THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY—VIThe World Before History--VIProfessor JOHANNES RANKEWHEN HISTORY WAS DAWNING
THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY—VI
The World Before History--VI
Professor JOHANNES RANKE
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THE discovery of Drift Man, his distinction from man of the later Stone Age, the investigation of the Palæolithic and Neolithic strata of culture of Europe and of the whole earth, and the scientific reconstruction of the earliest forms of civilisation based on these, are due solely to the natural-science method of research.
It was only when the exact methods of palæontology and geology had been brought to bear with all their rigour on the study of ancient man by savants schooled in natural science that solid results were obtained. On this sure foundation the science of history now continues building, and uses, even for the later periods, so far as recorded information is not available, and to supplement it, the same methods of palæontology and natural science which were applied so successfully to the earliest stages of the evolution of mankind.
Time-Table of Prehistoric Periods
The first point is to collect the relics of the periods of the evolution of culture which follow on the later Stone Age, and to separate them according to geological strata, uninfluenced by those older pseudo-historic fancies by which the deepening of our historical knowledge has so long been hindered. By carefully separating and tracing the earth’s strata till we come to those that furnish remains of times recorded in history, it has been possible to establish first a relative chronology of the so-called later prehistoric periods of Central Europe, whose offshoots pass immediately into recorded history.
By digging, after the same method of palæontological science, through stratum after stratum in the oldest centres of culture, especially in the Mediterranean countries, and by arranging the products by strata—uninfluenced by historical hypotheses—after the same natural-science method of research which has produced such remarkable results in Central Europe, the most surprising conformity in the evolution of culture in widely remote regions has been shown. It was found that in the Mediterranean countries, and also in Egypt and Babylonia, forms of culture already belong to the time of real history which were first recognised in Central Europe as preliminary prehistoric stages of historical strata; so that it was possible also to establish an absolute historical chronology for those instead of the relative prehistoric one.
Europe’s Prehistoric Night
Thus times which, as regards Central Europe, were hitherto wrapped in prehistoric night are enlightened by history. Although, as regards Central and Northern Europe, we cannot name the peoples who were the bearers of those forms of culture, and although we disdain to give them a premature nomenclature of hypothetical names, yet their conditions of life and culture and the progressive development of these, in manifold contact and intercourse with neighbouring and even far remote historic peoples and periods, have risen from the darkness of thousands of years; and their relation in time to the latter has been recognised.
Thus prehistoric times have themselves become history. The historical account of every single region has henceforth to begin with the description of the oldest antiquities of the soil that tell of man’s habitation, in order thereby to obtain the chronological connection with the evolution of the history of mankind generally. That is the palæontological method of historical research.
Landmarks of Early Culture
The palæontology of man has proved the Stone Age to be a general primary stage of culture for the whole human race. All further general progress in culture was affected by the discovery of the art of metal-working—the extraction of the metals from their ores and the casting and forging of them. The later and latest eras of culture are the Metal Ages, as opposed to the Stone Ages. It is not the use of metal in itself, but the above-mentioned metallurgical arts, that form the criterion of the advance of culture beyond the bounds of the Stone Age. Where, as in some parts of America, native copper was found in abundance, this redmalleable mineral could probably be worked in the same way as stone, without any further progress necessarily developing therefrom. The same may apply to meteor-iron, which is said to have been used for arrows, together with stone points, by American tribes who were otherwise in the age of stone and but poorly civilised.
From stone to metallic form
From stone to metallic form
Growth of the stop-ridge
Growth of the stop-ridge
Growth of the wings
Growth of the wings
THE TRANSITION FROM STONE TO IRONThis series of diagrams, reproduced from specimens in the British Museum, by permission of the Trustees, shows how the stone axehead was used as the model for the metal axe or celt, and how that in turn was modified as workers gained experience in the use of the metal
THE TRANSITION FROM STONE TO IRON
This series of diagrams, reproduced from specimens in the British Museum, by permission of the Trustees, shows how the stone axehead was used as the model for the metal axe or celt, and how that in turn was modified as workers gained experience in the use of the metal
In civilised lands it is chiefly metal casting and the forging of the heated metal which have made it possible to produce better weapons and tools and more valuable ornaments. The worked metals are first copper, then the alloy of copper and tin that bears the name of classical bronze, and to these are soon added gold and—especially in districts rich in the metal, as in Spain—silver. Later on the extraction of iron from its ores and the forging of that metal are discovered.
According to this course of metallurgical progress the first metal period is distinguished as the Bronze Period, which is begun by a Copper Period lasting more or less long in different places. The second or later metal period is the Iron Period, in which we are living at the present day. In the course of time, by gradually displacing bronze and copper from the rank of metals worked for weapons and tools, this Iron Age has developed to its present stage.
In Central Europe the pile-dwellings in the lakes of Western Switzerland again present us with specially clear and uninterrupted series of illustrations of the progress of culture from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. Ending the Stone Age, we find first a period of transition, in which, while stone continued to be principally employed, a few ornaments, weapons, and tools of metal began to be used. This metal is at first almost exclusively copper, with only very little bronze; iron is quite absent. Copper objects have been found in Western Switzerland by Victor Gross, most extensively in Fenel’s lake-dwelling station, which otherwise still belongs to the Stone Age. The majority of these are small daggers, formed after the pattern of the flint daggers; some already possess rivetings for fastening the blade to a handle. There are also chisels and small awls in bone handles, beads, and small ornamental leaves, and hatchets of the form of the simplest stone hatchets, with the edge hammered out and broadened. Much has proved the existence of a Copper Period corresponding to this description in the lake-dwelling in the Mond See in Austria, and in Hungary the remains of a Copper Period are particularly frequent. Parallel cases also occur in many other parts of Europe, particularly, as Virchow has proved, in the Spanish Peninsula, and in the Stone Age graves of Cujavia in Prussian Poland. These are the more important as they are most closely related to the conditions of culture discovered in the ancient strata of Hissarlik-Troy. Further unmistakable analogies occur with very ancient finds in Cyprus, and probably even with the oldest remains of Babylonian culture hitherto known. Here, too, we may include the finds of copper in the Stone Age of America.
The Passing of the Stone Age
So that in the normal and complete evolution of culture there seems to be first a stratum of copper as the connecting link between the Stone and Metal Ages; andthis must be missing in those regions in which progress from the stone to the metal culture was only brought about at a relatively later period by external influences. This applies not only to all modern races in an age of stone, who obtained metal in recent times only through contact with European nations who had been living in the Iron Period for thousands of years, but, curiously enough, also to the greater part of Africa, where the use of iron was prevalent at a prehistoric period.
Just as the modern Stone races passed straight from the Stone Age into the most highly-developed Iron Age of the most advanced culture, so also the stone stratum of Central and South Africa is immediately overlaid by a stratum of iron culture, which was brought there in ancient times, probably direct from Egypt. As there is in Egypt and throughout North Africa a regular development from the Copper-bronze Period to the complete iron culture, corresponding to the progress of the metal cultures of Europe and Asia, the point of time is thus chronologically fixed at which this important element of culture was transmitted from Europe to the blacks of Central and South Africa.
WEAPONS USED BY MAN IN THE PERIODS OF DAWNING HISTORYReproduced chiefly from specimens in the British Museum.
WEAPONS USED BY MAN IN THE PERIODS OF DAWNING HISTORY
Reproduced chiefly from specimens in the British Museum.
Advancing Civilisation in Bronze Age
In Western Switzerland the transition period of copper is followed without a gap in the development by the Bronze Period proper. With the introduction of bronze all the conditions of life were more highly developed in the sense of increased culture. With better tools the stations of the Bronze Age could be erected at a greater distance from the bank, often two hundred to three hundred yards; the space they take up is also much greater. The piles are not only better preserved, according as the time of their being driven in more nearly approaches our own, but they are also better worked, are often square, and the points that are rammed into the lake-bottom are better cut. The settlements of the Bronze Age often cover an area of several hundred square yards, and are no longer comparatively mean villages, as in the Stone Age; the pile settlements of the Bronze Age are well-organised market towns and even flourishing small cities, where a certain luxury already prevails. The products of their industry are graced by that beauty and elegance of form that only an advanced civilisation can create. As in the Stone Age, so also in the BronzeAge of Central and Northern Europe, the most important working-implement, which was, however, also used as a weapon, was the axe, or celt. The most primitive forms of axes, like the above-mentioned copper axes, still resemble the simple stone axes: like these, they have no special contrivance for fastening the handle. In more developed forms of axes such contrivances for fastening the handle appear first in the form of slight flanges, which become wider and wider; finally they develop into regular wings, which, by curving towards one another, develop into two almost closed lateral semi-canals on the upper side of the celt. In the hollow celts a simple socket for the handle was cast in the making; an additional means of fastening the handle was provided in a loop, which also occurs on winged celts. Besides the celt, or axe-blade, broad and narrow chisels of bronze occur in various forms for working wood. A second chief type of instrument is the one-edged bronze knife with elegantly curved back and a handle tongue.
THE HILL OF TROY, IN WHICH IS RECORDED A WONDERFUL STORY OF MAN’S PROGRESSSeven towns of Troy were built upon this hill, one above the ruins of the other, the earliest dating from 3000 B.C.; and the brilliant excavations of Dr. Henry Schliemann, which have won him immortal fame, have contributed more to our knowledge of the history of mankind than any other excavations in our time, as on this site is concentrated a continuous record of man’s progress from the late Stone Age to the height of Greek civilisation.
THE HILL OF TROY, IN WHICH IS RECORDED A WONDERFUL STORY OF MAN’S PROGRESS
Seven towns of Troy were built upon this hill, one above the ruins of the other, the earliest dating from 3000 B.C.; and the brilliant excavations of Dr. Henry Schliemann, which have won him immortal fame, have contributed more to our knowledge of the history of mankind than any other excavations in our time, as on this site is concentrated a continuous record of man’s progress from the late Stone Age to the height of Greek civilisation.
The manner in which iron was found in the lake-dwellings, as mentioned above, shows the gradual development of a period of transition between a Bronze and an Iron Age. In spite of the difference in the material which the lake-dwellers used for making their weapons and tools in the periods of transition, they still imitate the old forms received from their forefathers. Just as the first metal axes of copper are copies of the stone axes, so also, when iron first became known, were weapons made of this metal which corresponded in form to the bronze weapons that had hitherto been used.
The Bronze Period was first proved to have been a complete form of culture in the North of Europe—in North Germany and Scandinavia. We have now succeeded in establishing the fact that it was a preliminary stage of the Iron Age, in locally original development, in all ancient centres of culture. It is very remarkable that the civilised states of the New World also employed only copper and bronze as working metals. Thus the Peruvians did not know iron any more than the other American peoples until they came in contact with European influences. Besides copper and bronze they had tin and lead, gold and silver. The Peruvian bronzes contain silver to the extent of five to ten per cent. There are axes or celts of bronze similar to the rudest of the first European beginnings in metal corresponding in form to the simple stone axe. Many of the other forms of weapons and implements familiar in the BronzeAge of the Old World were also made of bronze or copper in America; semi-lunar knives with a handle in the middle, lance-heads and arrow-heads, swords, war-clubs like morning stars, etc. At the same time weapons and implements of stone still remained in use.
In the Old World progress beyond bronze is everywhere due to iron.
EXCAVATIONS IN THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA AT TROYDr. Schliemann’s discoveries in the ruins of this temple and the ruins of older buildings beneath it were among the richest in the entire annals of archæological research.
EXCAVATIONS IN THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA AT TROY
Dr. Schliemann’s discoveries in the ruins of this temple and the ruins of older buildings beneath it were among the richest in the entire annals of archæological research.
One place has been found and most completely investigated after the method of palæontological research, with all the help afforded by archæological and historical science, where, in overlying geological strata, the evidences have been found of a progressive development of culture from the end of the Stone Age down to the brilliant days of Græco-Roman history. There the chronological connection has been obtained, not only for the metal periods, but also for the end of the Neolithic Period. This most important place is Troy, the citadel-hill of Hissarlik, by the excavation of which Henry Schliemann has won immortal fame. Schliemann’s excavations, supplemented and completed in decisive manner by Dörpfeld, have brought about the most important advancement of the history of mankind that our age can show.
A WINE MERCHANT’S CELLAR IN ANCIENT TROYNine colossal earthen jars were discovered by Dr. Schliemann in the depths of the Temple of Athena. They had evidently belonged to some wine merchant’s cellar in the pre-Hellenic period.
A WINE MERCHANT’S CELLAR IN ANCIENT TROY
Nine colossal earthen jars were discovered by Dr. Schliemann in the depths of the Temple of Athena. They had evidently belonged to some wine merchant’s cellar in the pre-Hellenic period.
Virchow’s name is inseparably associated with Schliemann’s. Furtwängler, in his account, based on personal observation, of the results of the excavations at Troy, has accomplished the great service of exactly determining the chronological connections of the prehistoric with the historic eras, and thereby linking the former to history.
On the spot on which tradition placed Homeric Troy (says Furtwängler) there really has stood a stately citadel, which was contemporaneous with the golden age of Mycenæ, the epoch of the Agamemnon of legend, was intimately related to Mycenæan culture, and at the same time corresponds most exactly to the idea of Troy underlying the old epic.
Seven Towns on One Hill
The citadel-hill of Troy terminates a ridge of heights stretching westward from Mount Ida, almost parallel to the Hellespont, and slopes steeply into the Trojan plain or the valley of the Scamander. The natural hill itself is not very high, but it was overlaid by enormous layers of ruins of buildings and walls, whereby it has been considerably increased not only in height, but also in breadth. Stratum after stratum lies one upon the other like the leaves of a bud, so that the history of the habitation of this venerable place from the most ancient times can be read from these strata which have been opened up by Schliemann and Dörpfeld, as from the leaves of a book. The original ground of the hill-plateau now lies some sixty feet above the plain, but the latter may have been raised something like sixteen to twenty feet by alluvial deposits since the Trojan War. The whole stratum of ruins lying on the original ground of the hill, which Schliemann opened up, amounts to about fifty-two and a half feet. Schliemann distinguished seven or eight different layers or strata, corresponding to as many towns which were successively built on this hill, one on the ruins of the other.
The lowest stratum, lying immediately on the original ground, belongs accordingly to the oldest, or first town, on the citadel-hill of Troy. Furtwängler says:
The First Town of Troy
By moderate computation this settlement must belong to the first half of the third millennium before Christ, but it may very well date back even to the fourth millennium. The inhabitants already used copper implements in addition to stone ones. Their whole culture is most closely connected with that which prevailed in Central Europe during the Copper Period. Clay vessels of the Copper Period from Lake Mond, in Austria, agree completely with those of the first Trojan town. Troy represents only an offshoot of Central European culture, and its inhabitants were in all probability of European origin.
By moderate computation this settlement must belong to the first half of the third millennium before Christ, but it may very well date back even to the fourth millennium. The inhabitants already used copper implements in addition to stone ones. Their whole culture is most closely connected with that which prevailed in Central Europe during the Copper Period. Clay vessels of the Copper Period from Lake Mond, in Austria, agree completely with those of the first Trojan town. Troy represents only an offshoot of Central European culture, and its inhabitants were in all probability of European origin.
We have already learned that the Copper Period is the end of the Neolithic Period and the beginning of the Metal Age. In the first Trojan town there is still extraordinarily little metal used, the axes, hatchets, knives, and saws still being of stone, of the familiar Central European types, and of the same materials, among which nephrite is particularly frequent. Other materials are serpentine, diorite, porphyry, hematite, flint, etc.
The First Period of Troy’s Glory
The forms of these implements correspond entirely to those of the later Stone Age of Europe. The character of the ceramics also conforms in many respects, according to Virchow, to that of the European Stone Age; and the Stone Age finds at Butmir, in Bosnia, and similar ones in Transylvania seem especially to offer close analogies. It would be a highly important step toward connecting history with the Neolithic Period if the first town could be even more closely investigated, and perhaps more sharply divided from that second stratum which lies between it and the stratum described by Schliemann as the second or burnt city, and which Schliemann afterward separated into two strata, corresponding to two towns. Perhaps the metal comes only from the second or higher stratum under the burnt city. In that case the oldest would belong purely to the Stone Age. The ceramics would seem to contradict this. Furtwängler continues:
High above the first town, a deep layer of débris, is the level surface of the second town, which must at least be dated back to the second half of the third millennium before Christ. It was the first period of Troy’s glory. Mighty walls protected the citadel. Three different building periods may be distinguished. The walls were brought out a long way and strengthened, and magnificent new gates were built. During the third period of this second city a prince, fond of splendour, had the old narrow gateway replaced by magnificent propylæa and a large hall-erection with a vestibule. A great conflagration destroyed his citadel. A treasure was found by Schliemann—he called it Priam’s treasure—in the upper part of the citadel wall, which was made of straw bricks. The tools of the second city are still partly of stone, but also partly of bronze, so that they already belong to the Bronze Age.
High above the first town, a deep layer of débris, is the level surface of the second town, which must at least be dated back to the second half of the third millennium before Christ. It was the first period of Troy’s glory. Mighty walls protected the citadel. Three different building periods may be distinguished. The walls were brought out a long way and strengthened, and magnificent new gates were built. During the third period of this second city a prince, fond of splendour, had the old narrow gateway replaced by magnificent propylæa and a large hall-erection with a vestibule. A great conflagration destroyed his citadel. A treasure was found by Schliemann—he called it Priam’s treasure—in the upper part of the citadel wall, which was made of straw bricks. The tools of the second city are still partly of stone, but also partly of bronze, so that they already belong to the Bronze Age.
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TROY: REVEALING THE WALL OF THE ACROPOLISA view of the great substruction wall of the acropolis of the second city of Troy, on the west side, close to the south-west gate: (a) is the paved road, which leads from the S.W. gate down to the plain; (b) is the continuation of the great acropolis-wall of the second city on the west side of the S.W. gate; (c) is the foundation of the paved road and the quadrangular pier to strengthen it; (d) marks the masonry added by the third settlers.LARGER IMAGE
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TROY: REVEALING THE WALL OF THE ACROPOLIS
A view of the great substruction wall of the acropolis of the second city of Troy, on the west side, close to the south-west gate: (a) is the paved road, which leads from the S.W. gate down to the plain; (b) is the continuation of the great acropolis-wall of the second city on the west side of the S.W. gate; (c) is the foundation of the paved road and the quadrangular pier to strengthen it; (d) marks the masonry added by the third settlers.
LARGER IMAGE
The Early Culture of Troy
The general character of culture is, according to Furtwängler, still essentially Central European. And yet many an individuality has developed, and the influence of Babylonian culture is everywhere apparent, although it does not go very deep. To this influence our authority chiefly attributes the occurrence of a few pots turned on the wheel, especially flat dishes; for the potter’s wheel was still quiteunknown at that time in Europe, and even at a post so far advanced toward the East as Cyprus, while in Egypt and Babylonia it had been in use from the earliest times. In this period also Troy inclines more to Central Europe as its centre of gravity, but remains far behind the peculiar development that bronze work attained there; in the metal tools no advance is made on the forms of the Copper Period. Into any close relation with Cyprus it does not come; only the basis of their culture is common to both. But this basis had a wide range, relics from German districts being often more closely related to the Trojan ones than are those from Cyprus.
TROY: THE GREAT TOWER OF ILIUMThe top of the tower is 26 ft. below the surface of the hill. The foundation is on the rock 46 ft. deep; the height of the tower is 20 ft.
TROY: THE GREAT TOWER OF ILIUM
The top of the tower is 26 ft. below the surface of the hill. The foundation is on the rock 46 ft. deep; the height of the tower is 20 ft.
The brilliant period of the second city is followed by a long period of decline for Troy. Ruins are piled upon ruins, walls rise upon walls, but each poorer than the others; no new citadel walls, no gates, no palaces belong to this period, in which three strata—the third, fourth, and fifth towns—are distinguished. The first half of the second millennium before Christ must at least be regarded as the time of this deposit. The inhabitants evidently remained the same, and their culture is that of the second city. But no progress was made; nothing but stagnation; the same forms of vessels continue to be made, the same decorated whorls. Naturally, no active intercourse with abroad could develop in this period. And yet this was the time when an active civilised life began to develop on the islands of the Ægean Sea and on the east coast of Greece, which was to bloom in all its splendour in the following period. To this time the finds at Thera belong, where the pottery, all turned on the wheel, is already painted with a so-called varnish colour which shines like metal, and in which plants, flowers, and animals are treated in quite a new and promising naturalistic style hitherto unheard of in Europe. In Cyprus, too, the decoration of pottery developed exceedingly in wealth and variety in this period of the Bronze Age. Troy, on the other hand, is poor and degenerate.But a new period of prosperity arrived for Troy, too; this is the sixth town. Rich and powerful princes again ruled in this citadel. They enlarged it far beyond its former compass. They built strong new walls—the old ones had long since sunk in ruins—not of small stones and straw bricks as before, but of large, smooth blocks, and gates and turrets. They did not have the sloping mound of ruins levelled, as the lords of the second city had done; they let the new buildings rise in terraces, on the ruins of the old; stately mansions with wide, deep halls, covered the acropolis. Constant intercourse existed with the princes of Greece, who at that time—the second half of the second millennium before Christ—built their citadels with cyclopean walls. The Trojans employed the same peculiar, constantly-recurring small projections in their walls that we find in a Mycenæan town on Lake Copaïs in Bœotia.And, above all, the Trojans now provided themselves with those beautiful vessels painted with shining colour that characterise Mycenæan culture in Greece, and whose natural style had so wonderfully developed there on the basis of the attempts that we found at Thera. In Troy thesethings caused some imitation, but the results remained far behind the originals. The living, imaginative conception of the natural was closed to the Trojan; the home-made pottery kept, on the whole, to its unpainted vessels, although these were now almost entirely made on the wheel.
The brilliant period of the second city is followed by a long period of decline for Troy. Ruins are piled upon ruins, walls rise upon walls, but each poorer than the others; no new citadel walls, no gates, no palaces belong to this period, in which three strata—the third, fourth, and fifth towns—are distinguished. The first half of the second millennium before Christ must at least be regarded as the time of this deposit. The inhabitants evidently remained the same, and their culture is that of the second city. But no progress was made; nothing but stagnation; the same forms of vessels continue to be made, the same decorated whorls. Naturally, no active intercourse with abroad could develop in this period. And yet this was the time when an active civilised life began to develop on the islands of the Ægean Sea and on the east coast of Greece, which was to bloom in all its splendour in the following period. To this time the finds at Thera belong, where the pottery, all turned on the wheel, is already painted with a so-called varnish colour which shines like metal, and in which plants, flowers, and animals are treated in quite a new and promising naturalistic style hitherto unheard of in Europe. In Cyprus, too, the decoration of pottery developed exceedingly in wealth and variety in this period of the Bronze Age. Troy, on the other hand, is poor and degenerate.
But a new period of prosperity arrived for Troy, too; this is the sixth town. Rich and powerful princes again ruled in this citadel. They enlarged it far beyond its former compass. They built strong new walls—the old ones had long since sunk in ruins—not of small stones and straw bricks as before, but of large, smooth blocks, and gates and turrets. They did not have the sloping mound of ruins levelled, as the lords of the second city had done; they let the new buildings rise in terraces, on the ruins of the old; stately mansions with wide, deep halls, covered the acropolis. Constant intercourse existed with the princes of Greece, who at that time—the second half of the second millennium before Christ—built their citadels with cyclopean walls. The Trojans employed the same peculiar, constantly-recurring small projections in their walls that we find in a Mycenæan town on Lake Copaïs in Bœotia.
And, above all, the Trojans now provided themselves with those beautiful vessels painted with shining colour that characterise Mycenæan culture in Greece, and whose natural style had so wonderfully developed there on the basis of the attempts that we found at Thera. In Troy thesethings caused some imitation, but the results remained far behind the originals. The living, imaginative conception of the natural was closed to the Trojan; the home-made pottery kept, on the whole, to its unpainted vessels, although these were now almost entirely made on the wheel.
THE TREASURE OF PRIAM, KING OF TROY: A COLLECTION REVEALED BY THE EXCAVATIONSThis remarkable collection of regal treasure comprises the key of the treasure-house (at top of picture in centre); and, under and about the key, a number of golden diadems, fillets, earrings, and smaller jewels. On the shelf below there are a number of silver talents and vessels of silver and gold; while below them is a series of silver vases and a curious plate of copper. A variety of weapons and helmet crests of copper and bronze are displayed beneath, and on the floor are a vessel, a cauldron and a shield, all made of copper.
THE TREASURE OF PRIAM, KING OF TROY: A COLLECTION REVEALED BY THE EXCAVATIONS
This remarkable collection of regal treasure comprises the key of the treasure-house (at top of picture in centre); and, under and about the key, a number of golden diadems, fillets, earrings, and smaller jewels. On the shelf below there are a number of silver talents and vessels of silver and gold; while below them is a series of silver vases and a curious plate of copper. A variety of weapons and helmet crests of copper and bronze are displayed beneath, and on the floor are a vessel, a cauldron and a shield, all made of copper.
Yet what chiefly interests us is the historical. The sixth town, too, was suddenly given up, destroyed, and burnt. What follows it are again only poor settlements. Its destruction must have taken place about the end of the Mycenæan epoch of culture. The seventh town, which is built immediately on the ruins of the sixth, shows, already, other and later culture. It had long been suspected that a historical kernel was concealed in the legend of Troy—now we have the monumental confirmation. There really was a Troy, which was strong and great at the same time as the rulers of Mycenæ, rich in gold and treasure, heldway in Greece. And that Troy was destroyed—we may now safely affirm, from this agreement between relics and legend—by Greek princes of the Mycenæan epoch, whom the legend calls Agamemnon and his men.
Yet what chiefly interests us is the historical. The sixth town, too, was suddenly given up, destroyed, and burnt. What follows it are again only poor settlements. Its destruction must have taken place about the end of the Mycenæan epoch of culture. The seventh town, which is built immediately on the ruins of the sixth, shows, already, other and later culture. It had long been suspected that a historical kernel was concealed in the legend of Troy—now we have the monumental confirmation. There really was a Troy, which was strong and great at the same time as the rulers of Mycenæ, rich in gold and treasure, heldway in Greece. And that Troy was destroyed—we may now safely affirm, from this agreement between relics and legend—by Greek princes of the Mycenæan epoch, whom the legend calls Agamemnon and his men.
The seventh and eighth towns, built soon after the destruction of the sixth, show an interruption in the intercourse with Greece. There the Mycenæan period was broken by the displacement of peoples known as the Doric migration, and that rich civilised life was replaced by a relapse into the semi-barbaric conditions of the North. In Troy, too, we perceive a period of decline, “a relapse into a stage long since past; black hand-made vessels, which in their form and decoration are strikingly like the home-made pots usual in Italy, especially Etruria and Latium, in the first part of the first millennium before Christ.” Finally, the seventh town also furnishes inferior imported Greek vases with painting, though coming not from Greece itself, but from the coast of Asia Minor, where Greeks had settled in connection with the Doric migration. “The Æolic colonisation of Troas brought Ilium no fresh prosperity. Other places rose, Troy remained a miserable village. In the Hellenistic period the sky clears over Troy. What Alexander intended, Lysimachus carried out; he restores Ilium to the place of a real city with new walls, and erects a magnificent temple to Athene on the top of the acropolis.... Yet artistic creation came to no real perfection. It was only when the great men of Rome, mindful of their Trojan ancestors, began to interest themselves in the place, that new life bloomed on Troy’s ruins.”
Thus the geological-archæological method relates history, merely relying upon the monuments of the soil, without requiring written evidences. Pre-history has here attained its end; it has become history.
JOHANNESRANKE
A VIEW SHOWING THE REMARKABLE CHARACTER OF THE EXCAVATIONS AT TROYSome idea of the enormous work involved in unearthing ancient Troy will be gathered from the fact, made clear in this view, that the ground-level before excavating was above the height of these buildings. A deep trench was cut, as shown in the illustration, through the whole hill of Hissarlik, the citadel town.
A VIEW SHOWING THE REMARKABLE CHARACTER OF THE EXCAVATIONS AT TROY
Some idea of the enormous work involved in unearthing ancient Troy will be gathered from the fact, made clear in this view, that the ground-level before excavating was above the height of these buildings. A deep trench was cut, as shown in the illustration, through the whole hill of Hissarlik, the citadel town.