Piece of a Terra-cotta Dish, with the Owl’s Face. (14 M.)Piece of a Terra-cotta Dish, with the Owl’s Face. (14 M.)
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
WHEN, in the year 1832, at Kalkhorst, a village in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, at the age of ten, I presented my father, as a Christmas gift, with a badly written Latin essay upon the principal events of the Trojan war and the adventures of Ulysses and Agamemnon, little did I think that, six-and-thirty years later, I should offer the public a work on the same subject, after having had the good fortune to see with my own eyes the scene of that war, and the country of the heroes whose names have been immortalized by Homer.
As soon as I had learnt to speak, my father related to me the great deeds of the Homeric heroes. I loved these stories; they enchanted me and transported me with the highest enthusiasm. The first impressions which a child receives abide with him during his whole life; and, though it was my lot, at the age of fourteen, to be apprenticed in the warehouse of E. Ludwig Holtz in the small town of Fürstenberg, in Mecklenburg, instead of following the scientific career for which I felt an extraordinary predisposition, I always retained the same love for the famous men of antiquity which I had conceived for them in my first childhood.
In the small shop where I was employed for five years and a half, first by Mr. Holtz and then by his successor, the excellent Mr. Th. Huckstädt, my occupation consisted in retailing herrings, butter, brandy, milk and salt, grinding potatoes for the still, sweeping the shop, and so forth. I only came into contact with the lower classes of society.
From five in the morning to eleven at night I was engaged in this work, and had not a moment free for study. Moreover I rapidly forgot the little that I had learnt in my childhood, but I did not lose the love of learning; indeed I never lost it,and, as long as I live, I shall never forget the evening when a drunken miller came into the shop. He was the son of a Protestant clergyman in a village near Teterow, and had almost concluded his studies at the Gymnasium when he was expelled on account of his bad conduct. To punish him for this, his father made him learn the trade of a miller. Dissatisfied with his lot, the young man gave himself up to drink, which however had not made him forget his Homer; for he recited to us about one hundred lines of the poet, observing the rhythmic cadence. Although I did not understand a word, the melodious speech made a deep impression upon me, and I wept bitter tears for my unhappy fate. Thrice I got him to repeat to me those god-like verses, paying him with three glasses of brandy, which I bought with the few pence that made up my whole fortune. From that moment I never ceased to pray God that by His grace I might yet have the happiness to learn Greek.
There seemed, however, no hope of my escaping from the sad and low position in which I found myself. And yet I was released from it as if by a miracle. In lifting a cask too heavy for me, I hurt my chest; I spat blood and was no longer able to work. In despair I went to Hamburg, where I succeeded in obtaining a situation as cabin-boy on board of a ship bound for La Guayra in Venezuela.[31]
On the 28th of November, 1841, we left Hamburg, but on the 12th of December we were shipwrecked in a fearful storm off the island of Texel. After innumerable dangers, the crew were saved. I regarded it as my destiny to remain in Holland, and resolved to go to Amsterdam and enlist as a soldier. But this could not be done as quickly as I had imagined, and the few florins, which I had collected as alms on the island of Texel and in Enkhuyzen, were soon spent in Amsterdam. As my means of living were entirely exhausted, I feigned illness and was taken into the hospital. From this terrible situation I was released by the kind ship-broker J. F. Wendt of Hamburg, who heard of my misfortune and sent me the proceeds of a small subscription which had been raised for me. He at the same time recommended me to theexcellent Consul-General of the North German Confederation in Amsterdam, Mr. W. Hepner, who procured me a situation in the office of Mr. F. C. Quien.
In my new situation my work consisted in stamping bills of exchange and getting them cashed in the town, and in carrying letters to and from the post-office. This mechanical occupation suited me, for it left me time to think of my neglected education.
First of all I took pains to learn to write legibly, and then, in order to improve my position, I went on to the study of the modern languages. My annual salary amounted only to 800 francs (32l.), half of which I spent upon my studies; on the other half I lived, miserably enough to be sure. My lodging, which cost 8 francs a month, was a wretched garret without a fire, where I shivered with cold in winter and was scorched with the heat in summer; my breakfast consisted of rye-meal porridge, and my dinner never cost more than a penny farthing. But nothing spurs one on more to study than misery and the certain prospect of being able to release oneself from it by unremitting work. I applied myself with extraordinary diligence to the study of English. Necessity showed me a method which greatly facilitates the study of a language. This method consists in reading a great deal aloud, without making a translation; devoting one hour every day to writing essays upon subjects that interest one, correcting these under a teacher’s supervision, learning them by heart, and repeating in the next lesson what was corrected on the previous day. My memory was bad, since from my childhood it had not been exercised upon any object; but I made use of every moment, and even stole time for study. I never went on my errands, even in the rain, without having my book in my hand and learning something by heart; and I never waited at the post-office without reading. By such means I gradually strengthened my memory, and in half a year I had succeeded in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the English language. I then applied the same method to the study of French, the difficulties of which I overcame likewise in another six months. These persevering and excessive studies had in the course of one year strengthened my memory to such a degree that the study of Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese appeared very easy, and it did nottake me more than six weeks to write each of these languages and to speak them fluently. But my passion for study caused me to neglect my mechanical occupation in the office, especially when I began to consider it beneath me. My principals would give me no promotion; they probably thought that a person who shows his incapacity for the business of a servant in an office is therefore quite worthless for any higher duties.
At last, through the intercession of my worthy friends, L. Stoll of Mannheim and Ballauff of Bremen, I had the good fortune to obtain a situation as correspondent and bookkeeper in the office of Messrs. B. H. Schröder and Co. in Amsterdam, who engaged me at a salary of 1200 francs (48l.); but when they saw my zeal, they paid me 2000 francs as an encouragement. This generosity, for which I shall ever be grateful to them, was in fact the foundation of my prosperity; for, as I thought that I could make myself still more useful by a knowledge of Russian, I set to work to learn that language also. But the only Russian books that I could procure were an old grammar, a lexicon, and a bad translation of Telemachus. In spite of all my inquiries I could not find a teacher of Russian, for no one in Amsterdam understood a word of the language: so I betook myself to study without a master, and, with the help of the grammar, I learnt the Russian letters and their pronunciation in a few days. Then, following my old method, I began to write short stories of my own composition and to learn them off by heart. As I had no one to correct my work, it was, no doubt, very bad indeed, but I tried at the same time to correct my faults by the practical exercise of learning Telemachus by heart. It occurred to me that I should make more progress if I had some one to whom I could relate the adventures of Telemachus; so I hired a poor Jew for 4 francs a week, who had to come every evening for two hours to listen to my Russian recitations, of which he did not understand a syllable.
As the ceilings of the rooms in Holland consist of single boards, people on the ground-floor can hear what is said in the third storey. My recitations therefore, delivered in a loud voice, annoyed the other tenants, who complained to the landlord, and twice during my study of the Russian language I was forced to change my lodgings. But these inconveniences did not diminish my zeal, and in the course of sixweeks I wrote my first Russian letter to a Russian in London, and I was able to converse fluently in this language with the Russian merchants who had come to Amsterdam for the indigo auctions.
After I had concluded my study of the Russian language, I began to occupy myself seriously with the literatures of the languages which I had learnt.
In the beginning of the year 1846, my worthy principals sent me as their agent to St. Petersburg, where a year later I established a mercantile house on my own account; but, during the first eight or nine years that I spent in Russia, I was so overwhelmed with work that I could not continue my linguistic studies, and it was not till the year 1854 that I found it possible to acquire the Swedish and Polish languages.
Great as was my wish to learn Greek, I did not venture upon its study till I had acquired a moderate fortune; for I was afraid that this language would exercise too great a fascination upon me and estrange me from my commercial business. When, however, I could no longer restrain my desire for learning, I at last set vigorously to work at Greek in January 1856; first with Mr. N. Pappadakes, and then with Mr. Th. Vimpos of Athens, always following my old method. It did not take me more than six weeks to master the difficulties of modern Greek, and I then applied myself to the ancient language, of which in three months I learned sufficient to understand some of the ancient authors, and especially Homer, whom I read and re-read with the most lively enthusiasm.
I then occupied myself for two years exclusively with the ancient Greek literature; and during this time I read almost all the old authors cursorily, and the Iliad and Odyssey several times.
In the year 1858 I travelled to Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Egypt, where I sailed up the Nile as far as the second cataract in Nubia. I availed myself of this opportunity to learn Arabic, and I afterwards travelled across the desert from Cairo to Jerusalem. I visited Petra, traversed the whole of Syria, and in this manner I had abundant opportunity of acquiring a practical knowledge of Arabic, the deeper study of which I afterwards continued in St. Petersburg. After leaving Syria, I visited Athens in the summerof 1859, and I was on the point of starting for the island of Ithaca when I was seized with an illness which obliged me to return to St. Petersburg.
Heaven had blessed my mercantile undertakings in a wonderful manner, so that at the end of 1863 I found myself in possession of a fortune such as my ambition had never ventured to aspire to. I therefore retired from business, in order to devote myself exclusively to the studies which have the greatest fascination for me.
In the year 1864 I was on the road to visit the native island of Ulysses and the Plain of Troy, when I allowed myself to be persuaded to visit India, China and Japan, and to travel round the world. I spent two years on this journey, and on my return in 1866 I settled in Paris, with the purpose of devoting the rest of my life to study, and especially to archæology, which has the greatest charm for me.
At last I was able to realize the dream of my whole life, and to visit at my leisure the scene of those events which had such an intense interest for me, and the country of the heroes whose adventures had delighted and comforted my childhood. I started, therefore, last summer, and visited in succession the places which still possess such living poetic memorials of antiquity.
I had not, however, the ambition of publishing a work on the subject; this I only decided upon doing when I found what errors almost all archæologists had spread about the site once occupied by the Homeric capital of Ithaca, about the stables of Eumæus, the Island of Asteris, ancient Troy, the sepulchral mounds of Batiea and of Æsyetes, the tomb of Hector, and so forth.
Apart from the hope of correcting opinions which I hold to be erroneous, I should consider myself fortunate could I aid in diffusing among the intelligent public a taste for the beautiful and noble studies which have sustained my courage during the hard trials of my life, and which will sweeten the days yet left me to live.
HENRYSCHLIEMANN.
6, Place St.-Michel, Paris,Dec. 31st, 1868.
D I A G R A M
SHEWING THE SUCCESSIVESTRATAOF REMAINS ON THE HILL OF HISSARLIK.
Form of the Work—Changing and progressive opinions due to the Novelty of the Discoveries—Chronology—Duration of the GREEKIlium—Four successive strata of remains beneath its ruins on the hill ofHissarlik—Remains of theEarliest Settlers, who were of the Aryan race—Symbols on their terra-cottas—TheSecond Settlers, the Trojans of Homer—The Tower of Ilium, Scæan Gate, and City Walls, covered with the ashes of a conflagration—Skeletons denoting a bloody war—The Royal Treasure—Small extent of Troy: not beyond the hill of Hissarlik—Poetical exaggerations of Homer, who only knew it by tradition—The city was wealthy and powerful, though small—Stone weapons and implements,notdenoting the “Stone Age”—Contemporaneous use of copper, silver, and gold, for tools, weapons, vases, and ornaments—Inscriptions proving the use of a written language—Splendid remains of pottery—Symbols proving that the Trojans were an Aryan race—Their buildings of stone and wood—Antiquity of the City—TheThird Settlers, also of the Aryan race—Their pottery coarser—Musical instruments—Their mode of building—Fewer implements of copper, but those of stone abundant—TheFourth Settlers, of the Aryan race, built theWooden Ilium—Their progressive decline in civilization—Some copper implements, with tools and weapons of stone—TheGreek Iliumbuilt aboutB.C.700: ceased to exist in the fourth century after Christ—Evidence of Coins—No Byzantine remains—The Walls of Lysimachus—Metals found in the various strata: copper and bronze, silver, gold, lead: no iron or tin—Sculptures of the Greek age—Metopé of the Sun-God—Images of the owl-faced Athena common to all the pre-Hellenic strata: their various forms—The perforated whorls of terra-cotta, with Aryan symbols—The sign of theSuastika卐—The plain whorls—Discussion of the site of Troy—Traditionally placed on that of the Greek Ilium—View of Demetrius and Strabo refuted—Opinion of Lechevalier for Bunarbashi, generally accepted, but erroneous—No remains of a great city there—The site really that of Gergis—Fragments of Hellenic pottery only—The three so-called tombs of heroes also Greek—Proposed sites at Chiplak and Akshi-Koï refuted by the absence of remains—Modern authorities in favour of Hissarlik—Ancient types of pottery still made in the Troad—Covers with owl-faces, and vases with uplifted wings—Colouring materials of the pottery—The inscriptions—The author’s relations with the Turkish Government—Professor Max Müller on the owl-headed goddess—Some probable traces of another settlement between the fourth pre-Hellenic people and the Greek colonists.
Form of the Work—Changing and progressive opinions due to the Novelty of the Discoveries—Chronology—Duration of the GREEKIlium—Four successive strata of remains beneath its ruins on the hill ofHissarlik—Remains of theEarliest Settlers, who were of the Aryan race—Symbols on their terra-cottas—TheSecond Settlers, the Trojans of Homer—The Tower of Ilium, Scæan Gate, and City Walls, covered with the ashes of a conflagration—Skeletons denoting a bloody war—The Royal Treasure—Small extent of Troy: not beyond the hill of Hissarlik—Poetical exaggerations of Homer, who only knew it by tradition—The city was wealthy and powerful, though small—Stone weapons and implements,notdenoting the “Stone Age”—Contemporaneous use of copper, silver, and gold, for tools, weapons, vases, and ornaments—Inscriptions proving the use of a written language—Splendid remains of pottery—Symbols proving that the Trojans were an Aryan race—Their buildings of stone and wood—Antiquity of the City—TheThird Settlers, also of the Aryan race—Their pottery coarser—Musical instruments—Their mode of building—Fewer implements of copper, but those of stone abundant—TheFourth Settlers, of the Aryan race, built theWooden Ilium—Their progressive decline in civilization—Some copper implements, with tools and weapons of stone—TheGreek Iliumbuilt aboutB.C.700: ceased to exist in the fourth century after Christ—Evidence of Coins—No Byzantine remains—The Walls of Lysimachus—Metals found in the various strata: copper and bronze, silver, gold, lead: no iron or tin—Sculptures of the Greek age—Metopé of the Sun-God—Images of the owl-faced Athena common to all the pre-Hellenic strata: their various forms—The perforated whorls of terra-cotta, with Aryan symbols—The sign of theSuastika卐—The plain whorls—Discussion of the site of Troy—Traditionally placed on that of the Greek Ilium—View of Demetrius and Strabo refuted—Opinion of Lechevalier for Bunarbashi, generally accepted, but erroneous—No remains of a great city there—The site really that of Gergis—Fragments of Hellenic pottery only—The three so-called tombs of heroes also Greek—Proposed sites at Chiplak and Akshi-Koï refuted by the absence of remains—Modern authorities in favour of Hissarlik—Ancient types of pottery still made in the Troad—Covers with owl-faces, and vases with uplifted wings—Colouring materials of the pottery—The inscriptions—The author’s relations with the Turkish Government—Professor Max Müller on the owl-headed goddess—Some probable traces of another settlement between the fourth pre-Hellenic people and the Greek colonists.
THEpresent book is a sort of Diary of my excavations at Troy, for all the memoirs of which it consists were, as the vividness of the descriptions will prove, written down by me on the spot while proceeding with my works.[32]
If my memoirs now and then contain contradictions, I hope that these may be pardoned when it is considered that I have here revealed a new world for archæology, that the objects which I have brought to light by thousands are of a kind hitherto never or but very rarely found, and that consequently everything appeared strange and mysterious to me. Hence I frequently ventured upon conjectures which I was obliged to give up on mature consideration, till I at last acquired a thorough insight, and could draw well-founded conclusions from many actual proofs.
One of my greatest difficulties has been to make the enormous accumulation ofdébrisat Troy agree with chronology; and in this—in spite of long-searching and pondering—I have only partially succeeded. According to Herodotus (VII. 43): “Xerxes in his march through the Troad, before invading Greece (B.C.480) arrived at the Scamander and went up to Priam’s Pergamus, as he wished to see that citadel; and, after having seen it, and inquired into its past fortunes, he sacrificed 1000 oxen to the Ilian Athena, and the Magi poured libations to the manes of the heroes.”
This passage tacitly implies that at that time a Greek colony had long since held possession of the town, and, according to Strabo’s testimony (XIII. i. 42), such a colonybuilt Ilium during the dominion of the Lydians. Now, as the commencement of the Lydian dominion dates from the year 797B.C., and as the Ilians seem to have been completely established there long before the arrival of Xerxes in 480B.C., we may fairly assume that their first settlement in Troy took place about 700B.C.The house-walls of Hellenic architecture, consisting of large stones without cement, as well as the remains of Greek household utensils, do not, however, extend in any case to a depth of more than two meters (6½ feet) in the excavations on the flat surface of the hill.
As I find in Ilium no inscriptions later than those belonging to the second century after Christ, and no coins of a later date than Constans II. and Constantine II., but very many belonging to these two emperors, as well as to Constantine the Great, it may be regarded as certain that the town began to decay even before the time of Constantine the Great, who, as is well known, at first intended to build Constantinople on that site; but that it remained an inhabited place till about the end of the reign of Constans II., that is till aboutA.D.361. But the accumulation ofdébrisduring this long period of 1061 years amounts only to two meters or 6½ feet, whereas we have still to dig to a depth of 12 meters or 40 feet, and in many places even to 14 meters or 46½ feet, below this, before reaching the native ground which consists of shelly limestone (Muschelkalk). This immense layer ofdébrisfrom 40 to 46½ feet thick, which has been left by the four different nations that successively inhabited the hillbeforethe arrival of the Greek colony, that is before 700B.C., is an immensely richcornucopiaof the most remarkable terra-cottas, such as have never been seen before, and of other objects which have not the most distant resemblance to the productions of Hellenic art. The question now forces itself upon us:—Whether this enormous mass of ruins may not have been brought from another place to increase the height of the hill? Such an hypothesis, as everyvisitor to my excavations may convince himself at the first glance, is perfectly impossible; because in all the strata ofdébris, from the native rock, at a depth of from 14 to 16 meters (46 to 52½ feet) up to 4 meters (13 feet) below the surface, we continually see remains of masonry, which rest upon strong foundations, and are the ruins of real houses; and, moreover, because all the numerous large wine, water, and funereal urns that are met with are found in an upright position. The next question is:—But how many centuries have been required to form a layer ofdébris, 40 and even 46½ feet thick, from the ruins of pre-Hellenic houses, if the formation of the uppermost one, the Greek layer of 6½ feet thick, required 1061 years? During my three years’ excavations in the depths of Troy, I have had daily and hourly opportunities of convincing myself that, from the standard of our own or of the ancient Greek mode of life, we can form no idea of the life and doings of the four nations which successively inhabited this hill before the time of the Greek settlement. They must have had a terrible time of it, otherwise we should not find the walls of one house upon the ruined remains of another, in continuous butirregularsuccession; and it is just because we can form no idea of the way in which these nations lived and what calamities they had to endure, that it is impossible to calculate the duration of their existence, even approximately, from the thickness of their ruins. It is extremely remarkable, but perfectly intelligible from the continual calamities which befel the town, that the civilization of all the four nations constantly declined; the terra-cottas, which show continuousdécadence, leave no doubt of this.
The first settlement on this hill ofHissarlikseems, however, to have been of the longest duration, for its ruins cover the rock to a height of from 4 to 6 meters (13 to 20 feet). Its houses and walls of fortification were built of stones, large and small, joined with earth, and manifold remains of these may be seen in my excavations. I thought last year that these settlers were identical with the Trojans of whom Homer sings, because I imagined that I had found among their ruins fragments of the double cup, the Homeric “δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον.” From closer examination, however, it has become evident that these fragments were the remains of simple cups with a hollow stem, which can never have been used as a second cup. Moreover, I believe that in my memoirs of this year (1873) I have sufficiently proved that Aristotle (Hist. Anim., IX. 40) is wrong in assigning to the Homeric “δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον” the form of a bee’s cell, whence this cup has ever since been erroneously interpreted as a double cup, and that it can mean nothing but a cup with a handle on either side. Cups of such a form arenevermet with in thedébrisof the first settlement of this hill; but they frequently occur, and in great quantities, among those of the succeeding people, and also among those of the two later nations which preceded the Greek colony on the spot. The large golden cup with two handles, weighing 600 grammes (a pound and a half), which I found in the royal treasure at the depth of 28 feet in thedébrisof the second people, leaves no doubt of this fact.[33]
No. 1 Fragment of painted pottery from the lowest stratum (16 M.).No. 1Fragment of painted pottery from the lowest stratum (16 M.).
The terra-cottas which I found on the native rock, at a depth of 14 meters (46 feet), are all of a more excellent quality than any met with in the upper strata. They are of a brilliant black, red, or brown colour, ornamented with patterns cut and filled with a white substance; the flat cups have horizontal rings on two sides, the vases have generally two perpendicular rings on each side for hanging them up with cords. Of painted terra-cottas I found only one fragment.[34]
All that can be said of the first settlers is that they belonged to the Aryan race, as is sufficiently proved by the Aryan religious symbols met with in the strata of their ruins (among which we find theSuastika卐), both upon the pieces of pottery and upon the small curious terra-cottas with a hole in the centre, which have the form of the crater of a volcano or of acarrousel(i.e.a top).[35]
The excavations made this year (1873) have sufficiently proved that the second nation which built a town on this hill, upon thedébrisof the first settlers (which is from 13 to 20 feet deep), are the Trojans of whom Homer sings. Theirdébrislies from 7 to 10 meters, or 23 to 33 feet, below the surface. This Trojan stratum, which, without exception, bears marks of great heat, consists mainly of red ashes of wood, which rise from 5 to 10 feet above the Great Tower of Ilium, the double Scæan Gate, and the great enclosing Wall, the construction of which Homer ascribes to Poseidon and Apollo; and they show that the town was destroyed by a fearful conflagration. How great the heat must have been is clear also from the large slabs of stone upon the road leading from the double Scæan Gate down to the Plain: for when I laid this road open a few months ago, all the slabs appeared as uninjured as if they had been put down quite recently; but after they had been exposed to the air for a few days, the slabs of the upper part of the road, to the extent of some10 feet, which had been exposed to the heat, began to crumble away, and they have now almost disappeared, while those of the lower portion of the road, which had not been touched by the fire, have remained uninjured, and seem to be indestructible. A further proof of the terrible catastrophe is furnished by a stratum of scoriæ of melted lead and copper, from 1/5 to 1-1/5 of an inch thick, which extends nearly through the whole hill at a depth of from 28 to 29½ feet. That Troy was destroyed by enemies after a bloody war is further attested by the many human bones which I found in these heaps ofdébris, and above all by the skeletons with helmets, found in the depths of the temple of Athena;[36]for, as we know from Homer, all corpses were burnt and the ashes were preserved in urns. Of such urns I have found an immense number in all the pre-Hellenic strata on the hill. Lastly, the Treasure, which some member of the royal family had probably endeavoured to save during the destruction of the city, but was forced to abandon, leaves no doubt that the city was destroyed by the hands of enemies. I found this Treasure on the large enclosing wall by the side of the royal palace, at a depth of 27½ feet, and covered with red Trojan ashes from 5 to 6½ feet in depth, above which was a post-Trojan wall of fortification 19½ feet high.
Trusting to the data of the Iliad, the exactness of which I used to believe in as in the Gospel itself, I imagined thatHissarlik, the hill which I have ransacked for three years, was the Pergamus of the city, that Troy must have had 50,000 inhabitants, and that its area must have extended over the whole space occupied by the Greek colony of Ilium.[37]
Notwithstanding this, I was determined to investigate the matter accurately, and I thought that I could not do so in any better way than by making borings. I accordingly began cautiously to dig at the extreme ends of theGreek Ilium; but these borings down to the native rock brought to light only walls of houses, and fragments of pottery belonging to the Greek period,—not a trace of the remains of the preceding occupants. In making these borings, therefore, I gradually came nearer to the fancied Pergamus, but without any better success; till at last as many as seven shafts, which I dug at the very foot of the hill down to the rock, produced only Greek masonry and fragments of Greek pottery. I now therefore assert most positively that Troy was limited to the small surface of this hill; that its area is accurately marked by its great surrounding wall, laid open by me in many places; that the city had no Acropolis, and that the Pergamus is a pure invention of Homer; and further that the area of Troy in post-Trojan times down to the Greek settlement was only increased so far as the hill was enlarged by thedébristhat was thrown down, but that the Ilium of the Greek colony had a much larger extent at the time of its foundation.[38]
Though, however, we find on the one hand that we have been deceived in regard to the size of Troy, yet on the other we must feel great satisfaction in the certainty, now at length ascertained, that Troy really existed, that the greater portion of this Troy has been brought to light by me, and that the Iliad—although on an exaggerated scale—sings of this city and of the fact of its tragic end. Homer, however, is no historian, but an epic poet, and hence we must excuse his exaggerations.
As Homer is so well informed about the topography and the climatic conditions of the Troad, there can surely be no doubt that he had himself visited Troy. But, as he was there long after its destruction, and its site had moreover been buried deep in thedébrisof the ruined town, and had for centuries been built over by a new town, Homer couldneither have seen the Great Tower of Ilium nor the Scæan Gate, nor the great enclosing Wall, nor the palace of Priam; for, as every visitor to the Troad may convince himself by my excavations, the ruins and red ashes of Troy alone—forming a layer of from five to ten feet thick—covered all these remains of immortal fame; and this accumulation ofdébrismust have been much more considerable at the time of Homer’s visit. Homer made no excavations so as to bring those remains to light, but he knew of them from tradition; for the tragic fate of Troy had for centuries been in the mouths of all minstrels, and the interest attached to it was so great that, as my excavations have proved, tradition itself gave the exact truth in many details. Such, for instance, is the memory of the Scæan Gate in the Great Tower of Ilium, and the constant use of the name Scæan Gate in the plural, because it had to be described as double,[39]and in fact it has been proved to be a double gate. According to the lines in the Iliad (XX. 307, 308), it now seems to me extremely probable that, at the time of Homer’s visit, the King of Troy declared that his race was descended in a direct line from Æneas.[40]
Now as Homer never saw Ilium’s Great Tower, nor the Scæan Gate, and could not imagine that these buildings lay buried deep beneath his feet, and as he probably imagined Troy to have been very large—according to the then existing poetical legends—and perhaps wished todescribe it as still larger, we cannot be surprised that he makes Hector descend from the palace in the Pergamus and hurry through the town in order to arrive at the Scæan Gate; whereas that gate and Ilium’s Great Tower, in which it stands, are in reality directly in front of the royal house. That this house is really the king’s palace seems evident from its size, from the thickness of its stone walls, in contrast to those of the other houses of the town, which are built almost exclusively of unburnt bricks, and from its imposing situation upon an artificial hill directly in front of or beside the Scæan Gate, the Great Tower, and the great surrounding Wall. This is confirmed by the many splendid objects found in its ruins, especially the enormous royally ornamented vase with the picture of the owl-headed goddess Athena, the tutelary divinity of Ilium (see No. 219, p. 307); and lastly, above all other things, by the rich Treasure found close by it (Plate II.). I cannot, of course, prove that the name of this king, the owner of this treasure, was really PRIAM; but I give him this name because he is so called by Homer and in all the traditions. All that I can prove is, that the palace of the owner of this treasure, this last Trojan king, perished in the great catastrophe, which destroyed the Scæan Gate, the great surrounding Wall, and the Great Tower, and which desolated the whole city. I can prove, by the enormous quantities of red and yellow calcined Trojan ruins, from five to ten feet in height, which covered and enveloped these edifices, and by the many post-Trojan buildings, which were again erected upon these calcined heaps of ruins, that neither the palace of the owner of the Treasure, nor the Scæan Gate, nor the great surrounding Wall, nor Ilium’s Great Tower, were ever again brought to light. A city, whose king possessed such a treasure, was immensely wealthy, considering the circumstances of those times; and because Troy was rich, it was powerful, had many subjects, and obtained auxiliaries from all quarters.
Troy had therefore no separate Acropolis; but as one was necessary for the great deeds of the Iliad, it was added by the poetical invention of Homer, and called by him Pergamus, a word of quite unknown derivation.
Last year I ascribed the building of the Great Tower ofIlium to the first occupants of the hill; but I have long since come to the firm conviction that it is the work of the second people, the Trojans, because it is upon the north side only, within the Trojan stratum of ruins, and from 16 to 19½ feet above the native soil, that it is made of actual masonry. I have, in my letters, repeatedly drawn attention to the fact, that the terra-cottas which I found upon the Tower can only be compared with those found at a depth of from 36 to 46 feet. This, however, applies only to the beauty of the clay and the elegance of the vessels, but in no way to their types, which, as the reader may convince himself from the illustrations to this work, are utterly different from the pottery of the first settlers.
No. 2. Small Trojan Axes of Diorite (8 M.).No. 2. Small Trojan Axes of Diorite (8 M.).
It has been hitherto thought that the occurrence of stone implements indicates the “Age of Stone.” My excavations here in Troy, however, prove this opinion to be completely erroneous; for I very frequently find implements of stone even immediately below thedébrisbelonging to the Greek colony, that is at a depth of 6½ feet, and they occur in very great quantities from a depth of 13 feet downwards. Those, however, in the Trojanstratum, from 23 to 33 feet below the surface, are in general of much better workmanship than those above. I wish to draw attention to the fact that unfortunately, when writing the present book, I made the mistake, which is now inconceivable to me, of applying the name ofwedgesto those splendidly-cut weapons and implements, the greater part of which are made of diorite, but frequently also of very hard and transparent green stone, such as are given here and in several later illustrations. They are, however, as anyone can convince himself, not wedges butaxes, and the majority of them must have been used as battle-axes. Many, to judge from their form, seem to be excellently fitted to be employed as lances, and may have been used as such. I have collected many hundreds of them. But, together with the thousands of stone implements, I found also many of copper; and the frequently discovered moulds of mica-schist for casting copper weapons and implements, as well as the many small crucibles, and small roughly made bowls, spoons, and funnels for filling the moulds, prove that this metal was much used. The strata of copper and lead scoriæ, met with at a depth of from 28 to 29½ feet, leave no doubt that this was the case. It must be observed that all the copper articles met with are of pure copper, without the admixture of any other metal.[41]Even the king’s Treasure contained, besides other articles made of this metal, a shield with a large boss in the centre; a great caldron; a kettle or vase; a long slab with a silver vase welded on to it by the conflagration; and many fragments of other vases.[42]
PLATE II.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE TREASURE OF PRIAM. (Depth 8½ M.)GENERAL VIEW OF THE TREASURE OF PRIAM. (Depth 8½ M.)
This Treasure of the supposed mythical king Priam, of the mythical heroic age, which I discovered at a great depth in the ruins of the supposed mythical Troy, is at all events a discovery which stands alone in archæology, revealing great wealth, great civilization and a great taste for art, in an age preceding the discovery of bronze, when weapons and implements of pure copper were employed contemporaneously with enormous quantities of stone weapons and implements. This treasure further leaves no doubt that Homer must have actually seen gold and silver articles, such as he continually describes; it is, in every respect, ofinestimable value to science, and will for centuries remain the object of careful investigation.
Unfortunately upon none of the articles of the Treasure do I find an inscription, or any other religious symbols, except the 100 idols of the Homeric “θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη,” which glitter upon the two diadems and the four ear-rings. These are, however, an irrefragable proof that the Treasure belongs to the city and to the age of which Homer sings.
No. 3. (a). Inscribed Terra-cotta Vase from the Palace (8 M.). (b). The Inscription thereon.No. 3. (a). Inscribed Terra-cotta Vase from the Palace (8 M.). (b). The Inscription thereon.
No. 4. Inscribed Terra-cotta Seal (7 M.).No. 4. Inscribed Terra-cotta Seal (7 M.).
No. 5. Piece of Red Slate, perhaps a Whetstone, with an Inscription (7 M.).No. 5. Piece of Red Slate, perhaps a Whetstone, with an Inscription (7 M.).
Yet a written language was not wanting at that time. For instance, I found at a depth of 26 feet, in the royal palace, the vase with an inscription, of which a drawing is here given; and I wish to call especial attention to the fact, that of the characters occurring in it, the letter like the Greek P occurs also in the inscription on a seal, found at the depth of 23 feet; the second and third letter to the left of this upon a whorl of terra-cotta,[43]likewise found at a depth of 23 feet; and the third letter also upon two small funnels of terra-cotta, from a depth of 10 feet (seep. 191). I further found in the royal palace the excellent engraved inscription on a piece of red slate; but I see here only one character resembling one of the letters of the inscription on the above-mentioned seal. My friend the great Indian scholar, Émile Burnouf, conjectures that all these characters belong to a very ancient Græco-Asiatic local alphabet. Professor H. Brunn, of Munich, writes to me that he has shown these inscriptions to Professor Haug, and that he has pointed out their relationship and connection with the Phœnician alphabet (from which the Greek alphabet is however derived), and has found certain analogies between them and the inscription on the bronze table which was found at Idalium in Cyprus, and is now in theCabinet des Médaillesin Paris. Professor Brunn adds that the connection of things found at Troy with those found in Cyprus is in no way surprising, but may be very well reconciled with Homer, and that at all events particular attention should be paid to this connection, for, in his opinion, Cyprus is thecradle of Greek art, or, so to speak, the caldron in which Asiatic, Egyptian, and Greek ingredients were brewed together, and out of which, at a later period, Greek art came forth as the clear product.
I find in these Trojan layers ofdébrisan abundance of splendid pottery, and more especially large and small cups with two handles, or with one from below in the form of a crown;[44]vases with rings on the sides and with holes in the same direction in the lip, for hanging them up by cords; all kinds of domestic utensils; also a beautifully ornamented flute made of bone, several pieces of other flutes, and a splendidly ornamented piece of ivory, which is part of a lyrewith only four strings.
No. 6. Terra-cotta Vase Cover (8 M.).No. 6. Terra-cotta Vase Cover (8 M.).
No. 7. Ornamented Ivory Tube, probably a Trojan Flute (8 M.).No. 7. Ornamented Ivory Tube, probably a Trojan Flute (8 M.).
Like the first settlers on this sacred spot, the Trojans also were of the Aryan race; for I find among their remains enormous quantities of the small articles of terra-cotta in the form of volcanoes and tops (carrousels), with carvings of Aryan religious symbols.