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Chapter 23 part C
 No. 282. THE TREASURE OF PRIAM.
4610 SMALL JEWELS OF GOLD.
Besides
the ear-rings, a great number of other ornaments strung on threads, or
fastened on leather, had been put into the same large silver vase; for
above and below them, as already said, I found 8750 small objects;[296]
such as gold rings, only 1/8 of an inch in diameter; perforated dice,
either smooth or in the form of little indented stars, about 1/6 of an
inch in diameter; gold perforated prisms 1/10 of an inch high and 1/8
of an inch broad, decorated longitudinally with eight or sixteen
incisions; small leaves about 1/5 of an inch long, and 1/6 of an inch
broad, and pierced longitudinally with a hole for threading them; small
gold pegs 1/3 of an inch long, with a button on one side, and a
perforated hole on the other; perforated prisms about 1/5 of an inch
long and 1/10 of an inch broad; double or triple gold rings soldered
together and only ¼ of an inch in diameter, with holes on both sides
for threading them; gold buttons or studs 1/5 of an inch high, in the
cavity of which is a ring above 1/10 of an inch broad for sewing them
on; gold double buttons, exactly like our shirt studs, 3/10 of an inch
long, which, however, are not soldered, but simply stuck together, for
from the cavity of the one button there projects a tube{339}{340}
(a???s???) nearly ¼ of an inch long, and from the other a pin (?µß????)
of the same length, and the pin is merely stuck into the tube to form
the double stud. These double buttons or studs can only have been used,
probably, as ornament upon leather articles, for instance upon the
handle-straps (te?aµ??e?) of swords, shields, or knives. I found in the
vase also two gold cylinders above 1/10 of an inch thick and ¾ of an
inch long; also a small gold peg above 4/5 of an inch in length, and
from 6/100 to 8/100 of an inch thick; it has at one end a perforated
hole for hanging it up, and on the other side six encircling incisions,
which give the article the appearance of a screw; it is only by means
of a magnifying glass that it is found not to be really a screw. I also
found in the same vase two pieces of gold, one of which is 1/7 of an
inch, the other above 2 inches, long; each of them has 21
perforations.[297]
The person who endeavoured to save the
Treasure had fortunately the presence of mind to stand the silver vase,
containing the valuable articles described above, upright in the chest,
so that not so much as a bead could fall out, and everything has been
preserved uninjured.
My esteemed friend M. Landerer, of Athens,
a chemist well known through his discoveries and writings, who has most
carefully examined all the copper articles of the Treasure, and
analysed the fragments, finds that all of them consist of pure copper
without any admixture of tin or zinc,[298] and that, in order to make
them more durable, they have been wrought with the hammer (sf????at??).
As
I hoped to find other treasures here, and also wished to bring to light
the wall that surrounded Troy, the erection of which Homer[299]
ascribes to Poseidon and{341} Apollo, as far as the Scæan Gate, I have
entirely cut away the upper wall, which rested partly upon the gate, to
an extent of 56 feet. Visitors to the Troad can, however, still see
part of it in the north-western earth-wall opposite the Scæan Gate. I
have also broken down the enormous block of earth which separated my
western and north-western cutting from the Great Tower; but in order to
do this, I had to pull down the larger one of my wooden houses, and I
had also to bridge over the Scæan Gate, so as to facilitate the removal
of the débris. The result of this new excavation is very important to
archæology; for I have been able to uncover several walls, and also a
room of the Royal Palace, 20 feet in length and breadth, upon which no
buildings of a later period rest.
No. 283. Terra-cotta Vessel in the shape of a Cask. From the Palace (8 M.).
Of
the objects discovered there I have only to mention an excellently
engraved inscription found upon a square piece of red slate, which has
two holes not bored through it and an encircling incision, but neither
can my learned friend Émile Burnouf nor can I tell in what language the
inscription is written.[300] Further, there were some interesting
terra-cottas, among which is a vessel, quite the form of a modern cask,
and with a tube in the centre for pouring{342} in and drawing off the
liquid. There were also found upon the wall of Troy, 1¾ feet below the
place where the Treasure was discovered, three silver dishes (f???a?),
two of which were broken to pieces in digging down the débris; they
can, however, be repaired, as I have all the pieces.[301] These dishes
seem to have belonged to the Treasure, and the fact of the latter
having otherwise escaped our pickaxes is due to the above-mentioned
large copper vessels which projected, so that I could cut everything
out of the hard débris by means of a knife.
No. 284. Large Silver Vase found in the House of Priam (8 M.).
{343}
I
now perceive that the cutting which I made in April 1870 was exactly at
the proper point, and that if I had only continued it, I should in a
few weeks have uncovered the most remarkable buildings in Troy, namely,
the Palace of King Priam, the Scæan Gate, the Great Surrounding Wall,
and the Great Tower of Ilium; whereas, in consequence of abandoning
this cutting, I had to make colossal excavations from east to west and
from north to south through the entire hill in order to find those most
interesting buildings.
In the upper strata of the north-western
and western excavations we came upon another great quantity of heads of
beautiful terra-cotta figures of the best Hellenic period, and at a
depth of 23 feet upon some idols, as well as the upper portion of a
vase with the owl’s face and a lid in the form of a helmet. Lids of
this kind, upon the edge of which female hair is indicated by
incisions, are frequently found in all the strata between 4 and 10
meters (13 and 33 feet) deep, and as they belong to vases with owls’
faces, the number of lids gives us an idea of the number of the vases
with the figure of the owl-headed Athena, which existed here in Troy.
But
Troy was not large. I have altogether made twenty borings down to the
rock, on the west, south-west, south, south-east and east of the
Pergamus, directly at its foot or at some distance from it, on the
plateau of the Ilium of the Greek colony. As I find in these borings no
trace either of fragments of Trojan pottery or of Trojan house-walls,
and nothing but fragments of Hellenic pottery and Hellenic house-walls,
and as, moreover, the hill of the Pergamus has a very steep slope
towards the north, the north-east, and the north-west, facing the
Hellespont, and is also very steep towards the Plain, the city could
not possibly have extended in any one of these directions. I now most
emphatically declare that the city of Priam cannot have extended on any
one side{344} beyond the primeval plateau of this fortress, the
circumference of which is indicated to the south and south-west by the
Great Tower and the Scæan Gate, and to the north-west, north-east and
east by the surrounding wall of Troy. The city was so strongly
fortified by nature on the north side, that the wall there consisted
only of those large blocks of stone, loosely piled one upon another in
the form of a wall, which last year gave me such immense trouble to
remove. This wall can be recognized at once, immediately to the right
in the northern entrance of my large cutting, which runs through the
entire hill.
I am extremely disappointed at being obliged to
give so small a plan of Troy; nay, I had wished to be able to make it a
thousand times larger, but I value truth above everything, and I
rejoice that my three years’ excavations have laid open the Homeric
Troy, even though on a diminished scale, and that I have proved the
Iliad to be based upon real facts.
Homer is an epic poet, and
not an historian: so it is quite natural that he should have
exaggerated everything with poetic licence. Moreover, the events which
he describes are so marvellous, that many scholars have long doubted
the very existence of Troy, and have considered the city to be a mere
invention of the poet’s fancy. I venture to hope that the civilized
world will not only not be disappointed that the city of Priam has
shown itself to be scarcely a twentieth part as large as was to be
expected from the statements of the Iliad, but that, on the contrary,
it will accept with delight and enthusiasm the certainty that Ilium did
really exist, that a large portion of it has now been brought to light,
and that Homer, even although he exaggerates, nevertheless sings of
events that actually happened. Besides, it ought to be remembered that
the area of Troy, now reduced to this small hill, is still as large as,
or even larger than, the royal city of Athens, which was confined to
the Acropolis,{345} and did not extend beyond it, till the time when
Theseus added the twelve villages, and the city was consequently named
in the plural ????a?. It is very likely that the same happened to the
town of Mycenæ (?????a?), which Homer describes as being rich in gold,
and which is also spoken of in the singular,e???????a ??????.[302]
But
this little Troy was immensely rich for the circumstances of those
times, since I find here a treasure of gold and silver articles, such
as is now scarcely to be found in an emperor’s palace; and as the town
was wealthy, so was it also powerful, and ruled over a large territory.
The
houses of Troy were all very high and had several storeys, as is
obvious from the thickness of the walls and the colossal heaps of
débris. But even if we assume the houses to have been of three storeys,
and standing close by the side of one another, the town can
nevertheless not have contained more than 5000 inhabitants, and cannot
have mustered more than 500 soldiers; but it could always raise a
considerable army from among its subjects, and as it was rich and
powerful, it could obtain mercenaries from all quarters.
As I do
not find in my shafts (that is, beyond the hill itself) a trace of
earthenware belonging to the successors of the Trojans up to the time
of the Greek colony, it may with certainty be assumed that Troy had
increased in size at Homer’s time only to the small amount of what was
added through the heaps of rubbish caused by the destruction of the
city. Homer can never have seen Ilium’s Great Tower, the surrounding
wall of Poseidon and Apollo, the Scæan Gate or the Palace of King
Priam, for all these monuments lay buried deep in heaps of rubbish, and
he made no excavations to bring them to light. He knew of these
monuments of immortal fame only from hearsay, for the tragic fate of
ancient Troy was{346} then still in fresh remembrance, and had already
been for centuries in the mouth of all minstrels.[303]
Homer
rarely mentions temples, and, although he speaks of the temple of
Athena, yet, considering the smallness of the city, it is very doubtful
whether it actually existed. It is probable that the tutelar goddess at
that time possessed only the sacrificial altar which I discovered, and
the crescent form of which greatly resembles the upper portion of the
ivory idol found in the lowest strata,[304] as well as the one end of
the six talents contained among the Treasure.
The position,
size, and depth of all my shafts will be found most accurately
specified on my plan of the Ilium of the Greek colony;[305] I therefore
refrain from repeating these statements here, so as not to weary the
reader. I also add an accurate plan of my excavations,[306] a plan of
the Scæan Gate and of the Great Tower of Ilium,[307] and lastly, a plan
of the city of Troy at the time of the great destruction (Plan IV.).
Plan IV.—Plan of Troy at the Epoch of Priam, according to Dr. Schliemann’s Excavations.
The
Scæan Gate gives us the age of the royal edifice in front of which it
stands, and of the vessels of pottery which are found in that house.
This earthenware is indeed better than what is generally found here at
a depth of from 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33 feet), but it is exactly
similar; and consequently all the strata of débris from these
depths{347} belong to the Trojan people. These strata are composed of
red, yellow, and occasionally black wood-ashes, and every stone found
there bears the marks of the fearful heat to which it has been exposed.
In these strata we never meet with those brilliant black plates and
dishes, with a long horizontal ring on either side, found at the depth
of from 13 to 16 meters (42½ to 52½ feet), nor do we meet with the
vases with two long tubes on either side. Besides the vessels in the
lowest strata are entirely different in quality and in form from those
found at a depth of from 23 to 33 feet, so that they certainly cannot
have belonged to the same people. But they belong, at all events, to a
kindred Aryan nation, as these too possessed in common with the Trojans
the whorls ornamented with Aryan religious symbols, and also idols of
the Ilian Athena. I formerly believed that the most ancient people who
inhabited this site were the Trojans, because I fancied that among
their ruins I had found the d?pa? ?µf???pe????, but I now{348} perceive
that Priam’s people were the succeeding nation, because in their ruins
I have discovered the actual d?pa? ?µf???pe????, made of gold and also
of terra-cotta, and likewise the Scæan Gate.
Several geologists,
who have visited me here, maintain that the stratum of scoriæ, which
runs through the greater part of the hill, at an average depth of 9
meters (29½ feet), has been formed by melted lead and copper ore,
quantities of which must have existed here at the time of the
destruction of Troy; and this opinion is also shared by the engineer,
Adolphe Laurent, who has returned to help me with my last works, and to
make some new plans.
Strabo says,[308] “No trace of the ancient
city (Troy) has been preserved. This is very natural; for, as all the
towns round about were desolated, yet not completely destroyed, while
Troy was razed to the ground, so all the stones were carried off to
renovate the others. Thus, at least, Archæanax of Mitylene is said to
have built a wall round Sigeum with the stones.” These statements of
Strabo are, however, completely erroneous, and the tradition of
antiquity, that Troy was razed to the ground, can only be explained by
its having been buried deep beneath colossal masses of wood-ashes and
stone, which were built over by a new town; the latter being again
destroyed, and again surmounted by buildings which had a similar fate;
till at last the mass of débris lying upon Troy reached a height of
from 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 feet), and upon this was established the
Acropolis of the Ilium of the Greek colony.
In consequence of my
former mistaken idea, that Troy was to be found on the primary soil or
close above it, I unfortunately, in 1871 and 1872, destroyed a large
portion of the city, for I at that time broke down all the house-walls
in the higher strata which obstructed my way. This year, however, as
soon as I had come by clear proofs to the{349} firm conviction that
Troy was not to be found upon the primary soil, but at a depth of from
23 to 33 feet, I ceased to break down any house-wall in these strata,
so that in my excavations of this year a number of Trojan houses have
been brought to light. They will still stand for centuries, and
visitors to the Troad may convince themselves that the stones of the
Trojan buildings can never have been used for building other towns, for
the greater part of them are still in situ. Moreover, they are small,
and millions of such stones are to be found upon all the fields of this
district.
Valuable stones, such as those large flags which cover
the road leading from the Scæan Gate to the Plain, as well as the
stones of the enclosing wall and of the Great Tower, have been left
untouched, and not a single stone of the Scæan Gate is wanting. Nay,
with the exception of the houses which I myself destroyed, it would be
quite possible to uncover the “carcasses” of all the houses, as in the
case of Pompeii. The houses, as I have already said, must have been
very high, and a great deal of wood must have been used in their
construction, for otherwise the conflagration could not have produced
such an enormous quantity of ashes and rubbish.
In my
excavations of 1871 and 1872, at a depth of from 7 to 10 meters (23 to
33 feet), I found only house-walls composed of sun-dried bricks; and,
as anyone may convince himself by examining the houses which I have
uncovered, this style of building was almost exclusively met with
during that year. It is only the buildings by the side of the Scæan
Gate, and a few houses in the depths of the Temple of Athena, that are
made of stones and earth.
No. 285. Splendid Terra-cotta
Vase from the Palace of Priam. This is the largest vase of the type
frequent in the ruins, with two small handles and two great upright
wings. The cover was found near it.
As may be seen from my plan
of the site of Troy, I have excavated two-thirds of the entire city;
and, as I have brought to light the Great Tower, the Scæan Gate, the
city wall of Troy, the royal palace, the sacrificial altar of the Ilian
Athena, and so forth, I have uncovered{350} the grandest buildings,
and, in fact, the best part of the city. I have also made an
exceedingly copious collection of all the articles of the domestic life
and the religion of the Trojans; and therefore it is not to be expected
that science would gain anything more by further excavations. If,
however, my excavations should at any time be continued, I urgently
entreat those who do so to throw the débris of their diggings from the
declivity of the hill, and not to fill up the colossal cuttings which I
have made with such infinite trouble and at such great expense, for
they are of great value to archæology, inasmuch as in these cuttings
all the strata of débris, from the primary soil up to the surface of
the hill, can be examined with little trouble.{351}
On the north
side of the hill, I have now also uncovered several house-walls at a
depth of 13 meters (42½ feet), and also the beginning of that
remarkable wall of fortification already mentioned, the continuation of
which may be seen in the labyrinth of house-walls in the depths of the
Temple of Athena. On the north side, above the primary soil, I have
also brought to light a portion of the pavement already mentioned,
composed of small, round white sea-pebbles, below which are the
calcined ruins of a building which formerly stood there.
No. 286. Curious double-necked Jug (8 M.).
No. 287. Terra-cotta Vessel consisting of three Goblets rising out of a tube on three feet (4 M.).—[6 M. in Atlas.]
No. 288. Terra-cotta Vessel in the form of a Pig, with legs too short to stand it on (7 M.).
No. 289. A round Terra-cotta, stamped with Hieroglyphics (1½ M.).
Among
some very remarkable terra-cottas discovered since my last report, I
must mention two jugs found on the north side, at a depth of from 23 to
26 feet, each of which has two upright necks standing side by side, but
their handles are united. One of them has also beside the mouths two
small elevations, which may probably indicate eyes. Of a third jug of
this kind, I only found the upper portion. I must also mention an
exceedingly curious cup, discovered at a depth of 4 meters (13 feet),
which consists of a tube resting upon three feet and ending in one
large and{352} two small goblets; the larger goblet is connected with
the opposite side of the tube by a handle. At the same depth I met with
a large vase, from which projects a separate small vase; it is
ornamented with incisions, and has three feet and two very pretty
handles and rings for hanging it up. I found likewise, at the depth of
13 feet, a vase with two female breasts, two large handles and
engravings resembling letters. Among other extremely curious
terra-cottas, I must also mention three pots with three rows of
perforations; they have the usual handle on one side and three feet on
the other; also three large vases with perforations right round, on all
sides from the bottom to the top; their use is a riddle to me; can they
have served as bee-hives?[309] Also a vessel in the form of a pig with
four feet, which are, however, shorter than the belly, so that the
vessel cannot stand upon them; the neck of the vessel, which is
attached to the back of the pig, is connected with the hinder part by a
handle. I further found a pot in the form of a basket with a handle
crossing the mouth, and with a tube in the bulge for drawing off the
liquid. Also two terra-cotta funnels, at a depth of 10 feet, with a
letter, which I have repeatedly met with on some of the terra-cottas of
which I have given drawings,{353} and which therefore will probably be
deciphered. At a depth of 5 feet I found one of those round
twice-perforated terra-cottas with a stamp, in which there are Egyptian
hieroglyphics; also a dozen of the same articles in the stamps of which
are a crowned head, a bird, a dog’s head, a flying man or an eagle and
a stag. At a depth of 16½ feet, I found the handle of a cup with the
beautifully modelled head of a bull, which probably represents the
ß??p?? p?t??a ???:[310] however, this cannot be proved, for up to that
time I had never found an idol with the head of an ox. Neither can I
prove that the terra-cottas here frequently met with, in the form of
horses’ heads, represent the mother of Hera, Cybele or Rhea; but it is
very likely, for, as is well known, in Phrygia she was represented with
a horse’s head. Terra-cotta idols of the Ilian Athena are rarely met
with; but we daily find marble idols of this goddess, most of which
have almost a human form. We also frequently come upon oblong flat
pieces of rough marble, upon which the owl’s face of the goddess is
more or less deeply engraved. It is often so finely scratched that the
aid of a magnifying glass is required to convince one that it actually
exists; we found several such pieces of marble where the owl’s head was
painted in a black colour. Since I have come to the conclusion that
they are idols of the tutelary divinity of Troy, I have carefully
collected{354} them; but in 1871 and 1872 seven-eighths of all the
marble idols must have escaped my notice, for at that time I had no
idea of their significance.
No. 290. Fragment of a Terra-cotta Vessel, in the shape of a Horse’s Head (4 M.).
In
excavating the ground upon which my wooden house had stood, we found,
at a depth of from 9 to 19 inches, eighteen copper and two silver
medals; one of the latter is of Marcus Aurelius. The other is a
tetradrachm of the island of Tenedos; on the obverse, to the right, is
the head of Jupiter, to the left that of Juno, both having one neck in
common, like the heads of Janus. The head of Jupiter is crowned with
laurels, that of Juno has a wreath or crown. Upon the reverse of the
coin there is a laurel wreath round the edge, and in the centre a large
double axe, above which stands the word ??????O?: below and to the
right of the handle of the double axe there is a winged Eros, who is
holding up an object which it is difficult to distinguish; to the left
is a bunch of grapes and a monogram, which looks like the letter ?.
Of
the copper coins, five are of Alexandria Troas, two of Ophrynium, one
of Tenedos, two of Abydos, and one of Dardania. Two have on one side
the bust of Julia Domna, with the inscription ????? S???S??; one of
these has on the reverse the full-length figure of this empress with
the inscription ????O?, and the other has the figure of Hector with the
inscription ????O? ???O?. The other medals belong to an earlier period
of Ilium, and have on the one side the bust of Athena, and on the other
the inscription ????O?.
In April of this year, when I uncovered
the road paved with large flags of stone, which leads from the Scæan
Gate to the Plain, the stones looked as new as if they had just been
hewn. But since then, under the influence of the burning sun, the flags
of the upper portion of the road, which have specially suffered from
the conflagration that destroyed the city, are rapidly crumbling away,
and will probably have quite disappeared in a few years. However,{355}
the flags of stone on the north-western half of the road which have
been less exposed to the heat, may still last many centuries.
The following inscriptions were found at a depth of from 19 inches to 3½ feet below my wooden house.
...........................................
...........................................
......S?....................................
...?S??..............???.................
......???????......?????F...........5
....S???????T?S??S????S???.....
..?O????F?ST??S??????S?.....
..S?????S???SS??T?S????.....
....??????????????S???O.....
....????O?O?S???T???.........10
....?S?????T?S??????..........
....????S???S??T?S??..........
......????G??S??????G??..........
......????S????S???T?S............
......????T??????S??S..............15
......T??????????S?..................
..... ??F???S??.......................
..............................
......sa......................
....esa?...............???(?...
........aß?????......et?a? f...5
....? ?at? p????? e?? ????st?a.....
..t?? ???f?s?a? S?ad?e?? ?.......
..? ??d??? t??? s????s?µ??(???....
....e??? ?p???e? ?a? st???......
....? ?? t? t?? Saµ?????(??......10
....?? ?p??a??staµ??(?..........
....e???? t?? s???es??...........
......?)µ?????a? t? ??t???a(f??...
......????s??te? ?????s(a?......
......??)?pe???? ????s???.......15
......??? ???pe?d?? ?...........
......??)t?f???? ?p...........
{356}
This
inscription contains a contract for a settlement and gives the names of
the men selected for founding it; S?ad?e?? is an unknown word, which
has never before been met with.
\??
OS?????S
OS??S??T??S?S
?????????????????
???????O???????O5
???S?????????????
??S???S?????????
?OG???O???S?????
??O????????????????
??S?????S?????S???S10
??S??S??SS??????????
T???S?????S??S??SS?
?????????S????????
?????????????S??S?????
??????S??S????S?OG???15
?????
........?? ????a?..............
......e)?? t?? d??e?s??..........
.....e? p??te ?a? ?? ??aß?........
....t? ?p?)ß????? t?? ???a?t?(?....5
....t?? s???d?e?a? ?? ?a.........
....t?? ß??? t?? t?µ?? ?.........
....t?? ??e?? t?? ???p?(?.......
....te) t??ß???? t?? p???? t?µ...
....????;)?asa? t??? t????? t???..10
....a)??s?a? tessa?????ta p?(?te.
....?et?? d?a??s?a? tessa(?a.....
...?a? ?t? t?? s???d?e?a(?........
...?p?s)te??a? pe?ta??s?a? ?a? t?.
...??µ???? t?? t?µ?? t?? ??e(??...15
...t??a?;)ta d??................
In
this day closing the excavations at Ilium for ever, I cannot but
fervently thank God for His great mercy, in{357} that, notwithstanding
the terrible danger to which we have been exposed owing to the
continual hurricanes, during the last three years’ gigantic
excavations, no misfortune has happened, no one has been killed, and no
one has even been seriously hurt.
In conclusion, I
cannot refrain from most strongly recommending Nikolaos Saphyros
Jannakis, of the neighbouring village of Renkoï, to all those who,
sooner or later, may wish to make excavations in the Plain of Troy or
in the neighbourhood. During all my excavations here, since April 1870,
he has been my attendant, cook, and cashier. It is in the latter
capacity especially that I find him incomparably useful on account of
his honesty, which has been well tested, and also on account of his
knowing the names and capabilities of every workman in the Troad. In
addition to this, his size and herculean strength, his cleverness, and
his thorough knowledge of the Turkish language, are excellently adapted
for settling the difficulties which continually arise in reference to
the excavations with the Turkish officials. I must also specially
recommend my foreman Spiridion Demetrios of Athens, and Captain
Georgios Tsirogiannis of Limme in Eubœa, for they have here learnt by
long experience the easiest way of removing colossal masses of débris,
and they have in addition the gift of command. I can also most strongly
recommend my accomplished draughtsman, Polychronios Lempessis, of
Salamis, who has here made all the drawings of my work from Plate 119
to 190.[311] Lastly, I can speak with the utmost satisfaction of my
engineer Adolphe Laurent, who has made the ground plans for me from
first to last.
Footnotes:
[149]
Some
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