Spring weather in the Plain of Troy--The Greek Temple of
Athena--Numerous fragments of sculpture--Reservoir of the
temple--Excavation of the Tower--Difficulties of the work--Further
discoveries of walls--Stone implements at small depths--Important
distinction between the plain and decorated whorls--Greek and Roman
coins--Absence of iron--Copper nails: their peculiar forms:
probably dress and hair pins: some with heads and beads of gold and
electrum--Original height of the Tower--Discovery of a Greek
house--Various types of whorls--Further remarks on the Greek
bas-relief--It belonged to the temple of Apollo--Stones from the
excavations used for building in the villages around--Fever.
Pergamus of Troy, March 15th, 1873.
Since my report of the 1st of this month I have continued the
excavations with great zeal, favoured by glorious weather and an
abundance of workmen. The nights are cold, and the thermometer still
frequently falls to freezing point towards morning, whereas during the
day the heat of the sun is already beginning to be troublesome, the
thermometer often showing 18° Réaumur (72½° Fahrenheit) in the shade
at midday. The leaves of the trees are only now beginning to sprout,
while the Plain is already covered with spring flowers.[231] For the
last fortnight we have heard the croaking of millions of frogs in the
surrounding marshes, and during the last eight days the storks have
returned. One of the discomforts of our life in this wilderness is the
hideous shrieking of the innumerable owls which build their nests in the
holes of the walls of my excavations; their shrieks sound mysterious and
horrible, and are especially unendurable at night.
I have proceeded with the excavation of the site of the Temple of Athena
with the greatest energy. The foundations of this sanctuary nowhere
extend deeper than 2 meters (6½ feet), and generally only to 1 meter
(3¼ feet). The floor, which consists of large slabs of sandstone, and
which rests upon double layers of large hewn blocks of the same stone,
is frequently covered only with a foot, and never with more than 3¼
feet, of vegetable soil; this explains the total absence of entire
sculptures. For whatever sculptures there were in or upon the temple
could not sink into the ground on the summit of the hill, and they
therefore remained lying on the surface for many centuries, till they
were destroyed by religious zeal or wantonness. This, and this alone,
explains the enormous mass of fragments of statues which cover the
entire hill.
I find, however, a great number of large sculptured blocks of marble in
the Corinthian style which are difficult to destroy, and the removal of
which causes me great trouble and loss of time. As the Tower, which I
partly uncovered last year, extends directly below the temple at a great
depth, and as I wish at all events to lay bare its entire breadth, I
shall leave only the ruins of the north and south walls of the temple
standing, and break away all the rest, except a reservoir, 27 feet long
and 26 feet broad, which is in the sanctuary, and is built of blocks of
limestone laid together without cement or lime, and the walls of which
have a thickness of 8 feet. The four aqueducts mentioned in my last
report empty themselves into the reservoir. I shall leave it standing in
order to give visitors to the Troad a faint idea of the trouble which I
have to take in removing all the stones of a temple which is about 288
feet long and 72½ feet broad. But what is even much more difficult
than the removal of the stones, is the carrying off of the _débris_, for
as the excavation is made on the flat earth, this can only be effected
by side paths, which become steeper the deeper we dig. However, I only
wish to uncover the top of the ruined Tower, for to bring it to light
down to the primary soil is a piece of work to which my patience is
unequal. This new large cutting, therefore, only requires a depth of 26
feet, and on the western end I have given it a breadth of 78¾ feet.
By this means I hope to reach the ancient and highly important monument
on the north side in two or three days. As soon as this is done, I shall
have an upper and a lower terrace made for facilitating the removal of
the rubbish, and shall thus in a month from to-day be able to finish the
entire excavation of the Tower as far as its eastern end, which I came
upon yesterday in my steep cutting at the south-eastern corner of the
Pergamus, and of which I have laid open a breadth of 13 feet. This
eastern side of the Tower, thus brought to light, runs down at an angle
of 60 degrees, and has the same appearance as the ancient buttress which
I uncovered at the north side of the Pergamus. As I did not at first
think that it was the Tower, I had the first layer of stones broken off,
but I soon found a piece of masonry composed of large stones joined with
earth. In consequence of this I have entirely stopped the works in this
cutting, which already extended to a length of 111½ feet, and in
spite of its small breadth was one of the most difficult works in Troy.
For, as already said, I had first to break through a wall 10 feet thick,
consisting of large blocks of marble, but principally of Corinthian
pillars joined with lime (see p. 239); then the wall of Lysimachus,
which was also 10 feet thick, and built of large hewn stones. The large
drums of pillars had to be rolled up the steep path and then carried
off; the large hewn stones had to be broken with hammers and then
removed in wheel-barrows. In addition to this, as the visitors to the
Pergamus may see in the walls of this cutting, we had to cut through
two Trojan walls, the first of which is 5¼ feet thick, and the second
10 feet; both consist of stones joined with earth. The first of these
walls is directly below a portion of the western wall of the
comparatively modern Temple of Athena, and as--according to my pocket
compass--it runs due E.S.E.1/2E., I at first thought that it might
belong to the ancient diminutive temple of the Ilian tutelary goddess,
which Alexander the Great[232] found here. But nothing further has
appeared which could help to prove this. The second wall, 10 feet thick,
is extremely interesting, for it is built of large unhewn blocks of
shelly limestone (_Muschelkalk_), and on the top of it is a wall of
small stones joined with earth. It evidently belongs to a much later
age, but was in any case built long before the arrival of the Greek
colony in Ilium. But even the lower wall of large stones was not built
till the Tower of Ilium had formed a heap of _débris_ 20 feet high; it
must therefore have been built centuries after the erection of the
Tower. This _débris_ consists of ashes mixed with bones and small
shells, and on account of its dampness and toughness is just as
difficult to break down as damp limestone rock. In it I found many
fragments of those Trojan vessels, which are of a brilliant red or black
colour, both outside and inside, but nothing else of any interest. Above
the Tower, at the east side of the Pergamus, there is nothing but yellow
wood-ashes and a great number of stones. In fact, down to the present
depth of 4½ meters (14¼ feet) below the surface, that is, from 7
to 10 feet below the foundations of the temple of Athena, I find nothing
but yellow wood-ashes, and among these an immense number of enormous
earthen jars (πίθοι) from 3¼ to 6½ feet long, and pointed below,
which must have served not only as wine and water jars, but as cellars
for keeping provisions, for there are no walled cellars.
Stone implements, such as I found in my former excavations only below a
depth of 13 feet (with the exception of the few knives of silex), are
met with here in great numbers at as small a depth as 6½ feet, that
is, directly below the Temple of Athena; those most frequently found are
clumsy hammers of diorite, but occasionally also hammers of the same or
of green stone very prettily worked; some of them have a wide hole at
both sides and a narrow one in the middle, and I cannot understand how a
handle could have been fixed into them. The best finished instrument is
always the wedge,[233] which is of diorite or of hard green stone,
sometimes also of white silex, and occurs in all sizes from about ¾ of
an inch to above 5 inches in length. This instrument is always of such
exquisite workmanship and so well polished, that it is really
astonishing how it was possible, with the miserable means at the
disposal of those times, to make anything of such an excellent quality,
for a modern artist with the best instruments could not possibly make
better ones. The knives of silex, which I found last year in such great
quantities, are as yet but rarely met with in this excavation. As stone
implements do not occur elsewhere before reaching a depth of 4 meters
(13 feet), it is probable that the numbers of stone implements met with
here, as early as at a depth of 2 meters (6½ feet) on the site of the
temple, belong to the _débris_ which was dug up when the large reservoir
was constructed, for it appears to extend pretty far down, and its
foundations may perhaps reach down to the Tower.
As, even in the temple itself, I find exclusively the round terra-cottas
in the form of cones and _without_ decorations, while, on the other
hand, below the foundations of the temple I meet with great quantities
of them in the form of volcanoes and tops, with the most various Aryan
religious symbols, I am now of the opinion _that all those bearing such
Aryan symbols must belong to the tribes which preceded the Greek colony
on this site_.
Of moulds of mica-schist I have only found two, one of which was used on
all the six sides for casting weapons and instruments, the other for
casting headless nails, and has two round holes, not perforated, for
what purpose I do not know.[234]
While speaking of implements, I must mention a very remarkable hammer of
bone, found at a depth of 3 meters (10 feet), which is covered with
little engraved stars.
We again met with several marble idols, with the engraved owl’s face of
the Ilian Athena and her girdle with dots; also a very pretty marble
idol without the owl’s head, but with two small arms extended
horizontally. The only terra-cottas with owls’ heads that have been met
with, since my last report, are two cups (vase-covers).
I find very many copper coins of Ilium and Alexandria Troas, and Roman
ones from the time of Augustus to Constantine the Great, especially the
latter, directly below the surface, and at most down to a meter (3¼
feet) deep. Iron I do not find at all, not even in the temple, but a
number of copper nails, which, however, I begin to think could not have
been used for driving into wood; for this purpose they seem to be far
too long and thin. The usual length of the nails occurring below 6½
feet is from about 4 to above 6 inches, with a thickness of 1/5 of an
inch, and I do not think that it would be possible to drive such a nail
even into very soft wood. Besides this, most of the nails have no head
at all, others two heads, and many have two pointed ends, one of which
is bent round so as to form a head. Thick copper nails suitable for
driving into wood are very rarely met with; I have only found two in two
years. I am therefore induced to believe that all the nails which I find
in the strata of the nations preceding the Greeks have been used only as
dress or hair pins. This belief is confirmed by a copper nail, about 5
inches long, with a head of the usual form, and the fragment of a
similar nail, which were found only 3 inches below the surface, in a
small groove, which my men had made round their reed-hut to allow the
rain-water to run off. On the head of the nail there is a small gold
ball, and then there follows downwards on the nail a row of eighteen
similar little gold balls. At the end of this row there is a second row
of nine gold balls of like size. The rows of the little balls are in the
form of necklaces, and cover a third part of the nail. The fragment of
the other nail is still more remarkable, for it shows a string of little
balls which form a perfect bow; they are made of the alloy which in
antiquity was called _electrum_ (ἤλεκτρον), consisting of three parts of
gold and one part of silver; below the bow, in a horizontal direction,
there is a row of little balls, which are probably intended to represent
the string. The little balls are firmly soldered to both of the nails.
In addition to this I must also mention that the silver nails so
frequently met with are generally of the same form and size as the
copper ones, and can certainly never have been used for driving into
wood.
On the west side of the Great Tower, which I laid bare last year, I am
likewise making an excavation 47 feet long and 48 feet broad, so as to
bring to light more of this side, and to see how the walls of Ilium are
connected with it. It is worth a journey round the world to see this
Tower, whose site was at all events so high, that it not only commanded
a view of the Plain, but also of the plateau lying to the south of it,
whereas its summit now lies a great many feet below the level of the
plateau. According to this it seems that the accumulation of _débris_ on
the site of the city is as large as it is in the Pergamus.[235]
In the western excavation, already mentioned, I found the ruins of a
very large house of the Greek period. It extended to the depth of 6½
feet, and must have belonged to a rich man, for the floors of the rooms
are made of large red slabs splendidly polished. In it I found two small
and very pretty female heads of terra-cotta, as well as two extremely
remarkable pieces of hard brittle black stone, like glass, in the form
of mushrooms, but with a tube running through the centre. The heads of
the two pieces have decorations similar to those on the round
terra-cottas in the form of humming-tops and volcanoes, and I therefore
believe that both pieces belong to the pre-Hellenic period.
Below the foundations of the Greek house I found, at the depth of 3 and
4 meters (9¾ to 13 feet), many of the whorls with the usual
decorations of four, five, or six double or treble rising suns; or four
flaming altars; or four _Rosæ mysticæ_; or four or five 卐 in the circle
around the central sun. I likewise found, at a depth of 10 feet, one of
these articles, upon which there is a very rude and inartistic engraving
of the Ilian Athena, with the owl’s head and outstretched arms. By the
side of this representation there are two crosses, and at the four ends
of each are the marks of the nails with which our forefathers fastened
the two pieces of wood which were laid crosswise for igniting the holy
fire. In the same circle with the image of the goddess there are two
symbols of lightning. A faithful drawing of this terra-cotta is given in
the cut.
[Illustration: No. 172. A Whorl with rude Symbols of the Owl’s Face,
Suastika, and lightning (3 M.).]
Of the earthenware found in this excavation there is one piece
especially deserving of attention. This is a vessel in the form of a
helmet, with a round hole at the bottom; it may have served as a kind of
funnel.
As has been already said, the splendid block of triglyphs representing
Phœbus Apollo with the four horses of the Sun, which I discovered last
July, must, as the triglyph on the left side proves, have stood over the
entrance of the temple, probably on its propylæa, and must have had
another block of triglyphs of the same size on its right side. It would
be of the greatest interest to archæology if I should find the second
block of triglyphs, which, as happened with the other block, has
probably been thrown from the summit of the hill down the steep
declivity. I have also previously expressed the opinion, that the block
of triglyphs which I saved had been thrown down by fanatical Turks
because it represented living creatures, which is strictly prohibited in
the Koran. However, the locality has not been inhabited at all since the
ninth century, and the labourers of the distant Turkish villages cannot
possibly have given themselves the trouble of rolling down from the hill
such tremendous weights from mere religious zeal. Besides this, the good
state in which the sculpture has been preserved proves that it cannot
possibly have stood upon the top of the hill up to the time of the
Turkish invasion, and this leads me to suppose that it was thrown down
by the early Christians more than a thousand years before, very likely
even in the fourth century A.D.; for it is well known, that all
sculptures of heathen gods which were difficult to destroy they simply
hurled from the top of the hills upon which they stood. That this is the
only true explanation is also confirmed by the covering of earth, 3¼
feet thick, which enveloped the sculpture on the declivity of the hill.
According to the average accumulation of the soil in this locality, the
formation of such a covering would be impossible in the course of three
or four centuries: it would have required more than a thousand years.
It is now quite certain that the Doric temple, which at one time stood
on the north side, and in the depths of which I have so long been
working, was the sanctuary of Apollo; and that the block of Doric
triglyphs so frequently mentioned belonged to this temple of Apollo, and
to none other; since Ilium’s great temple, which I am now investigating,
could only have been dedicated to the tutelary goddess of Ilium, Athena,
for in the great inscription quoted in my last report it is simply
called “τὸ ἱερόν.”
In order to try to find the second block of triglyphs, I have since
yesterday set 25 men to work upwards from the foot of the hill at the
point where the Phœbus Apollo was found, over a breadth of 59 feet, to
remove the _débris_ which unfortunately I had thrown down the declivity
last year, and which forms a covering of 23 feet in thickness; and then
to dig away the whole steep side of the hill to a depth of 4½ feet
from the bottom upwards.
As soon as I have workmen to spare, I shall also employ thirty to make a
deep cutting into the theatre, the stage of which, as already said, is
197 feet broad; this cutting I intend to make 33 feet broad and 148 feet
long; for, in a small opening which I made there last year, I found a
number of fragments of broken statues, and it is quite possible that
some, which might be of the greatest interest to archæology, escaped the
zeal of the early Christians.
The many thousands of stones which I bring out of the depths of Ilium
have induced the inhabitants of the surrounding villages to erect
buildings which might be called grand for the inhabitants of this
wilderness. Among others, they are at present building with my Ilian
stones a mosque and a minaret in the wretched Turkish village of
Chiplak, and a church-tower in the Christian village of Yenishehr. A
number of two-wheeled carts, drawn by oxen, are always standing by the
side of my excavations, ready to receive the stones which can be of any
use as soon as they have been brought to the surface; but the religious
zeal of these good people is not great enough for them to offer to help
me in the terrible work of breaking the large, splendidly hewn blocks so
as to make them more convenient to remove.
Although spring is only just commencing, there is already a great deal
of malignant fever in consequence of the mild winter, and the poor
people of the neighbourhood are already daily beginning to make large
claims upon my stock of quinine.
I found myself obliged to raise the men’s wages to 10 piasters or 2
francs, eight days ago.
[Illustration: No. 173. Splendid Trojan Vase of Terra-cotta,
representing the tutelary Goddess of Ilium, θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη. The
cover forms the helmet. (8 M.)]9
[Illustration: Altar and Reservoir PLATE IX.
UPPER PART OF THE BUILDINGS DISCOVERED IN THE DEPTHS OF THE TEMPLE OF
ATHENA.
_Page 259_.]