The four sculptured tombstones having been removed to the village of Charvati, in order to be sent to Athens, I excavated on the site of the three with the bas-reliefs representing the warriors and the hunting scene,[270] and found a quadrangular tomb, 21 ft. 5 in. long and 10 ft. 4 in. broad, cut out in the slope of the rock. The earth in this tomb consisted of the detritus of house remains mixed with natural soil, which latter had been brought here from another place. At a depth of 3 ft. 3 in. below the place where the tombstones had stood I found a curious sort of monument, consisting of two long and narrow slabs 5 ft. long, 7 in. thick, and 12 in. broad, lying the one upon the other, and at their south end a smaller slab 2½ ft. long in an oblique position, as if to serve for a pillow to the corpse laid down on the upper slab. (See No. 223.) The latter stone had a border, and belongs evidently to another monument, of which the other two slabs may likewise have formed part. Most probably there was once on this tomb a large monument, ornamented with the three sculptured tombstones which now marked its site.
Nos. 224-229. Objects of ivory, bone, or metallic composition. Sepulchre I. Size 7 : 9.
OBJECTS OF IVORY, BONE, ETC.
In digging lower down I found from time to time a very small quantity of black ashes, and in this very frequently some curious objects; such as a bone button covered with a golden plate, with a beautiful intaglio ornamentation, or an imitation of a ram's horn cut out of ivory, having one flat side with two holes, by which the object must have been attached to something else, or other ornaments of bone or small plates of gold. I collected in this way twelve gold buttons covered with gold plates ornamented with intaglio work, one of which is as large as a five-franc piece. The ornamentation of the gold plates consists either of spiral lines or that curious cross
, with the marks of four nails, which so frequently occurs on the whorls in Ilium, and which I believe to be the symbol of the holy fire.[271] All the buttons are in the form of our shirt-buttons, but larger, and similar to those shown in a later part of this work. I collected there, besides the buttons, two objects of ivory in the form of ram's-horns, like No. 225; and four pieces of ivory in the form of a crescent, one side being convex, the other flat, in which are four holes for fixing it to something else (see No. 224); six long and narrow pieces of ivory, like 227, having for ornamentation five vertical incisions, and in the reverse side two deep vertical cuts for attaching them on another object. Very probably all these objects have served as ornaments on horse-trappings. There was found besides the ivory needle, No. 229; further, six buttons of hard white stone with a circular hole in the centre, into which is stuck a small blue stone (No. 226). The round hole in the centre as well as the presence of the small stones in it are inexplicable to me. There were also found a small button of the same sort, the gold-plated head of a bronze nail, eight long thin pieces and four large disks of thin gold plate, two small tube-like pieces of a glassy substance, containing in the interior a small tube of real blue glass, of which I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. I also found there the green object (No. 228), which has small horizontal flutings all round: according to Professor Landerer it consists of an artificial substance containing oxide of copper, which has been pressed into its present form. The earth was intermixed with numerous fragments of very ancient wheel-made pottery, with a variegated painted ornamentation, and others of hand-made monochromatic lustrous black or red or light green pottery with black spiral ornamentation; but to my astonishment I found also from time to time some fragments of painted vases made on the potter's wheel, of those sorts which are found even in the upper prehistoric strata, and which most decidedly belong to a much later period.
No. 230. Foot of a black hand-made Goblet. Sepulchre I. Size 6:7.
Among the most interesting of the hand-made pottery are the large lustrous black goblets, with a hollow foot and horizontal flutings in the middle (No. 230), which are frequent in the first prehistoric city of Troy; also the light green or yellow ones, with a most fantastical black ornamentation; and the larger vases of a light red dead colour, with dark red circles, or with two protruding female breasts surrounded by circles of small black strokes.