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Chapter 21, part A (p.287)
Pergamus of Troy, April 16th, 1873.
Since my report of the 5th of this month I have had, on an average, 160
workmen, and have brought many wonderful things to light, among which I
may especially mention a street of the Pergamus, which was discovered
close to my house, at a depth of 30 feet, in the Great Tower. It is 17¼
feet broad, and is paved with stone flags, from 4¼ to 5 feet long, and
from 35 inches to 4½ feet broad. It runs down very abruptly in a due
south-western direction towards the Plain. I have as yet only been able
to lay bare a length of 10 meters (33-1/3 feet). It leads, without
doubt, to the Scæan Gate, the position of which appears to be
accurately indicated, on the west side at the foot of the hill, by the
direction of the wall and by the formation of the ground; it cannot be
more than 492 feet distant from the Tower. To the right and left of the
street there is an enclosure 28½ inches broad and 11 feet long. The
slope of the street is so great that, while on the north-east side, as
far as it is there uncovered, it is only 30 feet below the (p.288) surface
of the hill, yet at a distance of 33 feet it already lies as low as 37
feet.[246]
This beautifully paved street leads me to conjecture
that a grand building must at one time have stood at the top of it, at
a short distance on the north-east side; and therefore, seven days ago,
when the street was discovered, I immediately set 100 men to dig down
the north-eastern ground lying in front of it; this cutting I have made
78½ feet long, 78½ feet broad, and 33 feet deep. The removal of these
7600 cubic yards of huge masses of hard débris and stones is rendered
much easier by the fact that it joins my last year’s great cutting,
which runs quite horizontally from the northern declivity as far as the
Tower, and is therefore very well adapted for the use of man-carts. In
order to extract from this excavation all the objects of the greatest
use to archæology, I am having the walls made perpendicular, as in fact
I have had them made in almost all of the other cuttings. As the work
of removing this gigantic block of earth is carried on both from above
and from below, I confidently hope to have finished it in twenty days’
work.
In this great bank of earth there are three curious walls,
built one above another, of small stones joined with earth. They have
been built at very different periods, and even the uppermost and latest
of the three, as is clear from the material, must be considerably older
than the foundation of the Greek colony about the year 700 B.C. This
uppermost wall is about 5 feet thick, built up from a depth of 11½ feet
to within 1¾ foot of the surface, a circumstance which I do not at all
understand; for, as the ruins of the Greek colony reach down to the
depth of 6½ feet, the wall must, for many centuries, have stood high
above the earth. Still the Greeks may have used it as a foundation for
a building, and it may thus have been preserved. Below (p.289) this wall
there is a stratum of earth 11½ inches thick; and then comes the second
wall, projecting about 11½ inches, and 6½ feet high; and this again
rests upon another and much older wall. The last runs in an oblique
line in a south-western direction parallel with the Tower-road, and
furnishes a second proof that the surface of the hill, which is now
quite horizontal here, did not slope down very abruptly towards the
Plain at this part.
Thus the opinion which I have previously
expressed, that only the first inhabitants of this hill had walls and
fortifications, is now proved to be erroneous. For these three walls,
which at one time stood at the edge of the declivity, and the three
which I cut through at the south-east side of the hill, can only have
been walls of fortification, and they evidently belong to the various
tribes who inhabited this locality after the destruction of the first
nation up to the foundation of the Greek colony.
As my further
excavations have shown, at a depth of 8 meters (26 feet), immediately
below the Temple of Athena, and at a distance of 131 feet from the
above-mentioned street, a large wall runs out from the Tower in a
southern direction. I have had 6½ feet of this wall laid bare to the
south. But how far it extends in this direction cannot be ascertained
without making new and enormous excavations. It is also impossible for
me to ascertain its breadth without breaking down the curious
pre-Hellenic house. It also appears to me that the Tower ends here, for
in my investigations at the foot of that ancient house I no longer
found any trace of it. Instead of it I came upon very ancient houses,
the walls of which, still partially covered with a coating of clay and
white colour, all bearing traces of a terrible conflagration, which has
so completely destroyed everything that was in the rooms, that we only
occasionally find charred fragments of pottery among the red wood-ashes
with which the spaces are filled.
Curiously enough we again find, below
these very ancient houses, other (p.290) house-walls which must certainly
be older; and these too show indications of having been exposed to a
terrible heat. In fact, the labyrinth of very ancient house-walls,
built one above another, and found in the depths of the Temple of
Athena erected by Lysimachus, is unique, and presents the archæologist
with the richest materials for his investigations.
But what is most
inexplicable to me about this labyrinth of walls is a wall of
fortification, 11¾ feet high, running through it from W.N.W. to E.S.E.
This is likewise built of stone joined with earth, and is 6 feet broad
at the top and 12 feet broad at the foot: it does not stand directly
upon the primary rock, and was not built till the rock had gradually
become covered with a layer of earth 1¾ foot in thickness. It appears
therefore to be somewhat less ancient than the Great Tower, which
stands directly upon the primary rock. Running parallel with this wall
of fortification, only 2½ feet from it and at the same depth, there is
a wall 2 feet high, which is likewise built of stones joined with earth.
.
.
Plate XI (A): The excavations in the Temple of Athena, from the east.
Plate XI (B): The magazine with its colossal jars (pithoi). (p.290).
The
room at the greatest depth which I have excavated is 10 feet high and
11¼ feet broad; but it may have been higher; its length I have not yet
ascertained. One of the compartments of the uppermost houses, below the
Temple of Athena and belonging to the pre-Hellenic period, appears to
have been used as a wine-merchant’s cellar or as a magazine, for in it
there are nine enormous earthen jars (pithoi) of various forms, about 5¾
feet high and 4¾ feet across, their mouths being from 29½ to 35¼ inches
broad.[247]
Each of these earthen jars has four handles, 3¾ inches
broad, and the clay of which they are made has the enormous thickness
of 2¼ inches. Upon the south side of these jars I found a wall 26 feet
in extent and 10 feet high, built of sun-dried bricks, which, however,
had become really (p.291) burnt bricks through the conflagration. This
wall, which likewise appears to me to be a fortification and very
thick, I have had broken down to the perpendicular line of the
foundations of the Temple of Athena.
I
am in great fear lest the Turks should make off with the large stone
altar, the upper part of which forms a crescent, to use it for building
a minaret in the village of Chiplak; therefore, without moving it from
its place, I shall have it carefully split in two, so that it will be
useless for building purposes. This stone and its pedestal are daubed
over with a white crust of clay, which upon the pedestal is nearly an
inch thick.
I have continued the excavation on the south-east
side of the Pergamus, and I have found that the great wall, which I
regarded as a continuation of the Tower, is part of a very ancient and
large wall of enclosure.
 Since
my last report we have not found any kind of interesting antiquities
worth mentioning on the whole of the east side of the Tower; but in the
large new excavation to the north-east of the Tower-road we have
discovered a great quantity of exceedingly curious articles. The ruins
of the Greek colony here extend exactly to a depth of 6½ feet, and
there I found a fragment of pottery with painted Egyptian
hieroglyphics, of which I give a drawing (fig.203).
Fig.203: Fragment of a Terra-cotta Vase, with Egyptian hieroglyphics, from the bottom of the Greek Stratum (2m depth).
hree other pieces of pottery
were found at a depth of 10 feet. One of these represents an owl’s
face, a swastica and the impressions of the four nails for fixing it; the
second fragment has a swastica in which each of the four ends again terminates
in a square; the third fragment represents a wheel in a state of
rotation. At a depth of 6½ feet we also came upon a terra-cotta idol
with the owl’s face and the upraised arms, which are broken off, but
appear to have been longer. This (p.292) idol, like all the others, has a
human figure: the owl’s beak and eyes project from the head and have
been carefully wrought; there are indications of hair on the forehead,
and two lines on the neck seem to denote armour. At the same depth I
found the bottom of a dish, upon which there is a representation in
high relief of two youths embracing and kissing each other; this is a
most masterly piece of work.
 At a depth of 5 feet we found the upper
portion of a vase with a pretty owl’s head; the rim of the mouth forms
a kind of helmet. A little deeper than a foot we met with a
good-looking head of a man in terra-cotta; at 2 meters (6½ feet) down,
a Greek lamp with a foot 2¾ inches long (fig.204), and at the same depth some
very pretty vases and jugs, and a terra-cotta flattened on one side,
with two perforated holes and a stamp, in which there is a very pretty
picture of the head and shoulders of a woman.
Fig.204 (left): A Greek Lamp on a tall foot (2m depth).
Fig.205 (right): Fragment of a two-horned Serpent (?e??st??), in Terra-cotta (3m depth).
At a depth of 3 and 4
meters (10 and 13 feet) were twelve marble idols without owls’ faces;
upon one of these idols there are four horizontal lines on the neck;
further, at a depth of 10 feet, a fragment of a serpent with two horns (figh.205);
at a depth of 16½ feet, a piece of diorite in the form of a bell,
beautifully polished, and twice perforated; at the (p.293) same depth, a
quantity of beautiful terra-cotta vases and jugs, prettily ornamented,
ivory needles for knitting or embroidering, and a very neat perforated
terra-cotta cylinder 1¼ inch long, covered with engraved symbolical
signs.
Fig.206: Terra-cotta Cylinder, 1¼ in. long, with Symbolical Signs (5m depth).
 But the most curious article, found at a depth of 5 meters (16½
feet), is an idol of the Ilian Athena with an owl’s head, which is
rounded off in front and at the back; the eyes are very large and
beautiful, but the beak is small and roughly made; on the neck there is
a cross line, and above it ten upright lines, which are probably
intended to denote armour; the whole of the rest of the body is covered
with lines, in which, more especially on the back, the bird’s feathers
are unmistakable; and there is a peculiar ornament on the abdomen. This
idol, like all the others, has a human figure.[248]
Fig.207: Terra-cotta Vase with helmeted image of the Ilian Athena (6m depth)
At
a depth of 6 meters (20 feet) I found two splendid brilliant red vases
with representations of the Ilian Athena with the owl’s head, a kind of
helmet, two upraised arms, two breasts, and the large circular’
prominent elevation on the abdomen (fig.207). [249] At the same depth I found an
idol of the usual form, made of bone; and upon a handle of black
terra-cotta, which has probably belonged to a large cup, the head of an
ox, executed in high relief with great skill (fig.208);[250] this involuntarily
reminds one of Homer’s Boopis potria Hera ("Our Lady Hera, with the head
[or eyes] of a cow”).
Fig.208 (left): Fragment of a large Cup-handle in black Terra-cotta; head that of an Ox (6m depth).
Fig.209 (right): A finely decorated little Vase of Terra-cotta (6m depth).
Among many other remarkable terra-cotta vessels,
at this depth, I also found a small but really splendidly ornamented
vase, the surface of which is divided into fourteen alternate (p.294)
compartments, larger and smaller.[251] In each of the larger
compartments there are three circles of little stars and a star in the
centre; in each of the smaller compartments there are triple zigzag
lines; this vase has little holes in the small handles for hanging it
up by a string (fig.209).
Among the other curious articles from this depth there
is a silex saw, 4 inches long and 1¾ inch broad, also one of those
round, twice perforated terra-cottas flattened on one side and with a
large stamp which represents a swan and an antelope (fg.210). A similar
terra-cotta, the stamp upon which represents the head of a warrior with
a helmet (fig.211), was found at a depth of 8 meters (26 feet). These two are the
first terra-cottas of (p.295) this kind which I have hitherto discovered
below a depth of 2 meters (6½ feet).
 Fig.210 (left):
Terra-cotta Disc stamped with a Swan and an Antelope. Remarkable
for the depth (6m).
Fig.211 (right): Terra-cotta Disc pierced with two holes, and
stamped with the Head of a Warrior. Remarkable for the depth (8m).
 At
a depth of 7 meters (23 feet) I found a small tripod with a projecting
owl’s face, also a pretty red terra-cotta cup (cover) with the owl’s
face of the Ilian Athena and her helmet; a knife and a long copper
instrument; a piece of bone 3¼ inches long, ornamented with very
artistically engraved symbolical signs (fig.212), and among other exceedingly
curious terra-cottas, the handle of a cup with a cross and the marks of
the four nails for fixing it; further, a fragment of the upper portion
of a large urn, which is ornamented with three encircling stripes: the
upper and lower stripes consist of peculiarly interwoven crooked lines;
the middle one contains small circles, in each of which is a cross.
Fig.212: A piece of bone, curiously engraved (7m depth).
Footnotes:
[246] Compare Plan II. with the whole of the following description.
[247]
See Plate XI.B. Six of the jars are shown, and a seventh (broken) lies
outside of the cut to the right. The two largest of all are out of
view, on the other side of the wall of the magazine, but one of them is
seen in the view on Plate XI.A, in the left-hand bottom corner.
[248] See No. 29, p. 36.
[249] No. 207, p. 294.
[250] No. 208, p. 294. Respecting such an impersonation of the goddess Hera, see p. 113, 114, 353.
[251] No. 209, on this page.
[Continue to Chapter 21, part B]
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