|
Chapter 15 (p.224)
WORK AT HISSARLIK IN 1873.
Pergamus of Troy, February 22nd, 1873.
I returned here on the 31st of January with my wife, in order to continue
the excavations, but we have been repeatedly interrupted by Greek
church festivals, thunderstorms, and also by the excessive cold, so
that I can scarcely reckon that I have had as yet more than eight good
days’ work. Last autumn, by the side of my two wooden houses, I had a
house built for myself of stones from the old Trojan buildings, the
walls of which were 2 feet thick, but I was compelled to let my foremen
occupy it, for they were not sufficiently provided with clothes and
wrappers, and would have perished through the great cold. My poor wife
and I have therefore suffered very much, for the strong icy (p.225) north
wind [215] blew with such violence through the chinks of our house-walls
which were made of planks, that we were not even able to light our
lamps of an evening; and although we had fire on the hearth, yet the
thermometer showed 4 degrees of cold (Réaumur = 23° Fahrenheit), and
the water standing near the hearth froze in solid masses. During the
day we could to some degree bear the cold by working in the
excavations, but of an evening we had nothing to keep us warm except
our enthusiasm for the great work of discovering Troy. Fortunately this
extreme cold lasted only four days, from the 16th to the 19th of this
month, and since then we have had glorious weather.
Besides
Georgios Photidas, who was with me during the excavations of last year,
I have as foremen Georgios Barba Tsirogiannis (a sea-captain from
Chalcis in Eubœa), and an Albanese from Salamis, whom, however, I shall
shortly send back on account of his uselessness, and get two other
foremen from the Piræus in his stead. A good foreman is more useful to
me than ten common workmen, but I find that the gift of command is
rarely met with except among seamen.
I have also brought with me
an artist, that I may have the objects found copied immediately in
Indian ink, and the drawings multiplied in Athens by means of
photography. This will, however, render it impossible for me to state
the depths at which the objects were found upon distinct plates, as I
have hitherto done. The articles discovered in the different depths are
now mixed together, but in each case the depth, as well as the relative
size, is stated in meters, in addition to the number in the catalogue.
Workmen
are at present not so easily to be had as before; for a merchant from
Smyrna residing here has engaged 150 men to gather a medicinal root,
which is here called ????????a, out of which liquorice-juice is
prepared. (p.226) The German word lakritze, the French lacorice, and the
English liquorice, are evidently corruptions of ????????a. Now, as the
men employed by the Smyrna merchant work the ground at a certain price
by square measure, they earn from 12 to 23 piasters (2 frcs. 40 cent,
to 4 frcs. 60 cent.) daily; whereas I can give them only 9 piasters (1
frc. 80 cent.) during the present short days. At Easter I can offer
them 10 piasters, and after the 1st of June 12 piasters. As the roots
are dug up in the neighbourhood of Renkoï, it is principally the people
of this village that are engaged in the work; and for carrying on my
excavations I have to apply to the villages of Kafatli-Asmak,
Yenishehr, and Neo-Chori, which are situated in and round about the
Plain of Troy. If the weather is dry, I can count upon obtaining after
to-morrow 120 workmen every day.
On the north side of the hill,
at a distance of 131 feet from the declivity and at a depth of 51 feet,
the wall of white stones, which rises at an angle of 40 degrees, 6½
feet below the Trojan wall, seems, as I have said, to mark the site of
the Greek temple of Athena. Here I am having five terraces made on two
sides simultaneously, and the débris carried away in man-carts and
wheel-barrows. In the north-eastern excavations this débris, from the
surface to a depth of 10 feet, consists of black earth, mixed with
splinters of marble; and among them I find very many large and
beautifully-sculptured blocks of marble, which evidently belong to the
temple of the time of Lysimachus, which stood here, but are of no
further value to archæology. The removal of these blocks, the weight of
which is often nearly two tons, gives me the greatest trouble. The site
of the temple is indeed indicated distinctly enough by the existence of
these large marble blocks in the Doric style, but of the sanctuary
itself there is not one stone in its place.
A depression in the earth,
112 feet long and 76 feet broad, seems to prove that the place has been
ransacked (p.227) hundreds of years ago by Turks seeking stones suitable
for sepulchral monuments; they have also, curiously enough, carried off
all the foundations. Below the layer of débris, 10 feet thick, which
descends at an angle of from 50 to 60 degrees, there is an accumulation
of ashes, covering with a crust of 131 feet thick the buttress
previously mentioned, which distinctly marks the former declivity of
the hill. The declivity at this point is rounded off towards the east;
and—as is proved by the fact that the buttress itself (as well as the
layers of débris that lie above it) turns in the same direction, and
that the strata of débris which lie above it also extend out to the
east—the eastern declivity at one time likewise commenced at this
point, whereas its present position is 262½ feet distant from it. The
hill of the Pergamus has therefore increased 262½ feet in an eastern
direction since the buttress was built. I do not believe that there is
a second hill in the world whose increase in size, during thousands of
years, can in the remotest degree be compared with this enormous growth.
Except
those small round terra-cottas in the form of volcanoes and tops, with
the usual decorations, and some more or less broken pottery, nothing
has as yet been discovered in this excavation. The other cutting—which
I opened to reach the supposed site of the very ancient temple of
Athena—is at the east end of my large platform, upon which I am again
throwing the greater part of the débris which is being dug down there,
because to remove it beyond the platform would be too difficult. In the
mean time I have only had this cutting made 42½ feet broad, but I
intend to widen it as soon as I find any prospect of advantage to
archæology from doing so. In the lower terrace of this cutting I find
the continuation of that Trojan wall which also shows itself in the
more eastern cutting. This wall is here only 3¼ feet high, but the
stones lying below it leave no doubt that it was at one time much
higher. Every visitor to the Troad confirms (p.228) my observation of the
remarkable fact, that this wall continues on the two sides of my large
cutting through the entire hill, to the right and left of the entrance,
at a depth of 39½ feet. If this wall belongs to a time preceding the
Trojan wall (as to which I can entertain no doubt, owing to its great
depth), yet the mighty ruins beneath it, as well as the pavement of
white pebbles lying below it, at a depth of 1¾ foot in my large
cutting, prove that it must have been built a long time after the first
destruction of the city. But the real object of the wall here and
further to the west is utterly inexplicable to me, for it is built
above and through the ruins of mighty buildings.
The strata of
débris in this cutting all lie horizontally, which leaves no doubt that
they have been gradually formed in the course of time. Their
composition proves that most of the houses which stood here were
destroyed by fire. But there are also several thick strata here, in
which we find thousands of shells in a state of good preservation,
which proves that they at least cannot have belonged to buildings
destroyed by fire.
 Among
the interesting objects discovered in this excavation, I must
especially mention a brilliant red terra-cotta hippopotamus, found at a
depth of 23 feet. It is hollow, and has a ring on the left side, and
therefore may have served as a vessel.
Fig.159: Bright Red Terra-cotta Image of a Hippopotamus (7m depth).
The existence of the figure of a
hippopotamus here at a depth of 23 feet is extremely remarkable, nay,
astonishing; for this animal, as is well known, is not met with even in
Upper Egypt, and occurs only in the rivers of the interior of Africa.
It is, however, probable that hippopotami existed in Upper Egypt in
ancient times; for, according to Herodotus (II. 71), (p.229) they were
worshipped as sacred animals at the Egyptian town of Papremis. At all
events, Troy must have been commercially connected with Egypt; but even
so, it is still an enigma, how the animal was so well known here as to
have been made of clay in a form quite faithful to nature.
 Fig.160 (left): Remarkable Terra-cotta Vessel, in the shape of a Bugle, with three feet (3m depth).
Fig.161 (right): Terra-cotta Vessel with three feet, a handle, and two ears (5m depth)
Of
idols of marble, it is only during these few days that we have found
eight, only two of which had the engraved owl’s head of the Ilian
Athena. Of vases with owl’s faces, two female breasts, and two upraised
arms, I have found only one, at a depth of 15 meters (49¼ feet), and at
a depth of 7 meters (23 feet) the upper portion of another, upon which
the stump of one of the arms may still be recognised. At a depth of 10
feet we found two vases, with two female breasts and an immense navel,
which are doubtless also intended to represent the tutelary goddess of
Troy. Lastly, of vase-covers with an owl’s face and helmet, the first
found was at a depth of 1 meter (3¼ feet), having a double handle in
the form of a coronet; another, found at a depth of 3 meters (26 feet),
has a simple handle. Among the other terra-cotta vessels I must
specially mention an exceedingly remarkable cup in the form of a
bugle-horn with three feet, which was found at a depth of 3 meters (10
feet); also a vessel with but two feet, which, however, as is proved by
the broken places on the right side, has been attached to some
other (p.230) vessel of a similar form and description; this double vessel
had a ring on either side for suspension by strings. Of the other
earthenware I can only mention a small curious vase which has three
long feet, one handle, and two others in the form of ears.
The
round articles of terra-cotta in the form of volcanoes and
humming-tops, with symbolical decorations, were met with in great
quantities, as they always are. Four sling-bullets were discovered, one
of which, made of copper, was brought out from a depth of 49 feet, one
of alabaster from 23 feet, and two of diorite from a depth of from 20
to 23 feet. At a depth of 4 meters (13 feet) I found a splendidly
ornamented flat piece of ivory, which must evidently have been part of
a musical instrument.[216] Lastly, at the depth of 1 meter (3¼ feet)
there was a fragment of a female statue of fine marble, executed in a
masterly style. It not improbably represents the tutelary goddess of
Ilium, whose temple, as we know, stood in the Pergamus.
 Simultaneously
with these excavations I had 22 men working in a north-westerly
direction, from the south-eastern corner of the Acropolis, in order to
lay bare the Great Tower still further on that side, an operation that
has become impossible to effect from my great trench.
Fig.162: Terra-cotta Image of a Pig, curiously marked with Stars (4m depth).
But as the hill
at this point has only a very gradual slope I was compelled to make the
new cutting with a considerable slope, which renders the carting-off of
the débris much more troublesome, but is absolutely necessary, to
enable us to reach the requisite depth of 26 feet for arriving at the
Tower. At the very commencement of this cutting, at a foot below the
surface, I came upon two enormous walls, each of which is 10 feet
thick. The first seems to belong to the Middle Ages,[217] and
consists (p.231) of large blocks of Corinthian pillars joined by cement
and of other marble blocks taken from ancient buildings. The second
wall, which follows immediately, must certainly belong to the town-wall
built by Lysimachus, which was 40 stadia long.[218] It is composed of
large and beautifully hewn blocks of limestone, which are laid one upon
another without any kind of cement, and which generally bear a
monogram. As the letter is not always the same, and as for instance
upon one stone there is a S, and upon another an ? or a ?, I presume
that they are the initials of the different builders. In the first wall
I found a marble slab nearly a foot thick, 32½ inches broad, and 3½
feet long, with the following inscription:—
??????????????S
G???????S?????????????S???S
??????S??G??????????O???????
??G??????S????OS
? ß???? ?a? ? d?µ??
G???? ?a?sa?a t?? ???? t?? Seßas-
t?? t?? s???e?? ?a? pat???a ?a? e?-
e???t?? t?? p??e??.
The
person praised in this inscription can by no means have been the
Emperor Caligula, for in that case the title a?t????t?? would have been
added. But as this word is wanting, the person meant is certainly Caius
Cæsar, the son of Vipsanius Agrippa and of Julia, the daughter of
Octavianus. He had a brother called Lucius. Both were adopted by
Augustus, and owing to this adoption they received the title of “????
t?? Seßast??,” and both were selected by Augustus as his successors.
Caius Cæsar, born in the year 20 B.C., was adopted at the age of three
years. He took part in the Trojan games, which Augustus (p.232) instituted
at the dedication of the temple of Marcellus. At the age of fifteen he
was appointed Consul, and when nineteen he was made Governor of Asia.
During hisadministration there he became involved in a war with
Phraates the king of Armenia, was wounded, and died in the year 4 after
Christ, on the 21st of February, at the age of 24.[219] As in the
inscription he is called the kinsman, the benefactor, and the patron of
Ilium, it is probable that he often came here during his
administration; at all events, he took great interest in the city, and
lavished favours upon it. The family of the Julii always attached great
importance to their descent from Iülus (or Ascanius) the son of Æneas;
and the sole political object of Virgil’s Æneid was to prove and
glorify their genealogy. This explains the favours which the Julii
lavished upon Ilium, and their hatred against the Greeks because they
destroyed Troy, and also because they had espoused the cause of Mark
Antony.
An oka of wine, which contains about two ordinary
wine-bottles, last year cost 1¼ piaster (25 centimes); now it costs 2
piasters (40 centimes) the oka; but it is of a most excellent quality,
and I prefer it to any French wine.
Footnotes:
[215] This recals to mind Homer’s frequent mention of the blasts of Boreas.—[Ed.]
[216] See Cut, No. 9, p. 27.
[217]
Dr. Schliemann afterwards assigned these Corinthian pillars to the time
of Constantine. (See Chapter XXII., p. 320, and Introduction, p.
30.—[Ed.])
[218] Strabo, XIII., pp. 100, 101, Tauchnitz edition.
[219] Velleius Paterculus, II. 102.
[Continue to Chapter 16]
[Return to Table of Contents]
|
|