Weather and progress of the work--The lion-headed handle of a
sceptre--Lions formerly in the Troad--Various objects
found--Pottery--Implements of stone and copper--Whorls--Balls
curiously decorated--Fragments of musical instruments--Remains of
house-walls--The storks of the Troad.
Pergamus of Troy, March 22nd, 1873.
During this last week we have again had constant splendid weather, and,
with 150 men on an average, I have got through a good piece of work. On
the north side of the excavation on the site of the Temple of Athena, I
have already reached a depth of 26 feet, and have laid bare the Tower in
several places. The space to be dug down is now divided into four
terraces, and I am having the lowest terrace, which forms the surface of
the Tower, worked with especially great energy. As the paths are getting
both steeper and longer, the men with the wheelbarrows have now to stop
and rest half-way, so the work proceeds more slowly every day. Still I
hope that I shall bring to light the whole breadth of the Tower in the
eastern direction in three weeks, but the western side in a week and a
half. The only part of the interior of the Temple of Athena which I have
left standing is the reservoir built of large white stones without
cement, which, owing to my excavations, will in a few days be 26 feet
above the Tower, and will have a very pretty appearance. It is only by
excavating the west side of that part of the Great Tower which I
uncovered last year, that I shall be able to judge in what direction the
walls run out from it, and what my next work will be. The most
remarkable of the objects found this week is certainly a large knob
belonging to a stick, of the purest and finest crystal, and in the form
of a very beautifully wrought lion’s head; it was discovered upon the
Tower at a depth of 26 feet. It must have been the ornament of a
Trojan’s staff or sceptre (σκῆπτρον), for I found it among those
brilliant red and black fragments of pottery, which only occur at a
depth of from 36 to 46 feet, except upon the Tower. Not only this lion’s
head, but the illustrations drawn from the lion, which occur repeatedly
in the Iliad, make it seem extremely probable that in remote antiquity
lions existed in this neighbourhood. Homer could not possibly have
described so excellently the characteristics of this animal, had he not
had frequent opportunity of watching them, and his geographical
knowledge of southern countries is too slight for us to suppose that he
had visited them, and had there become intimately acquainted with the
characteristics of the lion. Not far from the lion’s head I found a
splendidly cut hexagon of the purest crystal, as well as a small
pyramid, 1½ inch long and broad, and 1-2/3 inch high, made of black,
white and blue streaked marble, such as is not found in this district;
the hole which runs through the centre of the pyramid is filled with
lead.
[Illustration: No. 174.
A Lion-Headed Sceptre-handle of the finest crystal: found on the Tower
(8 M.).]
I also found upon the Tower a very primitive marble idol, 7½ inches
in length, 3-1/3 inches broad, and 1-1/5 inch thick; also a very fine
copper lance; further, a large mould of mica-schist for casting twelve
different weapons and instruments, as well as a beautiful sling-bullet
made of loadstone. In the higher strata, and in fact at a depth of 4
meters (13 feet), the most curious article certainly is an idol of the
Trojan tutelary goddess made of slate, such as has never hitherto been
found. It shows the owl’s face, two breasts and a navel, and long hair
at the back of the head; two horizontal lines on the neck, which are
joined by small cross lines, seem to denote armour. Marble idols without
the owl’s face, but otherwise of exactly the same form as those with the
owl’s face, are met with in numbers in all the strata between 3 and 8
meters deep (10 to 26 feet). I likewise found long, thin copper nails
with round heads at the thick end, or without heads, but with the end
bent round, which I now perceive can only be breast or hair pins, and
not actual nails for driving into wood. I find them also in quantities
in the strata of this excavation between 4 and 7 meters deep (13 to 23
feet), and I must therefore decidedly pronounce that the people to whom
these strata of ruins belong were acquainted with copper.
[Illustration: No. 175. A Mould of Mica-schist, for casting various
metal Instruments (Tower, 8 M.).]
[Illustration: No. 176. A curious Instrument of Copper (3 M.).]
[Illustration: No. 177. A perforated and grooved piece of Mica-schist,
probably for supporting a Spit. Found on the Tower (8 M.).]
A strange instrument of copper, almost in the shape of a horse’s bit,
but with two pointed hooks, was found at a depth of 10 feet. Besides
this, we met with two somewhat crooked copper knives, at from 13 to
16½ feet down, as well as a small but very fine knife, in the form of
a saw, made of a shell. Stone instruments are continually met with here
in great numbers in all of the strata between 2 and 8 meters deep (6½
to 26 feet), whereas in my excavations of 1871 and 1872 I only found
them below a depth of 13 feet. Two beautiful stone lances, one of
diorite, the other of hard green stone, were found, the one at 20 feet
down, the other at 11½ feet. During this week, I also found very many
knives of silex in the form of saws or of sharp blades, with one or two
edges; further, a very prettily cut piece of mica-schist with a
perforated hole and a groove on the upper side, which may have been
fastened to a fireplace and have served for turning a spit.
[Illustration: No. 178. A large Terra-cotta Vase, with two large Handles
and two small Handles or Rings (5 M.).]
I have observed that the terra-cottas here generally occur in great
numbers only in and below those strata of _débris_ which are mixed with
enormous quantities of small shells, and which usually commence at a
depth of 13 feet, but sometimes not till 20 feet. However, every now and
then we come upon beautiful terra-cottas above these shell strata; and
thus, for instance, in the great cutting, directly in front of my door,
we found, at a depth of 10 feet, several large and splendid vessels,
among which was an extremely elegant black vase, in the shape of a
soup-tureen, and at a depth of 11½ feet two mixing-bowls, the smaller
one of which has two, the larger one four, handles; the larger
mixing-bowl is two feet high, and its orifice is as much in diameter.
(See Cut, No. 41, p. 74.) At a depth of 16½ feet I found an extremely
curious large vase, which has two large handles at the top and two small
ones at the sides. Various other vases of extremely curious forms were
discovered at a depth of from 13 to 26 feet; of them I will only mention
one large brilliant black vase with two female breasts and two handles,
by the side of which are the stumps of the upraised arms which
ornamented this vessel. The upper part of it, which, as is proved by the
arms and breasts, was ornamented with the owl’s head of the Ilian
Athena, is unfortunately wanting. It is strange that this vase has no
navel.
Of the large and brilliant red goblets in the form of huge
champagne-glasses, with two immense handles, we met with many in a more
or less broken condition at a depth of from 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26
feet); among them is an enormous goblet 15¾ inches long, of which I
have been able to collect all the fragments and shall therefore be able
to restore it. (See No. 112, p. 158.)
I found, at a depth of from 23 to 26 feet, quantities of earthen plates,
some of which are of a brilliant red colour, but most of them are
uncoloured. At a depth of 20 feet I found a fragment of pottery with a
cross, at the four ends of which are dots, which can only indicate the
nails by means of which it was fastened. Small terra-cotta whorls, with
Aryan religious symbols, were again found in great numbers; several of
them have decorations not hitherto met with. Of terra-cotta balls we
have found three during these last days, two of them are very
remarkable. One hemisphere of the first has nineteen figures like the
Greek letter Rho (Ρ) in a circle round it, and ten of the same figures
in a line through the middle point, also a number of little stars; the
other hemisphere is entirely filled with little stars. The second ball
has a half moon on the one hemisphere and large stars on the other.
[Illustration: No. 179. A remarkable Terra-cotta Ball (6 M.).]
[Illustration: No. 180. A finely engraved Ivory Tube, probably part of a
Flute. Found on the Tower (8 M.).]
Among the remarkable objects found during the week, I must also mention
a splendidly ornamented piece of ivory, from a depth of 8 meters (26
feet), which is almost the shape of a flute, and may have been used as
such; further, a flat bone, which has one hole at the one end and three
at the other, and seems certainly to have belonged to a musical
instrument.
I sometimes find here house-walls built of stones joined with mere
earth, which must certainly have been erected long before the Greek
settlement, but which rise to within a meter (3¼ feet) of the
surface; in fact in the great cutting in front of my house, I have
pierced through two such walls 6½ feet thick, which here formed the
corner of a house, and which reach up to within a foot of the surface;
they appear to extend pretty far down, and in my next letter I shall be
able to give more details about them.
Although the Pergamus, whose depths I have been ransacking, borders
directly upon the marshes formed by the Simoïs, in which there are
always hundreds of storks, yet none of them ever settle down here. Upon
one of my wooden houses and upon the stone one I had two comfortable
nests made for them, but although there are sometimes twelve storks’
nests upon one roof in some of the surrounding Turkish villages, yet
none will settle on mine; it is probably too cold and stormy for the
little storks on “Ἴλιος ἠνεμόεσσα.”
[Illustration: No. 181. Knob for a Stick, of fine marble (3 M.).]
[Illustration: No. 182. Bone handle of a Trojan’s Staff or Sceptre,
σκῆπτρον (7 M.).[236]]