Return to Troy to take plans and photographs--Damage to retaining
walls--The unfaithfulness of the watchman--Stones carried off for a
neighbouring church and houses--Injury by rain--Works for security
during the winter--Opening up of a retaining wall on the side of
the hill, probably built to support the temple of Athena--Supposed
_débris_ of that temple--Drain belonging to it--Doric style of the
temple proved by the block of Triglyphs--Temple of Apollo also on
the Pergamus.
Athens, September 28th, 1872.
I wrote my last memoir on the 14th of last month, and on the 10th of
this month, accompanied by my wife and Sisilas the land-surveyor, I
returned to Troy in order to make a new plan of the Pergamus, which
contains the most exact picture of my excavations, as well as of the
depth in which the remains of immortal fame were discovered by me. I
also took the photographer Siebrecht from the Dardanelles with me, in
order to have photographs taken of my excavations, of two of the four
springs situated on the north side of Ilium, of Ilium’s Great Tower and
the Plain of Troy, as well as of the Hellespont as seen from this
monument.
To my horror, upon arriving there, I found that the watchman whom I had
left in charge had been faithless, and that an immense number of large
hewn stones dug out of my excavations, with which I had erected walls in
several places in order to prevent the winter rains from washing away
the _débris_ which we had pulled down, had been carried off. The man
excused himself by saying that the stones had been used for a good
purpose, namely for the construction of a belfry in the Christian
village of Yenishehr, and for building houses in the Turkish village of
Chiplak. I, of course, packed him off directly, and engaged in his place
a watchman whom I armed with a musket. He had the reputation of being
honest, and his physical strength will inspire the pilferers of the
stones with respect. What vexed me most was, that these thieves had even
laid their hands upon the splendid bastion of the time of Lysimachus,
which I had uncovered on the south side of the hill; they had made off
with two large stones from it, and the bastion would assuredly have
vanished entirely had I been away a week longer.
I also regret to see that the downpour of rain on the 14th of August has
filled the great cutting, which I made on the south side of the Tower,
in order to bring the Tower to light down as far as the rock upon which
it is built, with _débris_ to a height of 2 meters (6½ feet). So,
immediately upon my arrival, I engaged 20 workmen, 10 of whom are busy
in clearing the south side of the Tower as far as the primary soil, in
wheeling away the _débris_, and in building in front of the cutting a
wall of large blocks of stone, through which the rain-water can escape,
but not the _débris_ that may be washed down.
I have now had an opportunity of convincing myself that the rain does
not harm the Tower, for it disappears directly to the right and left of
it in the loose _débris_. Of the other ten workmen, six are occupied in
repairing the walls which have been destroyed or injured by wanton
hands, while the other four are working in order to lay bare as far as
possible an exceedingly remarkable wall, which rises at an angle of 40
degrees at the depth of 15½ meters (50½ feet) and at 43½ yards
from the edge of the hill, on the site of the temple, exactly 6½ feet
_below_ the Trojan wall which I there brought to light. (See p. 200.) As
I have before remarked, the strata of _débris_, which run obliquely to
the north below that Trojan wall, prove that it was built upon the
steep slope of the hill, and this is an additional and infallible proof
that the buttress, which is erected 6½ feet below it, can have served
no other purpose than for consolidating and strengthening the ground of
the declivity so effectually that buildings of an enormous weight might
be erected upon the summit without danger. Now as I have never hitherto
found buttresses of this kind for consolidating the declivity of the
hill among the strata of the pre-Hellenic period, although there was no
lack of grand buildings in the Pergamus of Troy (as is proved by the
colossal masses of hewn and unhewn stones from 16½ to 20 feet high,
mixed with charred _débris_, with which I had to struggle upon my great
platform), I positively believe that the above-mentioned buttress was
erected to support the site of a temple of great sanctity. I believe
this all the more, as the buttress here forms a curve and appears to
protect the whole of the north-eastern corner of the hill, which was the
extreme end of the Pergamus and perfectly corresponds with Homer’s
statement about the position of the temple of Athena, “on the summit of
the city” (ἐν πόλει ἄκρῃ: _Iliad_, VI. 297). I have no doubt that in
ascending from this buttress I shall find the ruins of that ancient
temple at a distance of less than 10 meters (33 feet). But in order to
penetrate further, I must first of all pull down the Trojan wall, 10
feet high and 6½ feet thick, which I have already frequently
mentioned, and remove the enormous masses of _débris_; this work must be
deferred till the 1st of February, for I am now too ill and tired to
attempt it. The discovery of the very ancient temple of Athena at the
north-eastern corner would, moreover solve the great problem--whence
arises the colossal accumulation of _débris_, which here covers the
declivity with a crust as hard as stone, 131 feet in thickness, and
which caused me so much trouble, not only in this excavation, but also
at the eastern end of my platform, along an extent of more than 80 feet.
It will be found that this enormous crust has arisen solely from the
remains of the sacrifices offered to the Ilian Athena.
I had not noticed this buttress at the time of my departure on the 15th
of August, and I have now only discovered it because the rain has laid
bare two of its stones. It is built of blocks of shelly limestone
(_Muschelkalk_), from about a foot to 2 feet 2 inches long and broad,
joined with earth, and it probably covered the whole north-eastern
corner of the hill from the bottom to the top. I presume that the drain
of green sandstone, nearly 8 inches broad and about 7 inches high, which
I spoke of in my report of the 25th of April, belongs to the very
ancient temple of Athena; it will be remembered that I found it at about
11½ feet above my great platform, and at a distance of 46 feet from
the edge of the declivity.
The block of triglyphs with the Sun-god and the four horses, which I
found here, proves that the temple which it adorned was built in the
Doric style; and, as the Doric is confessedly the oldest style of
architecture, the ancient temple of the Ilian Athena was doubtless in
that style. We know, however, from the Iliad[213] that there was also a
temple of Apollo in the Pergamus. It probably stood at the south-eastern
corner of the hill, for at the foot of it may be seen, in a small
excavation, a wall composed of splendid Corinthian pillars joined by
means of cement. It is probable that these pillars belong to a temple of
Apollo of the time of Lysimachus. In excavating the Tower further to the
east, I hope to find the site of this temple, and in its depths the
ruins of the very ancient temple of Apollo.
If the Trojans possessed an alphabetical language, I shall probably find
inscriptions in the ruins of the two temples. I am, however, no longer
sanguine in regard to this, as I have hitherto found no trace of writing
in the colossal strata of the four tribes which preceded the Greek
colony.[214]
WORK AT HISSARLIK IN 1873.