Intended cessation of the work--Further excavation of the
Tower--Layers of red ashes and calcined stones--Objects found on
the Tower--Weapons, implements, and ornaments of stone, copper, and
silver--Bones--Pottery and vases of remarkable forms--Objects found
on each side of the Tower--First rain for four months--Thanks for
escape from the constant dangers--Results of the excavations--The
site of Homer’s Troy identified with that of Greek Ilium--Error of
the Bunarbashi theory--Area of the Greek city--Depth of the
accumulated _débris_ unexampled in the world--Multitude of
interesting objects brought to light--Care in making drawings of
them all.
Pergamus of Troy, August 14th, 1872.
Since my report of the 4th of this month I have continued the
excavations with the utmost energy, but I am now compelled to stop the
works this evening, for my three foremen and my servant, who is also my
cashier, have been seized by the malignant marsh-fever, and my wife and
I are so unwell that we are quite unable to undertake the sole direction
throughout the day in the terrible heat of the sun. We shall therefore
leave our two wooden houses and all our machines and implements in
charge of a watchman, and to-morrow we shall return to Athens.
The admirers of Homer, on visiting the Pergamus of Troy, will find that
I have not only laid bare the Tower on the south side, along the whole
breadth of my trench, down to the rock upon which it stands, at a depth
of 14 meters or 46½ feet, but that by my excavations on the east and
west I have uncovered it considerably further, without having found its
end. On the contrary, upon the east side, where it is 40 feet broad, and
seems even to be broader still, I found the ruins of a second storey, of
which, however, as far as I can at present judge, four broad steps have
been preserved.[207] On the western side it is only 9 meters or 30 feet
in breadth, and on this side there extends to the north an enormous
wall, the thickness of which I have not been able to ascertain. The fact
of my not having been able to carry these new excavations down to the
primary soil, but only to a depth of 11 meters (36½ feet) is owing to
the brittle nature of the walls of rubbish and ruins round about the
Tower, which, as anyone may convince himself, consist of red ashes and
of stones calcined by the heat, and which threatened at any moment to
fall in and bury my workmen.
[Illustration: No. 155. A Trojan Terra-cotta Vase, with an Ornament like
the Greek _Lambda_ (8 M.).]
[Illustration: No. 156. Curious Terra-cotta Vessel in the shape of a
Mole (Tower: 7 or 8 M.).]
Upon the Tower, and more especially in the long oval depression on the
top of it, and upon the steps I found two copper Trojan lances, several
arrow-heads in the primitive form of thick pegs, from above 1 inch to
nearly 2 inches long, which were fastened at the end of the shaft;
further, an arrow-head 2½ inches in length, made of silex, and in the
form of a pointed double-edged saw; then several copper and silver nails
with round heads, which may have served as clothes-pins; further, great
quantities of bones, masses of fragments of Trojan pottery of a
brilliant red and black, and a number of vases and pots more or less
well preserved. Among them is a pretty brilliant red vase nearly 10
inches high, filled with the bones of a sea-fish. This vase (found in an
urn, which was unfortunately broken to pieces) has two small handles,
and on two sides an ornament in the form of the Greek letter _Lambda_,
but with circular ends.[208] Three other vases of a similar form, and
with exactly the same decorations, were found upon the Tower. Two other
vases of the same form, and with very similar decorations, were found at
depths of 26 and 20 feet. I also found upon the Tower an exceedingly
curious vessel nearly 6 inches in length, exactly the shape of a mole,
and with three feet; it can also be placed so that the snout of the
animal is lowest and serves as a foot; the orifice is in the tail, which
a large handle connects with the back. I also found there a splendid
Trojan vase, of a brilliant black colour, 15¾ inches high, which was
unfortunately completely broken, but I have all the pieces of it, and
consequently shall be able to restore it. Besides these, a Trojan pot,
and a globular vessel with the above-mentioned decoration of a rounded
lambda. I likewise saved, in an almost perfect condition, an exceedingly
interesting red jug, above 9 inches high, quite round below and with a
neck more bent backwards than I have ever found it in such vessels. I
further found there a Priapus and a very pretty bird’s egg made of fine
marble, many small terra-cotta whorls with the usual symbols of double
and treble crosses, six suns, four or five double or treble rising suns,
or stars, in the circle round the central sun; also one article where
four 卐 form a cross round the sun, and the rest of the space is filled
with stars. Further, a few small vessels with suspension rings were
found also on the Tower, as well as 25 very ordinary earthen plates,
which have been turned by the potter, whereas all the other articles
appear to have been made by the hand without a potter’s wheel; about
half of the plates were got out uninjured.
[Illustration: No. 157. A Trojan Dish with side Rings, and Plates turned
by the Potter (Tower: 7 M.).]
In digging to the left and right of the Tower, a number of other
interesting objects have been found since my last report; for instance,
at a depth of 2 meters (6½ feet), a number of very neat although
ordinary vessels with small rings on the sides and holes in the mouth
for hanging them up, which have hitherto only been met with much further
down; at a depth of 3 meters (10 feet) a small cover, with the owl’s
face and helmet of the Ilian Athena, of very good manufacture; then, at
a depth of 11½ feet, a small terra-cotta whorl with three stags in
the circle round the sun. At a depth of from 5 to 6 meters (16½ to 20
feet), I found a great number of small knives of silex in the form of
saws. At a depth of 10 meters (33 feet) I discovered a very curious
instrument of brilliant yellow terra-cotta, a drawing of which I give.
It is quite inexplicable to me for what purpose it can have been used;
it is almost in the shape of a shield, and by the side of the handle
which is ornamented with a tree, it has a cavity for putting the hand
in. As it is made of terra-cotta it cannot, of course, have been used as
a shield.[209]
After having had no rain here for four months, to-day, curiously enough,
just after stopping the works, we have had a thunderstorm accompanied by
a tremendous downpour of rain, and I regret extremely not to have been
able to make a channel for leading off the rain-water from the Tower as
far as the western declivity of the hill. But such a channel would need
to be 50 feet deep and as many broad, otherwise its walls, consisting of
calcined ruins and loose red ashes, would fall in. I should therefore
have to remove 5000 cubic meters (6000 cubic yards) of _débris_, and
such a gigantic piece of work I cannot now undertake.
In stopping the excavations for this year, and in looking back upon the
fearful dangers to which we have continually been exposed since the 1st
of April, between the gigantic layers of ruins, I cannot but fervently
thank God for His great mercy, that not only has no life been lost, but
that none of us has even been seriously hurt.
Now, as regards the result of my excavations, everyone must admit that I
have solved a great historical problem, and that I have solved it by the
discovery of a high civilization and immense buildings upon the primary
soil, in the depths of an ancient town, which throughout antiquity was
called Ilium and declared itself to be the successor of Troy, the site
of which was regarded as identical with the site of the Homeric Ilium by
the whole civilized world of that time. The situation of this town not
only corresponds perfectly with all the statements of the Iliad, but
also with all the traditions handed down to us by later authors; and,
moreover, neither in the Plain of Troy, nor in its vicinity, is there
any other place which could in the slightest degree be made to
correspond with them. To regard the heights of Bunarbashi as the site of
Troy, contradicts, in every respect, all the statements of Homer and of
tradition. My excavations of Bunarbashi, as well as the form of the
rocks, prove that those heights, as far as the three sepulchral mounds,
can never have been inhabited by men. As I have already said, behind
those tumuli there are the ruins of a very small town, the area of
which, surrounded on two sides by the ruins of an enclosing wall, and on
the other side by precipices, is so insignificant, that at most it can
have only possessed 2000 inhabitants. The enclosing wall of its small
Acropolis is scarcely a foot thick, and the gate scarcely 3¼ feet
wide. The accumulation of _débris_ is not worth mentioning, for in many
places the naked flat rocks are seen on the ground of the Acropolis.
Here in Ilium, however, the proportions are very different. The area of
the Greek city, which is indicated by the surrounding wall built by
Lysimachus, is large enough for a population of more than 100,000 souls;
and that the number of the inhabitants was actually as large is proved
by the stage of the theatre, which is 200 feet in breadth. Here the
surrounding wall of Lysimachus is 6½ feet thick, whereas the wall
which runs out from the Tower at a great depth below the other seems to
be five times as thick, and Homer assuredly ascribed the erection of the
walls of Troy to Poseidon and Apollo on account of their enormous
proportions.[210] Then, as regards the accumulation of _débris_, here in
the Pergamus there is no place where it amounts to less than 14 meters,
or 46½ feet, and in many places it is even much more considerable.
Thus, for instance, on my great platform, I only reached the primary
soil at a depth of 16 meters, or 53-1/3 feet, and in the depths of the
temple, on the adjacent field, belonging to Mr. Frank Calvert, I have
not yet reached it at a depth of 15½ meters, or 51-2/3 feet. Such an
accumulation of ruins has never as yet been discovered in any other part
of the world, except occasionally in the rocky valleys of Jerusalem;
where, however, it has only begun to accumulate since the destruction of
the city by Titus, and hence is scarcely more than 1800 years old.[211]
Here in Troy the remains of the Greek period cease entirely at a depth
of ½, 1, or 2 meters, and thence, down to the primary soil, we find in
regular succession the mighty layers of ruins belonging to four very
ancient nations.
In like manner, as regards the more than a hundred thousand objects
which I have brought to light, and which were used by those very ancient
tribes, I venture to say that I have revealed a new world to archæology;
for, in order to give but one instance, I have here found many thousands
of those wheels, volcanoes, or tops (_carrousels_) of terra-cotta with
the most various Aryan religious symbols.
If, as it seems, neither the Trojans nor any of the three succeeding
peoples possessed a written language, we must, as far as possible,
replace it by the “_monuments figurés_” which I have discovered.[212] As
already said, I make a drawing in my diary each evening of every one of
the objects which have been found during the day, and more especially of
the pictorial symbols, with the greatest exactness. By comparing the
innumerable symbols I have succeeded in deciphering some of them, and I
hope that my learned colleagues will succeed in explaining the rest.
Archæology shall on no account lose any one of my discoveries; every
article which can have any interest for the learned world shall be
photographed, or copied by a skilful draughtsman, and published in the
Appendix to this work; and by the side of every article I shall state
the depth in which I discovered it.
[Illustration: No. 158. A curious Trojan Jug of Terra-cotta (8 M.).]