After having had no rain here for four months, to-day, curiously enough, just after stopping the works, we have had a thunderstorm accompanied by a tremendous downpour of rain, and I regret extremely not to have been able to make a channel for leading off the rain-water from the Tower as far as the western declivity of the hill. But such a channel would need to be 50 feet deep and as many broad, otherwise its walls, consisting of calcined ruins and loose red ashes, would fall in. I should therefore have to remove 5000 cubic meters (6000 cubic yards) of débris, and such a gigantic piece of work I cannot now undertake.
In stopping the excavations for this year, and in looking back upon the fearful dangers to which we have continually been exposed since the 1st of April, between the gigantic layers of ruins, I cannot but fervently thank God for His great mercy, that not only has no life been lost, but that none of us has even been seriously hurt.
Now, as regards the result of my excavations, everyone must admit that I have solved a great historical problem, and that I have solved it by the discovery of a high civilization and immense buildings upon the primary soil, in the depths of an ancient town, which throughout antiquity was called Ilium and declared itself to be the successor of Troy, the site of which was regarded as identical with the site of the Homeric Ilium by the whole civilized world of that time. The situation of this town not only corresponds perfectly with all the statements of the Iliad, but also with all the traditions handed down to us by later authors; and, moreover, neither in the Plain of Troy, nor in its vicinity, is there any other place which could in the slightest degree be made to correspond with them. To regard the heights of Bunarbashi as the site of Troy, contradicts, in every respect, all the statements of Homer and of tradition. My excavations of Bunarbashi, as well as the form of the rocks, prove that those heights, as far as the three sepulchral mounds, can never have been inhabited by men. As I have already said, behind those tumuli there are the ruins of a very small town, the area of which, surrounded on two sides by the ruins of an enclosing wall, and on the other side by precipices, is so insignificant, that at most it can have only possessed 2000 inhabitants. The enclosing wall of its small Acropolis is scarcely a foot thick, and the gate scarcely 3¼ feet wide. The accumulation of débris is not worth mentioning, for in many places the naked flat rocks are seen on the ground of the Acropolis. Here in Ilium, however, the proportions are very different. The area of the Greek city, which is indicated by the surrounding wall built by Lysimachus, is large enough for a population of more than 100,000 souls; and that the number of the inhabitants was actually as large is proved by the stage of the theatre, which is 200 feet in breadth. Here the surrounding wall of Lysimachus is 6½ feet thick, whereas the wall which runs out from the Tower at a great depth below the other seems to be five times as thick, and Homer assuredly ascribed the erection of the walls of Troy to Poseidon and Apollo on account of their enormous proportions.[210] Then, as regards the accumulation of débris, here in the Pergamus there is no place where it amounts to less than 14 meters, or 46½ feet, and in many places it is even much more considerable. Thus, for instance, on my great platform, I only reached the primary soil at a depth of 16 meters, or 53-1/3 feet, and in the depths of the temple, on the adjacent field, belonging to Mr. Frank Calvert, I have not yet reached it at a depth of 15½ meters, or 51-2/3 feet. Such an accumulation of ruins has never as yet been discovered in any other part of the world, except occasionally in the rocky valleys of Jerusalem; where, however, it has only begun to accumulate since the destruction of the city by Titus, and hence is scarcely more than 1800 years old.[211] Here in Troy the remains of the Greek period cease entirely at a depth of ½, 1, or 2 meters, and thence, down to the primary soil, we find in regular succession the mighty layers of ruins belonging to four very ancient nations.
In like manner, as regards the more than a hundred thousand objects which I have brought to light, and which were used by those very ancient tribes, I venture to say that I have revealed a new world to archæology; for, in order to give but one instance, I have here found many thousands of those wheels, volcanoes, or tops (carrousels) of terra-cotta with the most various Aryan religious symbols.
If, as it seems, neither the Trojans nor any of the three succeeding peoples possessed a written language, we must, as far as possible, replace it by the “monuments figurés” which I have discovered.[212] As already said, I make a drawing in my diary each evening of every one of the objects which have been found during the day, and more especially of the pictorial symbols, with the greatest exactness. By comparing the innumerable symbols I have succeeded in deciphering some of them, and I hope that my learned colleagues will succeed in explaining the rest. Archæology shall on no account lose any one of my discoveries; every article which can have any interest for the learned world shall be photographed, or copied by a skilful draughtsman, and published in the Appendix to this work; and by the side of every article I shall state the depth in which I discovered it.
