No. 34. Inscription on the Vase No. 33.No. 34. Inscription on the Vase No. 33.
“The white colour with which the engraved decorations of the Trojan terra-cottas were filled, by means of a pointed instrument, is nothing but pure white clay. In like manner, the painting on the potsherd given above,[70]is made with white clay, and with black clay containing coal. The brilliant red colour of the large two-handled vessels (δέπα ἀμφικύπελλα)[71]is no peculiar colour, but merely oxide of iron, which is a component part of the clay of which the cups were made. Many of the brilliant yellow Trojan vessels, I find, are made of grey clay, and painted over with a mass of yellow clay containing oxide of iron; they were then polished with one of those sharp pieces of diorite which are so frequently met with in Troy, and afterwards burnt.
The large marshes lying before the site of Ἰλιέων κώμη, and discussed in my second memoir, have long since been drained, and thus the estate of Thymbria (formerly Batak) has acquired 240 acres of rich land. As might have been expected, they were not found to contain any hot springs, but only three springs of cold water.
In my twenty-second memoir I have mentioned a Trojan vase, with a row of signs running round it, which I considered to be symbolical, and therefore did not have them specially reproduced by photography. However, as my learned friend Émile Burnouf is of opinion that they form a real inscription in Chinese letters,[72]I give them here according to his drawing.
M. Burnouf explains them as follows:—
and adds: “Les caractères du petit vase ne sont ni grecs ni sanscrits, ni phéniciens, ni, ni, ni—ils sont parfaitement lisibles en chinois!!! Ce vase peut être venu en Troade de l’Asie septentrional, dont tout le Nord était touranien.” Characters similar to those given above frequently occur, more especially upon the perforated terra-cottas in the form of volcanoes and tops.
As the Turkish papers have charged me in a shameful manner with having acted against the letter of the firman granted to me, in having kept the Treasure for myself instead of sharing it with the Turkish Government, I find myself obliged to explain here, in a few words, how it is that I have the most perfect right to that treasure. It was only in order to spare Safvet Pacha, the late Minister of Public Instruction, that I stated in my first memoir, that at my request, and in the interest of science, he had arranged for the portion of Hissarlik, which belonged to the two Turks in Kum-Kaleh, to be bought by the Government. But the true state of the case is this. Since my excavations here in the beginning of April 1870, I had made unceasing endeavours to buy this field, and at last, after having travelled three times to Kum-Kaleh simply with this object, I succeeded in beating the two proprietors down to the sum of 1000 francs (40l.) Then, in December 1870, I went to Safvet Pacha at Constantinople, and told him that, after eight months’ vain endeavours, I had at last succeeded in arranging for the purchase of the principal site of Troy for 1000 francs, and that I should conclude the bargain as soon as he would grant me permission to excavate the field. He knew nothing about Troy or Homer; but I explained the matter to him briefly, and said that I hoped to find there antiquities of immense value to science. He, however, thought that I should find a great deal of gold, and therefore wished me to give him all the details I could, and then requested me to call again in eight days. When I returned to him, I heard to my horror that he had already compelled the two proprietors to sell him the field for 600 francs (24l.), and that I might make excavations there if I wished, but that everything I found must be given up to him. I told him in the plainest language what I thought of his odious and contemptible conduct, and declared that I would have nothing more to do with him, and that I should make no excavations.
But through Mr. Wyne McVeagh, at that time the American Consul, he repeatedly offered to let me make excavations, on condition that I should give him only one-half of the things found. At the persuasion of that gentleman I accepted the offer, on condition that I should have the right to carry away my half out of Turkey. But the right thus conceded to me was revoked in April 1872, by a ministerial decree, in which it was said that I was not to export any part of my share of the discovered antiquities, but that I had the right to sell them in Turkey. The Turkish Government, by this new decree, broke our written contract in the fullest sense of the word, and I was released from every obligation. Hence I no longer troubled myself in the slightest degree about the contract which was broken without any fault on my part. I kept everything valuable that I found for myself, and thus saved it for science; and I feel sure that the whole civilized world will approve of my having done so. The new-discovered Trojan antiquities, and especially the Treasure, far surpass my most sanguine expectations, and fully repay me for the contemptible trick which Safvet Pacha played me, as well as for the continual and unpleasant presence of a Turkish official during my excavations, to whom I was forced to pay 4¾ francs a day.
It was by no means because I considered it to be my duty, but simply to show my friendly intentions, that I presented the Museum in Constantinople with seven large vases, from 5 to 6½ feet in height, and with four sacks of stone implements. I have thus become the only benefactor the Museum has ever had; for, although all firmans are granted upon the express condition that one-half of the discovered antiquities shall be given to the Museum, yet it has hitherto never received an article from anyone. The reason is that the Museum is anything but open to the public, and the sentry frequently refuses admittance even to its Director, so everyone knowsthat the antiquities sent there would be for ever lost to science.
The great Indian scholar, Max Müller of Oxford, has just written to me in regard to the owl-headed tutelary divinity of Troy. “Under all circumstances, the owl-headed idol cannot be made to explain the idea of the goddess. The ideal conception and the naming of the goddess came first; and in that name the owl’s head, whatever it may mean, is figurative or ideal. In the idol the figurative intention is forgotten, just as the sun is represented with a golden hand, whereas the ideal conception of ‘golden-handed’ was ‘spreading his golden rays.’ An owl-headed deity was most likely intended for a deity of the morning or the dawn, the owl-light; to change it into a human figure with an owl’s head was the work of a later and more materializing age.”
I completely agree with this. But it is evident from this that the Trojans, or at least the first settlers on the hill, spoke Greek, for if they took the epithet of their goddess, “γλαυκῶπις,” from the ideal conception which they formed of her and in later times changed it into an owl-headed female figure, they must necessarily have known that γλαῦξ meantowl, and ὠπήface. That the transformation took place many centuries, and probably more than 1000 years, before Homer’s time, is moreover proved by owls’ heads occurring on the vases and even in the monograms in the lowest strata of the predecessors of the Trojans, even at a depth of 46 feet.
I have still to draw attention to the fact, that in looking over my Trojan collection from a depth of 2 meters (6½ feet), I find 70 very pretty brilliant black or red terra-cottas, with or without engraved decorations, which, both in quality and form, have not the slightest resemblance either to the Greek or to the pre-historic earthenware. Thus it seems that just before the arrival of the Greek colony yet another tribe inhabited this hillfor a short time.[73]These pieces of earthenware may be recognised by the two long-pointed handles of the large channelled cups, which also generally possess three or four small horns.
DR.HENRYSCHLIEMANN.
No. 35. Fragment of a second painted Vase, from the Trojan Stratum. (From a new Drawing.)No. 35. Fragment of a second painted Vase, from the Trojan Stratum.(From a new Drawing.)
COMPARATIVE TABLE OF FRENCH METERS AND ENGLISH MEASURES, EXACT AND APPROXIMATE.
N.B.—The following is a convenient approximate Rule:—“To turnMetersintoYards, add 1-11th to the number of Meters.”
The site ofIliumdescribed—Excavations in 1870: the City Wall of Lysimachus—Purchase of the site and grant of afirman—Arrival of Dr. and Madame Schliemann in 1871, and beginning of the Excavations—The Hill of HISSARLIK, theAcropolisof the Greek Ilium—Search for its limits—Difficulties of the work—The great cutting on the North side—Greek coins found—Dangers from fever.
The site ofIliumdescribed—Excavations in 1870: the City Wall of Lysimachus—Purchase of the site and grant of afirman—Arrival of Dr. and Madame Schliemann in 1871, and beginning of the Excavations—The Hill of HISSARLIK, theAcropolisof the Greek Ilium—Search for its limits—Difficulties of the work—The great cutting on the North side—Greek coins found—Dangers from fever.
On the Hill of Hissarlik, in the Plain of Troy,October 18th, 1871.
INmy work ‘Ithaca, the Peloponnesus, and Troy,’ published in 1869, I endeavoured to prove, both by the result of my own excavations and by the statements of the Iliad, that the Homeric Troy cannot possibly have been situated on the heights of Bunarbashi, to which place most archæologists assign it. At the same time I endeavoured to explain that the site of Troy must necessarily be identical with the site of that town which, throughout all antiquity and down to its complete destruction at the end of the eighth or the beginning of the ninth centuryA.D.,[74]was called Ilium, and not until 1000 years after its disappearance—that is 1788A.D.—was christened Ilium Novum by Lechevalier,[75]who, as his work proves, can never have visited hisIlium Novum; for in his map he places it on the other side of the Scamander, close toKum-kaleh, and therefore 4 miles from its true position.
The site of Ilium is upon a plateau lying on an average about 80 feet above the Plain, and descending very abruptly on the north side. Its north-western corner is formed by a hill about 26 feet higher still, which is about 705 feet in breadth and 984 in length,[76]and from its imposing situation and natural fortifications this hill ofHissarlikseems specially suited to be the Acropolis of the town.[77]Ever since my first visit, I never doubted that I should find the Pergamus of Priam in the depths of this hill. In an excavation which I made on its north-western corner in April 1870,[78]I found among other things, at a depth of 16 feet, walls about 6½ feet thick, which, as has now been proved, belong to a bastion of the time of Lysimachus. Unfortunately I could not continue those excavations at the time, because the proprietors of the field, two Turks in Kum-Kaleh, who had their sheepfolds on the site, would only grant me permission to dig further on condition that I would at once pay them 12,000 piasters for damages,[79]and in addition they wished to bind me, after the conclusion of my excavations, to put the field in order again. As this did not suit my convenience, and the two proprietors would not sell me the field at any price, I applied to his Excellency Safvet Pacha, the Minister of Public Instruction, who at my request, and in the interest of science, managed that Achmed Pacha, the Governor of the Dardanelles and the Archipelago, should receive orders from the Ministry of the Interior to have the field valuedby competent persons, and to force the proprietors to sell it to the Government at the price at which it had been valued: it was thus obtained for 3000 piasters.
In trying to obtain the necessary firman for continuing my excavations, I met with new and great difficulties, for the Turkish Government are collecting ancient works of art for their recently established Museum in Constantinople, in consequence of which the Sultan no longer grants permission for making excavations. But what I could not obtain in spite of three journeys to Constantinople, I got at last through the intercession of my valued friend, the temporarychargé d’affairesof the United States to the Sublime Porte—Mr. John P. Brown, the author of the excellent work ‘Ancient and Modern Constantinople’ (London, 1868).
So on the 27th of September I arrived at the Dardanelles with my firman. But here again I met with difficulties, this time on the part of the before named Achmed Pacha, who imagined that the position of the field which I was to excavate was not accurately enough indicated in the document, and therefore would not give me his permission for the excavations until he should receive a more definite explanation from the Grand Vizier. Owing to the change of ministry which had occurred, a long time would no doubt have elapsed before the matter was settled, had it not occurred to Mr. Brown to apply to his Excellency Kiamil-Pacha, the new Minister of Public Instruction, who takes a lively interest in science, and at whose intercession the Grand Vizier immediately gave Achmed Pacha the desired explanation. This, however, again occupied 13 days, and it was only on the evening of the 10th of October that I started with my wife from the Dardanelles for the Plain of Troy, a journey of eight hours. As, according to the firman, I was to be watched by a Turkish official, whose salary I have to pay during the time of my excavations, Achmed Pacha assigned to methe second secretary of his chancellary of justice, an Armenian, by name Georgios Sarkis, whom I pay 23 piasters daily.
At last, on Wednesday, the 11th of this month, I again commenced my excavations with 8 workmen, but on the following morning I was enabled to increase their number to 35, and on the 13th to 74, each of whom receives 9 piasters daily (1 franc 80 centimes). As, unfortunately, I only brought 8 wheelbarrows from France, and they cannot be obtained here, and cannot even be made in all the country round, I have to use 52 baskets for carrying away the rubbish. This work, however, proceeds but slowly and is very tiring, as the rubbish has to be carried a long way off. I therefore employ also four carts drawn by oxen, each of which again costs me 20 piasters a day. I work with great energy and spare no cost, in order, if possible, to reach the native soil before the winter rains set in, which may happen at any moment. Thus I hope finally to solve the great problem as to whether the hill of Hissarlik is—as I firmly believe—the citadel of Troy.
As it is an established fact that hills which consist of pure earth and are brought under the plough gradually disappear—that for instance, the Wartsberg, near the village of Ackershagen in Mecklenburg, which I once, as a child, considered to be the highest mountain in the world, has quite vanished in 40 years—so it is equally a fact, that hills on which, in the course of thousands of years, new buildings have been continually erected upon the ruins of former buildings, gain very considerably in circumference and height. The hill of Hissarlik furnishes the most striking proof of this. As already mentioned, it lies at the north-western end of the site of Ilium, which is distinctly indicated by the surrounding walls built by Lysimachus. In addition to the imposing situation of this hill within the circuit of the town, its present Turkish name ofHissarlik, “fortress” or “acropolis”—fromthe word حِصَاْر root حَصَرَ, to enclose, which has passed from the Arabic into the Turkish—seems also to prove that this is the Pergamus of Ilium; that here Xerxes (in 480B.C.) offered up 1000 oxen to the Ilian Athena;[80]that here Alexander the Great hung up his armour in the temple of the goddess, and took away in its stead some of the weapons dedicated therein belonging to the time of the Trojan war, and likewise sacrificed to the Ilian Athena.[81]I conjectured that this temple, the pride of the Ilians, must have stood on the highest point of the hill, and I therefore decided to excavate this locality down to the native soil. But in order, at the same time, to bring to light the most ancient of the fortifying walls of the Pergamus, and to decide accurately how much the hill had increased in breadth by thedébriswhich had been thrown down since the erection of those walls, I made an immense cutting on the face of the steep northern slope, about 66 feet from my last year’s work.[82]This cutting was made in a direction due south, and extended across the highest plateau, and was so broad that it embraced the whole building, the foundations of which, consisting of large hewn stones, I had already laid open last year to a depth of from only 1 to 3 feet below the surface. According to an exact measurement, this building, which appears to belong to the first century after Christ, is about 59 feet in length, and 43 feet in breadth. I have of course had all these foundations removed as, being within my excavation, they were of no use and would only have been in the way.
The difficulty of making excavations in a wilderness like this, where everything is wanting, are immense and they increase day by day; for, on account of the steepslope of the hill, the cutting becomes longer the deeper I dig, and so the difficulty of removing the rubbish is always increasing. This, moreover, cannot be thrown directly down the slope, for it would of course only have to be carried away again; so it has to be thrown down on the steep side of the hill at some distance to the right and left of the mouth of the cutting. The numbers of immense blocks of stone also, which we continually come upon, cause great trouble and have to be got out and removed, which takes up a great deal of time, for at the moment when a large block of this kind is rolled to the edge of the slope, all of my workmen leave their own work and hurry off to see the enormous weight roll down its steep path with a thundering noise and settle itself at some distance in the Plain. It is, moreover, an absolute impossibility for me, who am the only one to preside over all, to give each workman his right occupation, and to watch that each does his duty. Then, for the purpose of carrying away the rubbish, the side passages have to be kept in order, which likewise runs away with a great deal of time, for their inclinations have to be considerably modified at each step that we go further down.
Notwithstanding all these difficulties the work advances rapidly, and if I could only work on uninterruptedly for a month, I should certainly reach a depth of more than 32 feet, in spite of the immense breadth of the cutting.
The medals hitherto discovered are all of copper, and belong for the most part to Alexandria Troas; some also are of Ilium, and of the first centuries before and after Christ.
My dear wife, an Athenian lady, who is an enthusiastic admirer of Homer, and knows almost the whole of the ‘Iliad’ by heart, is present at the excavations from morning to night. I will not say anything about our mode of life in this solitude, where everything is wanting, and where we have to take four grains of quinine every morning asa precaution against the pestilential malaria. All of my workmen are Greeks, from the neighbouring village of Renkoï; only on Sunday, a day on which the Greeks do not work, I employ Turks. My servant, Nikolaos Zaphyros, from Renkoï, whom I pay 30 piasters a day, is invaluable to me in paying the daily wages of the workmen, for he knows every one of them, and is honest. Unfortunately, however, he gives me no assistance in the works, as he neither possesses the gift of commanding, nor has he the slightest knowledge of what I am seeking.
I naturally have no leisure here, and I have only been able to write the above because it is raining heavily, and therefore no work can be done. On the next rainy day I shall report further on the progress of my excavations.
No. 36. A large Trojan Amphora of Terra-cotta (8 M.).No. 36. A large Trojan Amphora of Terra-cotta (8 M.).
Number of workmen—Discoveries at 2 to 4 meters deep—Greek coins—Remarkable terra-cottas with small stamps, probablyEx votos—These cease, and are succeeded by the whorls—Bones of sharks, shells of mussels and oysters, and pottery—Three Greek Inscriptions—The splendid panoramic view from Hissarlik—The Plain of Troy and the heroictumuli—Thymbria: Mr. Frank Calvert’s Museum—The mound of Chanaï Tépé—The Scamander and its ancient bed—Valley of the Simoïs, and ruins of Ophrynium.
Number of workmen—Discoveries at 2 to 4 meters deep—Greek coins—Remarkable terra-cottas with small stamps, probablyEx votos—These cease, and are succeeded by the whorls—Bones of sharks, shells of mussels and oysters, and pottery—Three Greek Inscriptions—The splendid panoramic view from Hissarlik—The Plain of Troy and the heroictumuli—Thymbria: Mr. Frank Calvert’s Museum—The mound of Chanaï Tépé—The Scamander and its ancient bed—Valley of the Simoïs, and ruins of Ophrynium.
On the Hill of Hissarlik, October 26th, 1871.
Nos. 37-39. Stamped Terra-cottas (1½—2 M.).Nos. 37-39. Stamped Terra-cottas (1½—2 M.).
No. 40. Stamped Terra-cotta (2 M.).No. 40. Stamped Terra-cotta (2 M.).
Sincemy report of the 18th I have continued the excavations with the utmost energy, with, on an average, 80 workmen, and I have to-day reached an average depth of 4 meters (13 feet). At a depth of 6½ feet I discovered a well, covered with a very large stone, and filled with rubbish. Its depth I have not been able to ascertain; it belongs to the Roman period, as is proved by the cement with which the stones are joined together. Ruins of buildings, consisting of hewn stones joined or not joined by cement, I only find at about a depth of 2 meters (6½ feet). In the layers ofdébrisbetween 2 and 4 meters deep (6½ to 13 feet), I find scarcely any stones, and to my delight the huge blocks of stone no longer occur at all. Medals belonging to Ilium and to the first and second centuries before Christ, and the first two centuries after Christ, as well as coins of Alexandria Troas and Sigeum, the age of which I do not know, were found almost immediately below the surface, and only in some few cases as deep as 1 meter (3¼ feet). By far the greater number of the Ilian coins bear the image of Minerva, of Faustina the elder, of Marcus Aurelius, of Faustina the younger, ofCommodus or of Crispina, and I found one with the following inscription: ΦΑΥΣΤΙΝΑ ϶ΚΤΩΡ ΙΛΙΕΩΝ. As far down as 2 meters (6½ feet) I found, as during my last year’s excavations in this hill, an immense number of round articles of terra-cotta, red, yellow, grey and black, with two holes, without inscriptions, but frequently with a kind of potter’s stamp upon them. I cannot find in the holes of any one of these articles the slightest trace of wear by their having been used for domestic purposes, and therefore I presume that they have served asEx votosfor hanging up in the temples. Upon most of those bearing a stamp I perceive in it an altar, and above the latter a bee or fly with outspread wings; upon others there is a bull, a swan, a child, or two horses. Curiously enough these articles vanish all at once at a depth of a 2 meters (6½ feet), and from this depth downwards I find, in their stead, pieces that are sometimes as round as a ball, exactly the shape of a German humming-top, sometimes in the form of hemispheres, others again in the form of cones, tops (carrouselen), or volcanoes. They are from ¾ of an inch to 2¼ inches high and broad, and all the different forms have a hole right through the centre; almost all of them have on one side the mostvarious kinds of decorations encircling the central hole.[83]With the exception of a few of these objects made of blue stone, from ¾ of an inch to 1½ inch broad, and found at a depth of 3 meters (10 feet), they are all made of terra-cotta, and it is quite evident that the decorations were engraved when the clay was still in a soft state. All are of such excellent clay, and burnt so hard, that I at first believed them to be of stone, and only perceived my mistake after having carefully examined them. In the depth we have now arrived at I also find very many of those elegant round vertebræ which form the backbone of the shark, and of which walking-sticks are often made. The existence of these vertebræ seems to prove that in remote antiquity this sea contained sharks, which are now no longer met with here. To-day I also found upon a fragment of rough pottery the representation of a man’s head with large protruding eyes, a long nose, and a very small mouth, which seems clearly to be of Phœnician workmanship.
I also constantly come upon immense quantities of mussel-shells, and it seems as if the old inhabitants of Ilium had been very fond of this shell-fish. Oyster-shells are also found, but only seldom; on the other hand, I find very many fragments of pottery. As far as the depth yet reached, all the buildings which have stood upon this hill in the course of thousands of years seem to have been destroyed by fire; every one of them is distinctly indicated by a layer of calcined ruins. This is at all events the reason why I do not also find other objects, and especially why I no longer find earthen vessels. Those I have hitherto found uninjured are very small pots of coarse workmanship; however, the fragments of the pottery prove that even in the time to which the ruins belong, at a depth of 4 meters (13 feet), there already existed good kitchen utensils.
In the quadrangular building already mentioned I found, at a depth of about 5 feet, a slab of marble 25·6 inches in length, the upper part of which is 13·6 inches in breadth, and the lower part 15·36 inches. It contains the following inscription:—
Ἐπειδὴ Διαφένης Πολλέως Τημνίτης, διατρίβων παρὰ τῷ βασιλεῖ, φίλος ὢν καὶ εὔνους διατελεῖ τῷ δήμῳ, χρείας παρεχόμενος προθύμως εἰς ἃ ἄν τις αὐτὸν παρακαλῇ, δεδόχθαι τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ ἐπαινέσαι μὲν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τούτοις, παρακαλεῖν δὲ καὶ εἰς τὸ λοιπὸν εἶναι φιλότιμον εἰς τὰ τοῦ δήμου συμφέροντα, δεδόσθαι δὲ αὐτῷ πολιτείαν, προξενίαν, ἔγκτησιν, ἀτέλειαν ὧν καὶ οἱ πολῖται ἀτελεῖς εἰσι καὶ ἔφοδον ἐπὶ τὴν βουλὴν πρώτῳ μετὰ τὰ ἱερὰ καὶ ἄφιξιν καὶ ἐμ πολέμῳ καὶ ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἀσυλεὶ καὶ ἀσπονδεί· ἀναγράψαι δὲ τὰ δεδομένα αὐτῷ ταῦτα εἰς στήλην καὶ (ἀνα)θεῖναι ε(ἰς....
Ἐπειδὴ Διαφένης Πολλέως Τημνίτης, διατρίβων παρὰ τῷ βασιλεῖ, φίλος ὢν καὶ εὔνους διατελεῖ τῷ δήμῳ, χρείας παρεχόμενος προθύμως εἰς ἃ ἄν τις αὐτὸν παρακαλῇ, δεδόχθαι τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ ἐπαινέσαι μὲν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τούτοις, παρακαλεῖν δὲ καὶ εἰς τὸ λοιπὸν εἶναι φιλότιμον εἰς τὰ τοῦ δήμου συμφέροντα, δεδόσθαι δὲ αὐτῷ πολιτείαν, προξενίαν, ἔγκτησιν, ἀτέλειαν ὧν καὶ οἱ πολῖται ἀτελεῖς εἰσι καὶ ἔφοδον ἐπὶ τὴν βουλὴν πρώτῳ μετὰ τὰ ἱερὰ καὶ ἄφιξιν καὶ ἐμ πολέμῳ καὶ ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἀσυλεὶ καὶ ἀσπονδεί· ἀναγράψαι δὲ τὰ δεδομένα αὐτῷ ταῦτα εἰς στήλην καὶ (ἀνα)θεῖναι ε(ἰς....
The king spoken of in this inscription must have been one of the kings of Pergamus, and from the character of the writing I believe that it must be assigned to the third century before Christ.
At about the same depth, and by the side of the building, I found a second marble slab 16·5 inches in length and 13·4 inches in breadth. The inscription runs as follows:—
Ἰλιεῖς ἔδοσαν Μενελάῳ Ἀῤῥαβαίου Ἀθηναίῳ εὐεργέτῃ γενομένῳ αὐτῶν καὶ περὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἀνδρὶ ἀγαθῷ γενομένῳ προξενίαν καὶ εὐεργεσίαν.
Ἰλιεῖς ἔδοσαν Μενελάῳ Ἀῤῥαβαίου Ἀθηναίῳ εὐεργέτῃ γενομένῳ αὐτῶν καὶ περὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἀνδρὶ ἀγαθῷ γενομένῳ προξενίαν καὶ εὐεργεσίαν.
This second inscription, to judge from the form of the letters, appears to belong to the first centuryB.C.“Ἀῤῥαβαῖος” here occurs for the first time as an Attic name.
At the same depth, and likewise by the side of the foundations of the same building, I found a third marble slab, nearly 15 inches long and about 14 broad. Its inscription is:—
Μηνόφιλος Γλαυρίου εἶπεν· ἐπειδὴ πλείονες τῶν πολιτῶν ἐπελθόντες ἐπὶ τὴν βουλήν φασιν Χαιρέαν τὸν τεταγμένον ἐπ’ Ἀβύδου εὔνουν τε εἶναι τῇ πόλει καὶ ἐνίοις πρεσβευομένοις ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου πρὸς αὐτὸν βουλόμενον τῇ πόλει χαρίζεσθαι τὴν πᾶσαν σπουδὴν καὶ πρόνοιαν ποεῖσθαι καὶ τοῖς συναντῶσιν αὐτῷ τῶν πολιτῶν φιλανθρώπως προσφέρεσθαι, ἵνα οὖν καὶ ὁ δῆμος φαίνηται τὴν καθήκουσαν χάριν ἀποδιδοὺς τοῖς προσαιρουμένοις τὴν πό(λιν)....... δεδόχθαι.
Μηνόφιλος Γλαυρίου εἶπεν· ἐπειδὴ πλείονες τῶν πολιτῶν ἐπελθόντες ἐπὶ τὴν βουλήν φασιν Χαιρέαν τὸν τεταγμένον ἐπ’ Ἀβύδου εὔνουν τε εἶναι τῇ πόλει καὶ ἐνίοις πρεσβευομένοις ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου πρὸς αὐτὸν βουλόμενον τῇ πόλει χαρίζεσθαι τὴν πᾶσαν σπουδὴν καὶ πρόνοιαν ποεῖσθαι καὶ τοῖς συναντῶσιν αὐτῷ τῶν πολιτῶν φιλανθρώπως προσφέρεσθαι, ἵνα οὖν καὶ ὁ δῆμος φαίνηται τὴν καθήκουσαν χάριν ἀποδιδοὺς τοῖς προσαιρουμένοις τὴν πό(λιν)....... δεδόχθαι.
This third inscription also appears to belong to the first centuryB.C.
It is probable that the building in and around which I discovered these three inscriptions was the Town-hall of Ilium; at all events, it does not appear to have been a temple.
The view from the hill of Hissarlik is extremely magnificent.[84]Before me lies the glorious Plain of Troy, which, since the recent rain, is again covered with grass and yellow buttercups; on the north-north-west, at about an hour’s distance, it is bounded by the Hellespont. The peninsula of Gallipoli here runs out to a point, upon which stands a lighthouse. To the left of it is the island of Imbros, above which rises Mount Ida of the island of Samothrace, at present covered with snow; a little more to the west, on the Macedonian peninsula, lies the celebrated Mount Athos, or Monte Santo, with its monasteries, at the north-western side of which there are still to be seen traces of that great canal which, according to Herodotus (VII. 22-23), was made by Xerxes, in order to avoid sailing round the stormy Cape Athos.
Returning to the Plain of Troy, we see to the right of it, upon a spur of the promontory of Rhœteum, the sepulchral mound of Ajax; at the foot of the opposite Cape of Sigeum that of Patroclus, and upon a spur of the same cape the sepulchre of Achilles; to the left ofthe latter, on the promontory itself, is the village of Yenishehr. The Plain, which is about two hours’ journey in breadth, is thence bounded on the west by the shores of the Ægean, which are, on an average, about 131 feet high, and upon which we see first the sepulchral mound of Festus, the confidential friend of Caracalla, whom the Emperor (according to Herodian, IV.) caused to be poisoned on his visit to Ilium, that he might be able to imitate the funeral rites which Achilles celebrated in honour of his friend Patroclus, as described by Homer (Iliad, XXIII.). Then upon the same coast there is another sepulchral mound, calledUdjek-Tépé, rather more than 78½ feet in height, which most archæologists consider to be that of the old man Æsyetes, from which Polites, trusting to the swiftness of his feet, watched to see when the Greek army would set forth from the ships.[85]The distance of this mound from the Greek camp on the Hellespont is, however, fully 3½ hours, whereas at a distance of a quarter of an hour a man cannot be seen. Polites, moreover, would not have required to have been very swift-footed to have escaped at a distance of 3½ hours. In short, from the passage in the Iliad this tomb cannot possibly be identified with that of Æsyetes, whether the site of ancient Troy be assigned to the heights of Bunarbashi or to Ilium, where I am digging. Between the last-named mounds we see projecting above the high shores of the Ægean Sea the island of Tenedos.To the south, we see the Plain of Troy, extending again to a distance of two hours, as far as the heights of Bunarbashi, above which rises majestically the snow-capped Gargarus of Mount Ida, from which Jupiter witnessed the battles between the Trojans and the Greeks.[86]At half-an-hour’s distance to the left of Bunarbashi is the beautiful estate of 5000 acres, whose name of Batak is now changed into Thymbria, belonging to my friend Mr. Frederick Calvert. It deserves the change of name for more than one reason; for not only does the river Thymbrius (now Kemer) flow through it, but it comprises the whole site of the ancient town of Thymbria, with its temple of Apollo, among the ruins of which the proprietor’s brother, Mr. Frank Calvert—known for his archæological investigations—is making excavations, and has found several valuable inscriptions; among others, an inventory of the temple. This estate further comprises the site of an ancient town, which is apparently encompassed in some places by ramparts; it is covered with fragments of pottery, and in regard to position, distance, &c., corresponds so closely with the statements of Strabo that it must certainly be his “Ἰλιέων κώμη,” where, agreeing with the theory of Demetrius of Scepsis, he places the Homeric Troy. At the foot of the hill containing the site, there are, curiously enough, two springs, one of hot the other of cold water.[87]These springs—probably owing to their natural channels having been stopped up for centuries by a fallen bridge—have formed a large marsh of 240 acres, the evaporations of which greatly contribute to the malaria of the glorious Plain. The marvellous circumstance that these springs aresituated directly before the site of “Ἰλιέων κώμη” and that their position corresponds so exactly with the two springs of hot and cold water which existed in front of ancient Troy, and in which the Trojan women used to wash their clothes, convinces Mr. Frederick Calvert that Demetrius of Scepsis and Strabo were right, and that he possesses the actual site of ancient Troy. In order to gain 240 acres of rich land and to make the district more healthy, but especially also in the interest of science, Mr. Calvert has now caused the channels to be opened, and he believes, as the incline is considerable, amounting at least to 53 feet, and the distance from the Hellespont is three hours, that by next summer the whole marsh will be dried up, and the two springs, which are now 5 feet under water, will be brought to light.[88]I have in vain endeavoured to make Mr. Calvert change his opinion, by seeking to convince him that, according to the Iliad (II. 123-30),[89]Troy must at least have had 50,000 inhabitants, whereas the site he possesses is scarcely large enough for 10,000; further, that the distance from the Ἰλιέων κώμη to the Hellespont directly contradicts the statements of Homer, for we are told that the Greek troops in one day twice forced their way fighting from the camp to the town, and returned twice, fighting. The distance of the town from the ships, therefore, in my opinion, can at most have been that of one hour (about 3 miles). Mr. Calvert replies that the whole Plain of Troy is alluvial land, and that at the time of the Trojan war its site must have been nearer the Hellespont; but, three years ago, in my work, ‘Ithaca, the Peloponnesus, and Troy,’ I endeavoured to prove that the Plain of Troy is decidedly not alluvial land.
PLATE IV.
(~1mb)ISLAND OF IMBROS. Mount Ida in Samothrace. The Ægean Sea. Kum-Kaleh. Lighthouse. PENINSULA OF GALLIPOLI. Hellespont. Simois. To the right of the Camels is the old bed of the Scamander. Mounds of Achilles and Patroclus. Yeni-Shehr on Sigeum Pr. VIEW OF THE NORTHERN PART OF THE PLAIN OF TROY, FROM THE HILL OF HISSARLIK.VIEW OF THE NORTHERN PART OF THE PLAIN OF TROY, FROM THE HILL OF HISSARLIK.
PLATE V.
(~1mb)THE CHAIN OF MOUNT IDA. Mount Gargarus (Kasdak). Village of Chiplak. Snow-clad Summit. Excavations in the Temple. Altar. VIEW OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN PART OF THE PLAIN OF TROY, FROM THE HILL OF HISSARLIK.VIEW OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN PART OF THE PLAIN OF TROY, FROM THE HILL OF HISSARLIK.
Another curiosity of this estate is, that close to the temple of Apollo there exists a round hill, called “Chanaï Tépé,” about 32¾ feet in height, and 216½ feet in diameter at its base. It used to be considered a natural hill, till Mr. Frank Calvert, in the year 1856, made a cutting in it, and found upon a flat rock, 16 feet high, a circular space, enclosed by a wall 6½ feet in height. The whole of the inner space, as far as the edge of the surrounding wall, was filled with calcined bones, which the surgeons of the English fleet pronounced to be human bones. In the centre Mr. Calvert found the skeleton of a human being. The whole was covered with about 10 feet of earth.
The Plain of Troy is traversed from the south-east to the north-west by the Scamander, which is distant from Hissarlik 35 minutes’ walk, and the bed of which I can recognise from here by the uninterrupted row of trees growing upon its banks. Between the Scamander and Hissarlik, at a distance of only 15 minutes from the latter, the Plain is again intersected by the river Kalifatli-Asmak, which rises in the marshes of Batak (Thymbria), and is filled with running water only in late autumn, winter, and spring; but during the hot summer months, till the end of October, it consists of an uninterrupted series of deep pools. This stream, even during the continual heavy winter rains, and in comparison with its splendid and immensely broad channel, has but a very scanty supply of water—in fact, never so much as to cover even the tenth part of the breadth of its bed. I therefore believe that its huge bed must at one time have been the bed of the Scamander; I believe this all the more, as the Simoïs still flows into the Kalifatli-Asmak at a quarter of an hour’s distance north of Ilium, where I am digging.[90]By identifying the channel of this river, which may be traced to the Hellespont near Cape Rhœteum, with the most ancientbed of the Scamander, we may settle the otherwise insurmountable difficulties of the Homeric topography of the Plain of Troy; for, had the Scamander occupied its present bed at the time of the Trojan war, it would have flowed through the Greek camp, and Homer would have had abundant opportunity of speaking of this important circumstance. But as he never mentions a river in the camp, there can, of course, have been none there. Moreover, the Simoïs is now half-an-hour’s distance from the Scamander; whereas Homer frequently mentions the confluence of these two streams before Ilium, and most of the battles took place in the fields between Troy, the Scamander, and the Simoïs. At its confluence with the Kalifatli-Asmak, whose enormous bed must, at one time, have belonged to the Scamander, the Simoïs has an especially large and deep bed, which is doubtless still the same that this stream occupied at the time of the Trojan war.
The Kalifatli-Asmak, after its confluence with the Scamander near the village of Kum-köi, turns to the north-west, and flows into the sea by three arms, not very far from the present bed of the Scamander; below the village, however, it has quite a narrow bed, which is obviously of recent formation. Its old channel, on the other hand, which was the ancient bed of the Scamander and is of an immense breadth, proceeds direct northwards from Kum-köi: it is now occupied by the water of the small rivulet calledIn-tépé-Asmak, which I shall afterwards describe minutely, and empties itself, as before said, into the Hellespont close to Cape Rhœteum.
The Scamander did not take possession of its present bed suddenly, but very gradually, probably in the course of many centuries; for between its present channel and its ancient one there are three enormous river-beds, likewise leading to the Hellespont, which possess no water and must necessarily have been successively formed by theScamander, as there is no other river here that could have formed them.
To the north-north-east, I overlook another plain, called Chalil-Owasi, half an hour in breadth and 1½ hour in length, which is traversed by the Simoïs and extends to the hill upon which are the mighty ruins of the ancient city of Ophrynium. The coins which have been found there leave no doubt about this. There, close to the Simoïs, was Hector’s (so-called) tomb, and a grove sacred to his memory.[91]
No. 41. A great mixing Vessel (κρατήρ), of Terra-cotta, with 4 Handles, about 1 ft. 5 in. high, and nearly 1 ft. 9 in. in diameter (7 M.). (See see p. 157, 262).No. 41. A great mixing Vessel (κρατήρ), of Terra-cotta, with 4 Handles, about 1 ft. 5 in. high, and nearly 1 ft. 9 in. in diameter (7 M.).(See seep. 157,262).