No. 69. The Foot-print of Buddha.No. 69. The Foot-print of Buddha.
Émile Burnouf, in his excellent workLa Science des Religions, just published, says, “The 卐 represents the two pieces of wood which were laid cross-wise upon oneanother before the sacrificial altars in order to produce the holy fire (Agni), and whose ends were bent round at right angles and fastened by means of four nails,suastika with dots, so that this wooden scaffolding might not be moved. At the point where the two pieces of wood were joined, there was a small hole, in which a third piece of wood, in the form of a lance (calledPramantha) was rotated by means of a cord made of cow’s hair and hemp, till the fire was generated by friction. The father of the holy fire (Agni) is Twastri,i.e.the divine carpenter, who made the 卐 and the Pramantha, by the friction of which the divine child was produced. The Pramantha was afterwards transformed by the Greeks into Prometheus, who, they imagined, stole fire from heaven, so as to instil into earth-born man the bright spark of the soul. The mother of the holy fire is the divine Mâjâ, who represents the productive force in the form of a woman; every divine being has his Mâjâ. Scarcely has the weak spark escaped from its mother’s lap, that is from the 卐, which is likewise called mother, and is the place where the divine Mâjâ principally dwells—when it (Agni) receives the name of child. In the Rigvêda we find hymns of heavenly beauty in praise of this new-born weak divine creature. The little child is laid upon straw; beside it is the mystic cow, that is, the milk and butter destined as the offering; before it is the holy priest of the divine Vâju, who waves the small oriental fan in the form of a flag, so as to kindle life in the little child, which is close upon expiring. Then the little child is placed upon the altar, where, through the holy “sôma” (the juice of the tree of life) poured over it, and through the purified butter, it receives a mysterious power, surpassing all comprehension of the worshippers. The child’s glory shines upon all around it; angels (dêvâs) and men shout for joy, sing hymns in its praise, and throw themselves on their faces before it. On its left is the rising sun, on its right the full moon on the horizon, and both appear to growpale in the glory of the new-born god (Agni) and to worship him. But how did this transfiguration of Agni take place? At the moment when one priest laid the young god upon the altar, another poured the holy draught, the spiritual “sôma” upon its head, and then immediately anointed it by spreading over it the butter of the holy sacrifice. By being thus anointed Agni receives the name of the Anointed (akta); he has, however, grown enormously through the combustible substances; rich in glory he sends forth his blazing flames; he shines in a cloud of smoke which rises to heaven like a pillar, and his light unites with the light of the heavenly orbs. The god Agni, in his splendour and glory, reveals to man the secret things; he teaches the Doctors; he is the Master of the masters, and receives the name of Jâtavêdas, that is, he in whom wisdom is in-born.
Upon my writing to M. É. Burnouf to enquire about the other symbol, the cross in the formblock-style cross, which occurs hundreds of times upon the Trojan terra-cottas, he replied, that he knows with certainty from the ancient scholiasts on the Rigvêda, from comparative philology, and from theMonuments figurés, thatSuastikas, in this form also, were employed in the very remotest times for producing the holy fire. He adds that the Greeks for a long time generated fire by friction, and that the two lower pieces of wood that lay at right angles across one another were called “σταυρός,” which word is either derived from the root “stri,” which signifies lying upon the earth, and is then identical with the Latin “sternere,” or it is derived from the Sanscrit word “stâvara,” which means firm, solid, immovable. Since the Greeks had other means of producing fire, the word σταυρός passed into simply in the sense of “cross.”
Other passages might be quoted from Indian scholars to prove that from the very remotest times the 卐 and theblock-style crosswere the most sacred symbols of our Aryan forefathers.
In my present excavations I shall probably find a definite explanation as to the purpose for which the articles ornamented with such significant symbols were used; till then I shall maintain my former opinion, that they either served asEx votosor as actual idols of Hephæstus.
No. 70. Large Terra-cotta Vase, with the Symbols of the Ilian Goddess (4 M.).No. 70. Large Terra-cotta Vase, with the Symbols of the Ilian Goddess (4 M.).
Smoking at work forbidden, and a mutiny suppressed—Progress of the great platform—Traces of sacrifices—Colossal blocks of stone belonging to great buildings—Funereal and other huge urns—Supposed traces of Assyrian art—Ancient undisturbed remains—Further discoveries of stone implements and owl-faced idols—Meaning of the epithet “γλαυκῶπις”—Parallel of Ἥρα βοῶπις, and expected discovery of ox-headed idols at Mycenæ—Vases of remarkable forms—Dangers and engineering expedients—Georgios Photidas—Extent of the Pergamus of Troy—Poisonous snakes, and the snake-weed—The whorls with the central sun, stars, thesuastika, theSôma, or Tree of Life, and sacrificial altars—The name of Mount Ida, probably brought from Bactria.
Smoking at work forbidden, and a mutiny suppressed—Progress of the great platform—Traces of sacrifices—Colossal blocks of stone belonging to great buildings—Funereal and other huge urns—Supposed traces of Assyrian art—Ancient undisturbed remains—Further discoveries of stone implements and owl-faced idols—Meaning of the epithet “γλαυκῶπις”—Parallel of Ἥρα βοῶπις, and expected discovery of ox-headed idols at Mycenæ—Vases of remarkable forms—Dangers and engineering expedients—Georgios Photidas—Extent of the Pergamus of Troy—Poisonous snakes, and the snake-weed—The whorls with the central sun, stars, thesuastika, theSôma, or Tree of Life, and sacrificial altars—The name of Mount Ida, probably brought from Bactria.
On the Hill of Hissarlik, April 25th, 1872.
SINCEmy report of the 5th of this month I have continued the excavations most industriously with an average of 120 workmen. Unfortunately, however, seven of these twenty days were lost through rainy weather and festivals, one day also by a mutiny among my men. I had observed that the smoking of cigarettes interrupted the work, and I therefore forbad smoking during working hours, but I did not gain my point immediately, for I found that the men smoked in secret. I was, however, determined to carry my point, and caused it to be proclaimed that transgressors would be forthwith dismissed and never taken on again. Enraged at this, the workmen from the village of Renkoï—about 70 in number—declared that they would not work, if everyone were not allowed to smoke as much as he pleased; they left the platform, and deterred the men from the other villages from working by throwing stones. The good people had imagined that I would give in to them at once, as I could not do without them, and thatnow I could not obtain workmen enough; that moreover during the beautiful weather it was not likely that I would sit still a whole day. But they found themselves mistaken, for I immediately sent my foreman to the other neighbouring villages and succeeded (to the horror of the 70 Renkoïts, who had waited the whole night at my door) in collecting 120 workmen for the next morning without requiring their services. My energetic measures have at last completely humbled the Renkoïts, from whose impudence I had very much to put up with during my last year’s excavations, and have also had a beneficial effect upon all of my present men. Since the mutiny I have not only been able to prohibit smoking, but even to lengthen the day’s work by one hour; for, instead of working as formerly from half-past five in the morning to half-past five in the evening, I now always commence at five and continue till six in the evening. But, as before, I allow half an hour at nine and an hour and a half in the afternoon for eating and smoking.
According to an exact calculation of the engineer, M. A. Laurent, in the seventeen days since the 1st of the month I have removed about 8500 cubic meters (11,000 cubic yards) ofdébris; this is about 666 cubic yards each day, and somewhat above 5-1/3 cubic yards each workman.
We have already advanced the platform 49 feet into the hill, but to my extreme surprise I have not yet reached the primary soil. The opinion I expressed in my report of the 24th of November of last year, that the thickness of the hill on the north side had not increased since the remotest times, I find confirmed as regards the whole western end of my platform, to a breadth of 45 meters (147½ feet); for it is only upon the eastern portion of it, to a breadth of 82 feet, that I found 6½ and even 10 feet of soil; below and behind it, as far as 16½ feet above the platform, there isdébrisas hard as stone, which appears to consist only of ashes of wood and animals,the remains of the offerings presented to the Ilian Athena. I therefore feel perfectly convinced that by penetrating further into this part I shall come upon the site of the very ancient temple of the goddess. The ashes of this stratum have such a clayey appearance, that I should believe it to be the pure earth, were it not that I find it frequently to contain bones, charcoal, and small shells, occasionally also small pieces of brick. The shells are uninjured, which sufficiently proves that they cannot have been exposed to heat. In this very hard stratum of ash, at 11 feet above the platform, and 46 feet from its edge, I found a channel made of green sandstone nearly 8 inches broad and above 7 inches high, which probably once served for carrying away the blood of the animals sacrificed, and must necessarily at one time have discharged its contents down the declivity of the hill. It therefore proves that the thickness of the hill at this point has increased fully 46 feet since the destruction of the temple to which it belonged.
No. 71. A Mould of Mica-schist for casting Ornaments (14 M.).No. 71. A Mould of Mica-schist for castingOrnaments (14 M.).
No. 72. Fragment of a large Urn of Terra-cotta with Assyrian (?) Decorations, from the Lowest Stratum (14 M.).No. 72. Fragment of a large Urn of Terra-cotta with Assyrian (?) Decorations, from the Lowest Stratum (14 M.).
Upon the other 147½ feet of the platform I find everywhere, as far as to about 16½ feet high, colossal masses of large blocks of shelly limestone, often more or less hewn, but generally unhewn, which frequently lie so close one upon another that they have the appearance of actual walls. But I soon found that all of these masses of stone must of necessity belong to grand buildings which once have stood there and were destroyed by a fearful catastrophe. The buildings cannot possibly have been built of these stones without some uniting substance, and I presume that this was done with mere earth, for I find no trace of lime or cement. Between the immense masses of stone there are intermediate spaces, more or less large, consisting of very firmdébris, often as hard as stone, in which we meet with very many bones, shells, and quantities of other remains of habitation. No traces of any kind of interesting articles were found in the whole length of the wall ofdébris, 229½ feet in lengthand 16¼ feet in height, except a small splendidly worked hair-or dress-pin of silver, but destroyed by rust. To-day, however, at a perpendicular depth of 14 meters (46 feet) I found a beautiful polished piece of mica-schist, with moulds for casting two breast-pins, and two other ornaments which are quite unknown to me—all of the most fanciful description. I also found a funereal or water urn, unfortunately completely broken, with decorations in the form of two flat wreaths which run right round it. The urn must have been 5 feet high, and at least 27½ inches in breadth. In both of the wreaths there is an uninterrupted row of cuneiform impressions, which at first sight seem to be Assyrian inscriptions; but on closer examination it is found that they are mere ornaments. The fragments of this vaseshow a thickness of about ¾ of an inch. Two other enormous urns, but completely broken, either for water, wine, or funereal ashes, with decorations in the form of several wreaths, forming perfect circles, were found on the 22nd and 23rd of this month, at from 19½ to 23 feet above the platform, and therefore, at a perpendicular depth of from 26 to 33 feet. Both must have been more than 6½ feet high, and more than 3¼ feet in diameter, for the fragments show a thickness of nearly 2 inches. The wreaths are likewise in bas-relief, and show either double triangles fitting into one another with circles, or flowers, or three rows or sometimes one row of circles. The last decoration was also found upon the frieze of green stone which Lord Elgin discovered in the year 1810 in the treasury of Agamemnon in Mycenæ, and which is now in the British Museum. Both this frieze, and the above-mentioned urns discovered by me in the depths of Ilium, distinctly point to Assyrian art, and I cannot look at them without a feeling of sadness when I think with what tears of joy and with what delight the ever-memorable German scholar, Julius Braun, who unfortunately succumbed three years ago to his excessive exertions, would have welcomed their discovery; for he was not only the great advocate of the theory that the Homeric Troy must be only looked for below the ruins of Ilium, but he was also the able defender of the doctrine, that the plastic arts and a portion of the Egyptian and Assyrian mythology had migrated to Asia Minor and Greece, and he has shown this by thousands of irrefutable proofs in his profound and excellent work,Geschichte der Kunst in ihrem Entwickelungsgange, which I most urgently recommend to all who are interested in art and archæology.
Both the urns found at a depth of 46 feet and those at from 26 to 33 feet, as well as all the funereal urns and large wine or water vessels which I formerly discovered, were standing upright, which sufficiently proves that the colossal masses ofdébrisand ruins were gradually formed on thespot, and could not have been brought there from another place in order to increase the height of the hill. This is, moreover, a pure impossibility in regard to the immense numbers of gigantic blocks of stone, hewn and unhewn, which frequently weigh from 1 to 2 tons.
In the strata at a depth of from 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33 feet), I found two lumps of lead of a round and concave form, each weighing about two pounds; a great number of rusted copper nails, also some knives and a copper lance; further very many smaller and larger knives of white and brown silex in the form of single and double-edged saws; a number of whet-stones of green and black slate with a hole at one end, as well as various small objects of ivory.[109]In all the strata from 4 to 10 meters (13 to 33 feet) deep I found a number of hammers, axes and wedges of diorite, which, however, are decidedly of much better workmanship in the strata below the depth of 7 meters (23 feet) than in the upper ones. Likewise at all depths from 3 meters (10 feet) below the surface we find a number of flat idols of very fine marble; upon many of them is the owl’s face and a female girdle with dots; upon one there are in addition two female breasts.[110]The striking resemblance of these owls’ faces to those upon many of the vases and covers, with a kind of helmet on the owl’s head, makes me firmly convinced that all of the idols, and all of the helmeted owls’ heads represent a goddess, and indeed must represent one and the same goddess, all the more so as, in fact, all the owl-faced vases with female breasts and a navel have also generally two upraised arms: in one case the navel is represented by a cross with four nails.[111]The cups (covers) with owls’ heads, on the otherhand, never have breasts or a navel, yet upon some of them I find long female hair represented at the back.[112]
The important question now presents itself:—Whatgoddess is it who is here found so repeatedly, and is, moreover, the only one to be found, upon the idols, drinking-cups and vases? The answer is:—She must necessarily bethe tutelary goddess of Troy, she must bethe Ilian Athena, and this indeed perfectly agrees with the statement of Homer, who continually calls her θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη, “the goddess Athena with the owl’s face.” For the epithet “γλαυκῶπις” has been wrongly translated by the scholars of all ages, because they could not imagine that Athena should have been represented with an owl’s face. The epithet, however, consists of the two words γλαῦξ and ὠπή, and, as I can show by an immense number of proofs, the only possible literal translation is “with an owl’s face”; and the usual translation “with blue, fiery or sparkling eyes” is utterly wrong. The natural conclusion is that owing to progressive civilization Athena received a human face, and her former owl’s head was transformed into her favourite bird, the owl, which as such is unknown to Homer. The next conclusion is that the worship of Athena as the tutelary goddess of Troy was well known to Homer; hence that a Troy existed, and that it was situated on the sacred spot, the depths of which I am investigating.
In like manner, when excavations shall be made in the Heræum between Argos and Mycenæ, and on the site of the very ancient temple of Hera on the island of Samos, the image of this goddess with a cow’s head will doubtless be found upon idols, cups and vases; for “βοῶπις” the usual epithet of Hera in Homer, can originally havesignified nothing else than “with the face of an ox.” But as Homer also sometimes applies the epithet βοῶπις to mortal women, it is probable that even at his time it was considered to be bad taste to represent Hera, the wife of the mightiest of all the gods, with the face of an ox, and that therefore men even at that time began to represent her with a woman’s face, but with the eyes of an ox, that is, with very large eyes; consequently the common epithet of βοῶπις, which had formerly been only applied to Hera with the meaning of “with the face of an ox,” now merely signified with large eyes.
No. 73. Trojan Plates found on the Tower (8 M.).No. 73. Trojan Plates found on the Tower (8 M.).
Of pottery we have found a great deal during the last weeks, but unfortunately more than half of it in a broken condition. Of painting upon terra-cotta there is still no trace; most of the vessels are of a simple brilliant black, yellow, or brown colour; the very large vases on the other hand are generally colourless. Plates of ordinary manufacture I have as yet found only at a depth of from 8 to 10 meters (26 to 33 feet), and, as can be distinctly seen, they have been turned upon a potter’s wheel. All the other vessels hitherto found seem, however, to have been formed by the hand alone; yet they possess a certain elegance, and excite the admiration of beholders by their strange and very curious forms. The vases with a long neck bent back, a beak-shaped mouth turned upwards, and a round protruding body[113]—two of which are in the BritishMuseum, several of those found in Cyprus in the Museum in Constantinople, and several of those discovered beneath three layers of volcanic ashes in Thera and Therassia in the French school in Athens—are almost certainly intended to represent women, for I find the same here at a depth of from 26 to 33 feet, with two or even with three breasts, and hence I believe that those found here represent the tutelary goddess of Ilium. We also find some vases and covers with men’s faces, which, however, are never without some indications of the owl; moreover, the vases with such faces always have two female breasts and a navel. I must draw especial attention to the fact that almost all of the vases with owls’ faces, or with human faces and the indications of the owl, have two uplifted arms, which serve as handles, and this leads me to conjecture that they are imitations of the large idol which was placed in the very ancient temple of the Ilian divinity, which therefore must have had an owl’s face, but a female figure, and two arms beside the head. It is very remarkable that most of the vessels which I find have been suspended by cords, as is proved by the two holes in the mouth, and the two little tubes, or holes in the handles, at the side of the vessels.
No. 74. Vase Cover with a human face. From the Trojan Stratum (8 M.).No. 74. Vase Cover with a human face. From the Trojan Stratum (8 M.).
Unfortunately, many of the terra-cottas get broken when thedébrisis being loosened and falls down, for there is only one way in which I can save my men and myself from being crushed and maimed by the falling stones: this is, by keeping the lowest part of the mighty earthen wall on the perpendicular up to 16 feet (not 7 feet, as on the first five days), and the whole of the upper part at an angle of 50 degrees, by always loosening the perpendicular portion, by making shafts, and working with large iron levers in pieces of from 15 to 30 cubic metres (20 to 40 cubicyards). By thus causing thedébrisand the stones of the upper portion to be loosened with the pickaxe, the stones fall in almost a direct line over the lower perpendicular wall of 16 feet; therefore they roll at most a few paces, and there is less danger that anyone will be hurt. By this means I also have the advantage that the greatest portion of thedébrisfalls down of its own accord, and what remains can be shovelled down with little trouble, whereas at first I spent half of my time in getting it down. As, however, in making shafts and in bringing down the colossal lumps of earth a certain amount of skill and caution is necessary, I have engaged a third foreman at 7 francs a day, Georgios Photidos, of Paxos, who has for seven years worked as a miner in Australia, and was there occupied principally in making tunnels. Home-sickness led him back to his native country, where, without having sufficient means of earning his daily bread, he, in youthful thoughtlessness and out of patriotism, married a poor girl of his own people who was but fifteen years old. It was only after his marriage, and in consequence of domestic cares, that he recovered his senses. He heard that I was making excavations here, and came on speculation to offer me his services. As he had assured me, when I first saw him, that my accepting his services was a question of life and death to him and his wife, I engaged him at once, the more so because I was very much in want of a miner, tunnel-maker, and pitman, such as he is. Besides acting in these capacities, he is of great use to me on Sundays and on other festivals, for he can write Greek, and he is thus able to copy my Greek reports for the newspapers and learned societies in the East; for I had hitherto found nothing more intolerable than to have to write out in Greek three times over my long reports about one and the same subject, especially as I had to take the time from my sleep. To my great regret, the excellent engineer Adolphe Laurent leaves me to-morrow, for his month is up, and he has nowto commence the construction of the railroad from the Piræus to Lamia. He has, however, made me a good plan of this hill. I must add that the Pergamus of Priam cannot have been limited to this hill, which is, for the most part, artificial; but that, as I endeavoured to explain four years ago,[114]it must necessarily have extended a good way further south, beyond the high plateau. But even if the Pergamus should have been confined to this hill, it was, nevertheless, larger than the Acropolis of Athens; for the latter covers only 50,126 square meters (about 60,000 square yards), whereas the plateau of this hill amounts to 64,500 square meters (about 77,400 square yards). I must further mention that, according to Laurent’s calculation, the plateau rises 46 feet above my platform, and that his measurements of its height (about 38 feet on the north and 39 feet on the south) applies to those points where the steep precipice commences. I have just built a house with three rooms, as well as a magazine and kitchen, which altogether cost only 1000 francs (40l.), including the covering of waterproof felt; for wood is cheap here, and a plank of about 10 feet in length, 10 inches in breadth, and 1 inch thick, may be got for 2 piasters, or 40 centimes. (These houses are seen in Plates X. and XI.)
We still find poisonous snakes among the stones as far down as from 33 to 36 feet, and I had hitherto been astonished to see my workmen take hold of the reptiles with their hands and play with them; nay, yesterday I saw one of the men bitten twice by a viper, without seeming to trouble himself about it. When I expressed my horror, he laughed, and said that he and all his comrades knew that there were a great many snakes in this hill, and they had therefore all drunk a decoction of the snake-weed whichgrows in the district, and which renders the bite harmless. Of course I ordered a decoction to be brought to me, so that I also may be safe from their bites. I should, however, like to know whether this decoction would be a safeguard against the fatal effects of the bite of the hooded cobra, of which in India I have seen a man die within half an hour; if it were so, it would be a good speculation to cultivate snake-weed in India.
The frequently-discussed terra-cottas in the form of the volcano and top (carrousel) are continually found in immense numbers, as far as a depth of from 33 to 36 feet, and most of them have decorations, of which I always make an accurate drawing.[115]On comparing these drawings, I now find that all, without exception, represent the sun in the centre, and that almost the half of the other carvings show either only simple rays or rays with stars between, or round the edge; or again, three, four, six, or eight simple, double, treble, and quadruple rising suns in a circle round the edge.[116]Sometimes the sun is in the centre of the cross with four nails, which, according to the explanations in my sixth memoir, can evidently, and in all cases, represent only the instrument which our Aryan forefathers used for producing the holy fire (Agni), and which some Sanscrit scholars call “Arani” and others “Suastika.” The rising sun must have been the most sacred object to our Aryan ancestors; for, according to Max Müller ('Essays'), out of it—that is, out of its struggle with the clouds—arose a very large portion of the gods who afterwards peopled Olympus. Upon some pieces the sun is surrounded by 40 or 50 little stars. I also found one upon which it is representedin the centre, surrounded by 32 little stars and three 卐; another where one entire half of the circle is filled by the rays of the sun, which, as in all cases, occupies the central point; on the other half are two 卐 and 18 little stars, of which twice three (like the sword of Orion) stand in a row; and another where even four are seen in a row. As M. Émile Burnouf tells me, three dots in a row, in the Persian cuneiform inscriptions, denote “royal majesty.” I do not venture to decide whether the three dots here admit of a similar interpretation. Perhaps they point to the majesty of the sun-god and of Agni, who was produced out of the 卐. Upon some of these terra-cottas the sun is even surrounded by four 卐, which again form a cross by their position round it. Upon others, again, I find the sun in the centre of a cross formed by four trees, and each one of these trees has three or four large leaves.[117]Indian scholars will, perhaps, find these tree-crosses to represent the framework upon which our ancestors used to produce the holy fire, and the repeatedly-recurring fifth tree to be the “Pramantha.” I find representations of this same tree several times, either surrounded by circles or standing alone, upon small terra-cotta cones of from 1½ to 2-1/3 inches in diameter, which, in addition, have the most various kinds of symbols and a number of suns and stars. Upon a ball, found at the depth of 8 meters (26 feet), there is a tree of this kind, surrounded by stars, opposite a 卐, beside which there is a group of nine little stars.[118]I therefore venture to express the conjecture that this tree is the tree of life, which is so frequently met with in the Assyrian sculptures, and that it is identical with the holy Sôma-tree, which, according to the Vêdas (see Émile Burnouf, Max Müller, Adalbert Kuhn, and Fr. Windischmann), grows inheaven, and is there guarded by the Gandharvas, who belong to the primeval Aryan period, and subsequently became the Centaurs of the Greeks. Indra, the sun-god, in the form of a falcon,[119]stole from heaven this Sôma-tree, from which trickled the Amrita (ambrosia) which conferred immortality. Fr. Windischmann[120]has pointed out the existence of the Sôma-tree worship as common to the tribes of Aryans before their separation, and he therefore justly designates it an inheritance from their most ancient traditions.[121]Julius Braun[122]says, in regard to this Sôma-tree: “Hermes, the rare visitor, is regaled with nectar and ambrosia. This is the food which the gods require in order to preserve their immortality. It has come to the West from Central Asia, with the whole company of the Olympian gods; for the root of this conception is the tree of life in the ancient system of Zoroaster. The fruit and sap of this tree of life bestows immortality, and the future Messiah (Sosiosh, in the Zend writings) will give some of it to all the faithful and make them all immortal. This hope we have seen fully expressed in the Assyrian sculptures, where the winged genii stand before the holy tree with a vessel containing the juice and fruit.”
Just now two of those curious little terra-cottas, in the form of a volcano, were brought to me, upon one of which three animals with antlers are engraved in a circle round the sun;[123]upon another there are four signs (which I have hitherto not met with) in the shape of large combs withlong teeth, forming a cross round the sun.[124]I conjecture that these extremely remarkable hieroglyphics, which at first sight might be imagined to be actual letters, can by no means represent anything else than the sacrificial altar with the flames blazing upon it. I do not doubt moreover, that in the continuation of the excavations I shall find this comb-shaped sign together with other symbols, which will confirm my conjectures.
No. 75. A Whorl, with three animals (3 M.).No. 75. A Whorl, with three animals (3 M.).
I must also add that the good old Trojans may perhaps have brought with them from Bactria the name of Ida, which they gave to the mountain which I see before me to the south-east, covered with snow, upon which Jove and Hera held dalliance,[125]and from which Jove looked down upon Ilium and upon the battles in the Plain of Troy, for, according to Max Müller,[126]Ida was the wife of Dyaus (Zeus), and their son was Eros. The parents whom Sappho ascribes to Eros—Heaven and Earth—are identical with his Vedic parents. Heracles is called Ἰδαῖος, from his being identical with the Sun, and he has this name in common with Apollo and Jove.
To-morrow the Greek Easter festival commences, during which unfortunately there are six days on which no work is done. Thus I shall not be able to continue the excavations until the 1st of May.
Hindrances through Greek festivals—Thickness of the layers ofdébrisabove the native rock—Date of the foundation of Troy—Impossibility of theBunarbashitheory—Homeric epithets suitable to Hissarlik—Etymology of Ἴλιος, signifying probably the “fortress of the Sun”—TheArunaof the Egyptian records—Progress of the platform, and corresponding excavation on the south—The bulwark of Lysimachus—Ruins of great buildings—Marks of civilization increasing with the depth—Vases, and fragments of great urns—A remarkable terra-cotta—A whorl with the appearance of an inscription.
Hindrances through Greek festivals—Thickness of the layers ofdébrisabove the native rock—Date of the foundation of Troy—Impossibility of theBunarbashitheory—Homeric epithets suitable to Hissarlik—Etymology of Ἴλιος, signifying probably the “fortress of the Sun”—TheArunaof the Egyptian records—Progress of the platform, and corresponding excavation on the south—The bulwark of Lysimachus—Ruins of great buildings—Marks of civilization increasing with the depth—Vases, and fragments of great urns—A remarkable terra-cotta—A whorl with the appearance of an inscription.
On the Hill of Hissarlik, May 11th, 1872.
SINCEmy report of the 25th of last month I have only been able to have ten days’ digging, owing to the various Greek festivals, for even the poorest Greek of this district would not work on a church festival even if he could earn 1000 francs in an hour. Turkish workmen were not to be had, for they are at present occupied with field work. The weather has been and still is very favourable for making excavations, as the heat during the day does not yet rise above 20° Réaumur (77° Fahrenheit) in the shade, and then it never rains here from the beginning of May till October, except during thunderstorms, and they rarely last more than half an hour at a time. Moreover, the Plain of Troy is at present still healthy; the notorious Trojan fevers do not actually begin till July, when the many stagnant waters have evaporated, and the pestilential miasma arises from the decomposition of the millions of dead frogs, and from the dried-up marshes, the ground of which cracks with the heat of the sun. My wife and I have thereforestill six weeks before us, with the precaution of taking quinine to guard against fever.
I have cleared out the Roman well, which has been repeatedly mentioned, to a depth of 20 meters (65½ feet), and I find that it is walled only as far as 52½ feet below the surface of the hill, and then runs into the limestone rock which forms the native soil. I have caused Georgios Photidas to make a small tunnel in this rock from the well, and have now become quite convinced that the ground—upon which, according to Homer, the Trojan king Dardanus, who had up to that time lived at the foot of many-fountained Ida, built the town of Dardania (Troy) in the Plain[127]—is covered with a layer ofdébrisabout 16 meters, or 52½ English feet, thick. I must here remind the reader that the ruins of the Greek colony, which settled on the spot, scarcely extend to a depth of 6½ feet; that consequently if, with Strabo (XIII. 1, 43) we suppose the establishment of this colony to have taken place under the Lydian dominion, that is about 700B.C., and calculate the duration of the reigns of the six kings (Dardanus, Erichthonios, Tros, Ilus, Laomedon, and Priam) who, according to the Iliad (XX. 215-240), preceded the destruction of Troy, at 200 years, and thus presume the town to have been founded about 1400 years before Christ, the accumulation ofdébrismust in this place have amounted to 14 meters, or 46 feet, during the first 700 years.
I am firmly convinced that, on a glance at my excavations, every one of the remaining advocates of the antiquatedtheory that Troy is to be looked for at the back of the Plain, upon the heights of Bunarbashi, will at once condemn that theory, for the Acropolis and town which once stood upon those heights, and the small area of which is accurately defined by the ruins of the surrounding walls and by the precipices, is scarcely large enough to have contained a population of 2000 souls; the accumulation ofdébrismoreover is extremely small. In many places, even in the middle of the Acropolis, the naked rock protrudes, and between the area of this small town and Bunarbashi the ground—in some places pointed, in others abrupt, but in all parts irregular—shows that no village, much less a town, can ever have stood upon it. Immediately above Bunarbashi, and in fact wherever there was any earth at all, I and my guide, with five workmen, made (in August 1868) a long series of borings at distances of 100 meters (328 feet) apart, as far as the Scamander, but we found the primary soil in all cases directly, and the rock at quite an insignificant depth; and nowhere was there a trace of fragments of pottery or other indications that the place could ever have been inhabited by human beings. Even in Bunarbashi itself I found the primary soil at a depth of less than 2 feet. Besides this, if Troy had been built at the back of the Plain, upon the heights of Bunarbashi, Homer (Iliad, XX. 216-218) would not have expressly said that previous to its foundation by Dardanus it had not yet been built in the Plain.
The primary soil of Hissarlik is indeed less than 20 meters (65½ feet) above the Plain, immediately at the foot of the hill; but at all events the Plain itself, and especially that part bordering upon the hill, has increased in height considerably in the course of 31 centuries. But even if this had not been the case, still the Troy built upon this hill running out into the Plain would, on account of its high and imposing position, deserve the Homeric epithets of ὀφρυόεσσα, αἰπεινή, and ἠνεμόεσσα, especiallythe latter; for one of my greatest troubles here is the continual high wind, and it cannot possibly have been otherwise in Homer’s time. It is assuredly time that the Bunarbashi theory, which stands in direct contradiction with all the statements of the Iliad, should now at last come to an end. The theory, in fact, would never have arisen had its advocates, instead of spending one hour, remained a whole day on the heights, and made investigations even with the aid of a single workman.
As I observed in my last report, I here find the sun represented in the centre of all the innumerable round ornamented terra-cottas in the form of the volcano and top (carrousel), and yesterday I even found one upon which the central sun was surrounded by five other suns, each of them with twelve rays.[128]
I know very well that some would derive the name of the town of Ilium (Ἴλιος or Ἴλιον) from the Sanscrit wordvilû, “fortress,” and Ἥλιος from a lost masculine form of Σελήνη, probably Σείριος, and the thought involuntarily forces itself upon me, when looking at the above-mentioned terra-cottas with the five suns in a circle round the central sun, that the image of the Sun which occurs thousands and thousands of times must be connected with the name of Troy, namely Ἴλιος, for Ἴλιον only occurs once in Homer (Iliad, XV. 71); he always elsewhere speaks of Ἴλιος, and always uses this word as a feminine. Homer, it is true, always says Ἠέλιος instead of Ἥλιος, but in my opinion the root of both is ἕλη or εἵλη, from the verb αἱρέω, the aorist of which is εἷλον. In Germany, according to the Erasmian pronunciation εἵλη is certainly pronouncedheila, and εἷλον,heilon; but in the modern Greek pronunciation εἵλη isili; εἷλον,ilon; and Ἥλιος,ilios. There are a number of proofs that the Erasmian pronunciation is radically wrong, and that the modern Greek is the correct one. Among theseI will only mention that all the Greek words which passed over into the Russian language, when Russia embraced Christianity 900 years ago, are pronounced in Russian exactly as they still are in Greece; and moreover that those who decipher the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions (especially, I believe, J. Oppert, in Paris), have pointed out that the Greek names, which occur in these inscriptions from the time of the Seleucidæ, are represented in the cuneiform writing exactly according to the modern Greek pronunciation. Now, if out of the word εἵλη, ἕλη, or εἷλον, there has arisen Ἠέλιος and Ἥλιος, then surely by the sameness of the pronunciation there may have arisen out of one of the first three words in pre-Homeric times Ἴλιος in the feminine for πόλις Ἡλίου or Ἰλίου, signifying “Sun-castle,” for the earlier meaning of πόλις was certainly castle, fortress, or acropolis, as for instance in the Iliad, VI. 88, 257, 317, XXII. 383. Although I am well aware that Egyptian scholars have hitherto found no relationship between the hieroglyphic and Sanscrit languages, yet I cannot help mentioning that three years ago, in the Institute of France, I heard a lecture by the Vicomte de Rougé, who had found in a papyrus the names of the powers leagued against Rameses III., and among these the state ofArounaorAruna, which he without hesitation identified with Ilium, as he thought that this was the only way in which the latter word could be rendered in the hieroglyphic language. Now, curiously enough, according to Max Müller[129]and Adalbert Kuhn,[130]the Sanscrit wordArunasignifies “charioteer of the sun.” I leave it to Egyptian and Sanscrit scholars to judge whether and how far this may serve to confirm what I have said above.
Although since Easter I have been obliged to pay my men 1 piaster more per diem, which makes their wages 10 piasters or 2 francs a day, still I am now working with130 men; and I firmly hope by the 1st of October to have carried my great platform through the entire hill, preserving exactly the same breadth; for while my wife and I, with 85 workmen, are busy on the platform on the north side, Georgios Photidas and 45 men have for 10 days been working towards us from a second platform on the south side. Unfortunately, however, the slope of the hill on the south side is so slight, that we were forced to begin this work 16¼ feet below the surface, in order to have room and freedom for removing thedébris; we have, however, given it a dip of 14°, so that it must reach the primary soil at a length of about 75 meters (246 feet). This southern platform is under the sole direction of Georgios Photidas, for he has proved himself to be a very skilful engineer, and he works forward very quickly through his cleverly devised side terraces. He has hitherto, however, had only lightdébristo remove, and has not yet come upon that very hard, tough, dampdébriswhich I have on my platform at the depth of 10 to 16 meters (33 to 52½ feet). To-day he has brought to light a splendid bastion, composed of large finely-hewn blocks of limestone, not joined by either cement or lime, which, however, does not seem to me to be older than the time of Lysimachus. It is certainly very much in our way, but it is too beautiful and venerable for me to venture to lay hands upon it, so it shall be preserved.
On the south side the accumulation ofdébrisfrom the Greek period is much more considerable than on the north side and upon the plateau; and thus far Georgios Photidas constantly finds Greek pottery and those terra-cottas with two holes at one end, which, in my excavations hitherto, ceased entirely at a depth of 2 meters (6½ feet). The greater portion of these round articles have the potter’s stamp already mentioned, representing a bee or fly with outspread wings above an altar. (See Cuts, Nos. 37-40, p. 65.)
I have also given the platform on the north side an inclination of 10° in a length of 66 feet, so as to be able to workforward on the primary soil, without the indescribable trouble of lowering it another 6½ feet, and of thus having to remove 4000 cubic yards ofdébris. This primary soil sufficiently proves that all those enormous masses of immense stones, generally more or less hewn, with which, as already said, I had continually to battle at a depth of from 10 to 14 meters (33 to 46 feet), are the remains of large buildings, which in the course of centuries have been erected successively upon the ruins of others. For it does not appear conceivable to me that even a large palace, were it six storeys high, could leave such colossal ruins, which, as they reach down to the rock, are nearly 20 feet in height.
For some days these masses of stone have diminished in number, but we continually find many single large blocks. Instead of the stone strata, however, we now have before us, upon the whole breadth of the platform (230 feet), and to the height of 20 feet (hence at a depth of from 10 to 16 meters, 33 to 52½ feet), a damp wall as hard as stone, composed of ashes mixed with small shells, bones, boars’ tusks, &c., exactly like that which we before found at the east end. This mass is so tough, that it is only by making shafts, and breaking down the walls by means of huge iron levers, that we manage to get on at all.
The signs of a higher civilization increasing with the greater depth—which I mentioned in my last report when speaking of the large urn with Assyrian inscriptions—continue down to the native soil. Close above it I find a great quantity of fragments of brilliant black and sometimes red or brown pottery, with engraved decorations, of a quality more excellent than I have hitherto met with even in the highest strata, among the ruins of the Greek period. I also found several fragments of cups, the lower part of which likewise forms a cup, but not a large one, and hence I do not doubt that these are fragments of double cups (δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον). In Homer it indeed seems as if alldouble cups were made of gold or silver with a gilt rim,[131]but I do not doubt that there were at the same time also double cups made of clay.[132]