
account of the advanced season of the year. But in order as soon as
possible to find out what lies hidden in the depths of this temple, I
have contented myself with making a cutting 26 feet broad above and 13
feet wide below, exactly 16¼ feet below the platform and in the
centre of it. This cutting I am having dug out at the same time from
below and on two terraces, so it advances rapidly.
Since the discovery of the Sun-god with the four horses, many blocks of
marble with representations of suns and flowers have been found, but no
sculptures of any importance. As yet very few other objects have been
brought to light from the excavation of the temple; only a few round
terra-cottas with the usual decoration of the central sun surrounded by
three, four, or five triple or quadruple rising suns; knives of silex in
the form of saws, a few pretty figures in terra-cotta, among which is a
priestess with very expressive Assyrian features, with a dress of a
brilliant red and green colour, and a red cloth round her head; also a
small bowl, the lower end of which represents the head of a mouse. The
mouse, it is well known, is a creature inspired by the vapours of the
earth, and, as the symbol of wisdom, was sacred to Apollo. According to
Strabo (XIII. p. 613) Apollo is said to have caused mice to show the
Teucrians, who migrated from Crete, the place where they were to settle.
However, the bowl with the head of a mouse is no more a proof that the
temple built here by Lysimachus was dedicated to Apollo than is the
metopé representing the Sun-god with four horses.
In the other parts of my excavations, since my last report, we have
again brought to light an immense number of round terra-cottas, and
among them, from a depth of from 4 to 10 meters (13 to 33 feet), a
remarkable number with three, four, or five 卐 round the central
sun.[184] One, from a depth of 23 feet,[185] shows the central sun
surrounded by six suns, through each of which a 卐 passes; upon another,
found at a depth of 33 feet, the central sun has 12 trees instead of
rays;[186] upon a third, brought from a depth of 16½ feet, the sun
has seven rays in the form of fishing-hooks, one in the form of the
figure three and two in the shape of the Phœnician letter Nun, then
follow 12 sheaves of rays, in each of which are four little stars; upon
a fourth terra-cotta, which I found at a depth of 16½ feet, there are
four rising suns and a tree in the circle round the sun.[187] I very
frequently find between the rising suns three or four rows of three dots
running towards the central sun,[188] which, as already said, according
to É. Burnouf, denote “royal majesty” in the Persian cuneiform
inscriptions. It is certain that this symbol is here also intended to
glorify the Sun-god. At a depth of from 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33 feet)
we also find round terra-cottas, upon which the entire surface round the
sun is filled with little stars, and in addition only one 卐.
During the last few days we have also found, in the strata next above
the primary soil, at a depth of from 46 to 36 feet, a number of round
brilliant black terra-cottas of exquisite workmanship; most of them much
flatter than those occurring in the higher strata, and resembling a
wheel; many are in the shape of large flat buttons.[189] But we also
meet with some in the form of tops and volcanoes, which differ from
those found in the higher strata only by the fineness of the terra-cotta
and by their better workmanship. The decorations on these very ancient
articles are, however, generally much simpler than those met with above
a depth of 10 meters (33 feet), and are mostly confined to the
representation of the sun with its rays, or with stars between the
latter, or of the sun in the centre of a simple cross, or in the middle
of four or five double or treble rising suns. At a depth of 6 meters (20
feet) we again found a round terra-cotta in the form of a volcano, upon
which are engraved three antelopes in the circle round the sun.
At a depth of from 5 to 8 meters (16½ to 26 feet) a number of
terra-cotta balls were found, the surface of each being divided into
eight fields; these contain a great many small suns and stars, either
enclosed by circles or standing alone. Most of the balls, however, are
without divisions and covered with stars; upon some I find the 卐 and the
tree of life, which, as already said, upon a terra-cotta ball found at a
depth of 26 feet, had stars between its branches.
[Illustration: No. 143. Terra-cotta Ball, representing apparently the
climates of the globe (8 M.).[190]]
Among the thousands and thousands of round terra-cottas in the form of
the volcano, the top, or the wheel, which are found here from the
surface down to a depth of from 14 and 16 meters (46 to 53 feet)--that
is, from the end of the Greek colony down to the ruined strata of the
first inhabitants, I have not yet found a single one with symbolical
signs, upon which I could discover the slightest trace that it had been
used for any domestic purpose.[191] On the other hand, among those which
have no decorations I find a few, perhaps two in a hundred, of those in
the form of volcanoes, the upper surfaces of which show distinct traces
of rubbing, as if from having been used on the spinning-wheel or loom.
That these articles, which are frequently covered with the finest and
most artistic engravings, should have served as weights for
fishing-nets, is utterly inconceivable, for, apart from all other
reasons opposed to such a supposition, pieces of terra-cotta have not
the requisite weight, and of course are directly spoilt by being used in
water.
M. É. Burnouf writes to me, that these exceedingly remarkable objects
were either worn by the Trojans and their successors as amulets, or must
have been used as coins. Both of these suppositions, however, seem to me
to be impossible. For amulets they are much too large and heavy, for
they are from above 1 inch to nearly 2 inches, and some even 2-1/3
inches, in diameter, and from 3/5 of an inch to nearly 2 inches high;
moreover, it would be most uncomfortable to wear even a single one of
these heavy pieces on the neck or breast. That they were used as coins
appears to me inconceivable, on account of the religious symbols;
moreover, if they had been so used, they would show traces of wear from
their continual transfer. The white substance with which the engravings
are filled seems also to contradict their having been used as coins; for
in their constant passage from hand to hand it would have soon
disappeared. Lastly, such an use is inconsistent with the fact that
they also occur in the strata of the Greek colony, in which I find a
number of copper and some silver coins of Ilium. However, the latter
belong for the most part to the time of the Roman emperors, and I cannot
say with certainty that they reach back beyond our Christian era. There
are, however, coins of Sigeum, which probably belong to the second
century before Christ, for in Strabo’s time this town was already
destroyed.
[Illustration: No. 144. Small Terra-cotta Vessel from the lowest
Stratum, with four perforated feet, and one foot in the middle (14
M.).[192]]
At a depth of 14 meters (46 feet) I find, among other curious objects,
small round bowls only 1¾ inch in diameter; some of them have, on the
edge of the bottom, four little feet with a perforated hole, and in the
centre a fifth little foot without a hole. Other bowls of the same size
have four little feet, only two of which have a perforated hole. My
conjecture is that all of these small bowls, which could both stand and
be hung up, were used by the ancient Trojans as lamps. Among the ruins
of the three succeeding nations I find no trace of lamps, and only at a
depth of less than a meter (3¼ feet) do I find Greek λύχνοι.
[Illustration: Nos. 145, 146. Two little Funnels of Terra-cotta,
inscribed with Cyprian Letters (3 M.).]
At the depth of 2 meters (6½ feet) I found, among the ruins of a
house, a great quantity of very small bowls, only 3-4ths of an inch high
and 2-5ths of an inch broad, together with their small lids; their use
is unknown to me. At all depths below 4 meters (13 feet) I find the
small flat saucers of from nearly 2 inches to above 3 inches in
diameter, with two holes opposite each other; from 4 to 7 meters (13 to
23 feet) they are coarse, but from 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33 feet) they
are finer, and from 13 to 14 meters (42½ to 46 feet) they are very
fine. I am completely ignorant as to what they can have been used for.
At all these depths I also find funnels from 2¾ to above 3 inches
long, the broad end of which is only a little above an inch in diameter.
In the upper strata they are made of very coarse clay, but at an
increasing depth they gradually become better, and at a depth of 46 feet
they are made of very good terra-cotta. It is extremely remarkable,
however, that these curious and very “unpractical” funnels were kept in
use in an entirely unchanged pattern by all the tribes which inhabited
Ilium from the foundation of the city to before the Greek colony. I also
find, in the second and third strata, terra-cottas in the form of the
primitive canoes which were made of the hollowed trunk of a tree. From 4
to 7 meters (13 to 23 feet) they are coarse, and about 4 inches long; at
a depth of from 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33 feet) they are finer, and from
1½ to 2¾ inches long. They may have been used as salt-cellars or
pepper-boxes; I found several with flat lids. These vessels cease to be
found in the lowest stratum. Miniature vases and pots, between 1 and 2
inches high, are frequently found in all the strata from a depth of from
10 to 33 feet; at a depth of from 46 to 52½ feet only three miniature
pots were discovered; one is not quite an inch high. At a depth of 5
meters (16½ feet) we found a perfectly closed earthen vessel with a
handle, which seems to have been used as a bell, for there are pieces of
metal inside of it which ring when it is shaken.
[Illustration: No. 147. A Trojan Humming-top (7 M.).]
[Illustration: No. 148. Terra-cotta Bell, or Clapper, or Rattle (5 M., 7
in the Photograph).]
Of cups (vase-covers) with owls’ heads and helmets, since my last report
two have been brought out from a depth of 10 and 11 feet, two from 16
feet and one from 26 feet. The first are made of bad terra-cotta and are
inartistic; those from a depth of 16 feet are much better finished and
of a better clay; while that from 26 feet (8 meters) is so beautiful,
that one is inclined to say that it represents the actual portrait of
the goddess with the owl’s face.[193] During these last few days we have
found a number of those splendid red cups in the form of large
champagne-glasses, without a foot, but with two enormous handles, one of
which was 10½ inches high; but I have already found one 12½ inches
in height. From a depth of from 26 to 33 feet we have also brought out
many small pots with three little feet, with rings at the sides and
holes in the mouth for hanging up, and with pretty engraved decorations.
Upon the whole, we have met with many beautiful terra-cottas from all
the strata during the last few days.
I have still to describe one of those very pretty vases which occur
abundantly at the depth of from 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33 feet), and have
either two closed handles, or, in place of them, two handles with
perforated holes, and also two holes in the mouth in the same direction;
thus they could stand or be hung up by means of strings drawn through
the four holes. They have in most cases decorations all round them,
which generally consist, above and below, of three parallel lines drawn
round them horizontally; between these there are 24 perpendicular lines,
which likewise run parallel; the spaces formed by the latter are filled
alternately with three or six little stars.[194] At a depth of from 7 to
10 meters (23 to 33 feet) we also meet, although seldom, with vases
having cuneiform decorations. I must, however, remind the reader that
all the decorations met with here, at a depth of from 33 feet up to
6½ feet, have always been more or less artistically engraved upon the
terra-cottas when they were still soft and unburnt, that all of the
vases have a uniform colour (though the ordinary pots are in most cases
uncoloured), and that we have never found a trace of painting in these
depths, with the exception of a curious box in the form of a band-box,
found at a depth of 8 meters (26 feet), which has three feet as well as
holes for hanging it up. It is adorned on all sides with red decorations
on a yellow ground, and on its lid there is a large 卐 or a very similar
symbol of the Maya, the fire-machine of our Aryan forefathers.
In the lowest stratum also, at the depth of 52½ feet, I found only
the one fragment, already described, of a vase with an actual
painting.[195] All of the other vessels found in these strata, even the
round terra-cottas in the form of wheels, volcanoes, or tops, are of a
brilliant black, red or brown colour, and the decorations are
artistically engraved and filled with a white substance, so as to be
more striking to the eye.
As every object belonging to the dark night of the pre-Hellenic times,
and bearing traces of human skill in art, is to me a page of history, I
am, above all things, obliged to take care that nothing escapes me. I
therefore pay my workmen a reward of 10 paras (5 centimes, or a
half-penny) for every object that is of the slightest value to me; for
instance, for every round terra-cotta with religious symbols. And,
incredible as it may seem, in spite of the enormous quantities of these
articles that are discovered, my workmen have occasionally attempted to
make decorations on the unornamented articles, in order to obtain the
reward; the sun with its rays is the special object of their industry.
I, of course, detect the forged symbols at once, and always punish the
forger by deducting 2 piasters from his day’s wages; but, owing to the
constant change of workmen, forgery is still attempted from time to
time.
As I cannot remember the names of the men engaged in my numerous works,
I give each a name of my own invention according to their more or less
pious, military or learned appearance: dervish, monk, pilgrim, corporal,
doctor, schoolmaster, and so forth. As soon as I have given a man such a
name, the good fellow is called so by all as long as he is with me. I
have accordingly a number of Doctors, not one of whom can either read or
write.
Yesterday, at a depth of 13 meters (43½ feet), between the stones of
the oldest city, I again came upon two toads, which hopped off as soon
as they found themselves free.
In my last report I did not state the exact number of springs in front
of Ilium. I have now visited all the springs myself, and measured their
distance from my excavations, and I can give the following account of
them. The first spring, which is situated directly below the ruins of
the ancient town-wall, is exactly 365 meters (399 yards) from my
excavations; its water has a temperature of 16° Celsius (60.8°
Fahrenheit). It is enclosed to a height of 6½ feet by a wall of large
stones joined with cement, 9¼ feet in breadth, and in front of it
there are two stone troughs for watering cattle. The second spring,
which is likewise still below the ruins of the ancient town-wall, is
exactly 725 meters (793 yards) distant from my excavations. It has a
similar enclosure of large stones, 7 feet high and 5 feet broad, and has
the same temperature. But it is out of repair, and the water no longer
runs through the stone pipe in the enclosure, but along the ground
before it reaches the pipe. The double spring spoken of in my last
report is exactly 945 meters (1033 yards) from my excavations. It
consists of two distinct springs, which run out through two stone pipes
lying beside each other in the enclosure composed of large stones joined
with earth, which rises to a height of 7 feet and is 23 feet broad; its
temperature is 17° Celsius (62.6° Fahrenheit). In front of these two
springs there are six stone troughs, which are placed in such a manner
that the superfluous water always runs from the first trough through all
the others. It is extremely probable that these are the two springs
mentioned by Homer, beside which Hector was killed.[196] When the poet
describes the one as boiling hot, the other as cold as ice, this is
probably to be understood in a metaphorical sense; for the water of both
these springs runs into the neighbouring Simoïs, and thence into the
Kalifatli-Asmak, whose enormous bed was at one time occupied by the
Scamander; the latter, however, as is well known, comes from Mount Ida
from a hot and a cold spring.
I remarked in my last memoir that the Doumbrek-Su (Simoïs) still flows
past the north of Ilium into the former channel of the Scamander, and I
afterwards said that one of its arms flowed into the sea near Cape
Rhœteum. This remark requires some explanation. The sources of the
Simoïs lie at a distance of eight hours from Hissarlik; and, as far down
as the neighbouring village of Chalil-Koï, though its water is drawn off
into four different channels for turning mills, its great bed has always
an abundance of water even during the hottest summer weather. At
Chalil-Koï, however, it divides itself into two arms; one of which,
after it has turned a mill, flows into the Plain in a north-westerly
direction, forms an immense marsh, and parts into two branches, one of
which again falls into the other arm, which flows in a westerly
direction from Chalil-Koï, and then empties itself directly into the
Kalifatli-Asmak, the ancient bed of the Scamander. The other arm of the
Simoïs, which flowed in a north-westerly direction from Chalil-Koï,
after it has received a tributary from the Kalifatli-Asmak by means of
an artificial canal, turns direct north, and, under the name of
In-tépé-Asmak, falls into the Hellespont through an enormously broad
bed, which certainly was at one time occupied by the Kalifatli-Asmak,
and in remote antiquity by the Scamander, and is close to the sepulchral
mound of Ajax, which is called In-tépé. I must draw attention to the
fact that the name of Ajax (Αἴας, gen. Αἴαντος) can even be recognised
in the Turkish name (_In_-tépé: _Tépé_ signifies “hill.”)
In returning to the article by M. Nikolaïdes, I can now also refute his
assertion that near Ilium, where I am digging, there is no hill which
can be regarded as the one described by Homer as the tomb of Batiea or
the Amazon Myrina.[197]
Strabo (XIII. i. p. 109) quotes the lines already cited from the
Iliad[198] (II. 790-794) as an argument against the identity of Ilium
with the Ilium of Priam, and adds: “If Troy had stood on the site of the
Ilium of that day, Polites would have been better able to watch the
movements of the Greeks in the ships from the summit of the Pergamus
than from the tumulus of Æsyetes, which lies on the road to Alexandria
Troas, 5 stadia (half a geographical mile) from Ilium.”
Strabo is perfectly right in saying that the Greek camp must have been
more readily seen from the summit of the Pergamus than from a sepulchral
mound on the road to Alexandria Troas, 5 stadia from Ilium; for
Alexandria Troas lies to the south-west of Ilium, and the road to it,
which is distinctly marked by the ford of the Scamander at its entrance
into the valley, goes direct south as far as Bunarbashi, whereas the
Hellespont and the Greek camp were north of Ilium. But to the south of
Ilium, exactly in the direction where the road to Alexandria Troas must
have been, I see before me a tumulus 33 feet high and 131 yards in
circumference, and, according to an exact measurement which I have
made, 1017 yards from the southern city wall. This, therefore, must
necessarily be the sepulchral mound of which Strabo writes; but he has
evidently been deceived in regard to its identity with the tumulus of
Æsyetes by Demetrius of Scepsis, who wished to prove the situation of
this mound to be in a straight line between the Greek camp and the
village of the Ilians (Ἰλιέων κώμη), and the latter to be the site of
Troy. The tumulus of Æsyetes was probably situated in the present
village of Kum-Koï, not far from the confluence of the Scamander and the
Simoïs, for the remains of an heroic tumulus several feet in height are
still to be seen there.
The mound now before me is in front of Troy, but somewhat to the side of
the Plain, and this position corresponds perfectly with the statements
which Homer gives us of the position of the monument of Batiea or the
Amazon Myrina: “προπάροιθε πόλιος” and “ἐν πεδίῳ ἀπάνευθε.” This tumulus
is now called Pacha-Tépé.
We may form an idea of what a large population Ilium possessed at the
time of Lysimachus, among other signs, from the enormous dimensions of
the theatre which he built; it is beside the Pergamus where I am
digging, and its stage is 197 feet in breadth.
The heat during the day, which is 32° Celsius (89.6° Fahrenheit), is not
felt at all, owing to the constant wind, and the nights are cool and
refreshing.
Our greatest plague here, after the incessant and intolerable hurricane,
is from the immense numbers of insects and vermin of all kinds; we
especially dread the scorpions and the so-called Σαραντοπόδια (literally
“with forty feet"--a kind of centipede), which frequently fall down from
the ceiling of the rooms upon or beside us, and whose bite is said to be
fatal.
I cannot conclude without mentioning an exceedingly remarkable person,
Konstantinos Kolobos, the owner of a shop in the village of Neo-Chorion
in the Plain of Troy, who, although born without feet, has nevertheless
made a considerable fortune in a retail business. But his talents are
not confined to business; they include a knowledge of languages; and
although Kolobos has grown up among the rough and ignorant village lads
and has never had a master, yet by self-tuition he has succeeded in
acquiring the Italian and French languages, and writes and speaks both
of them perfectly. He is also wonderfully expert in ancient Greek, from
having several times copied and learnt by heart a large etymological
dictionary, as well as from having read all the classic authors, and he
can repeat whole rhapsodies from the Iliad by heart. What a pity it is
that such a genius has to spend his days in a wretched village in the
Troad, useless to the world, and in the constant company of the most
uneducated and ignorant people, all of whom gaze at him in admiration,
but none of whom understand him!
[Illustration: No. 149. A Trojan decorated Vase of Terra-cotta (7 M.).]