If the Trojans possessed an alphabetical language, I shall probably find inscriptions in the ruins of the two temples. I am, however, no longer sanguine in regard to this, as I have hitherto found no trace of writing in the colossal strata of the four tribes which preceded the Greek colony.[214]
WORK AT HISSARLIK IN 1873.
CHAPTER XV.
Return to Hissarlik in 1873—Interruptions by holydays and weather—Strong cold north winds—Importance of good overseers—An artist taken to draw the objects found—Want of workmen—Excavations on the site of the Temple—Blocks of Greek sculptured marble—Great increase of the hill to the east—Further portions of the great Trojan wall—Traces of fire—A terra-cotta hippopotamus, a sign of intercourse with Egypt—Idols and owl-faced vases—Vases of very curious forms—Whorls—Sling-bullets of copper and stone—Piece of ornamented ivory belonging to a musical instrument—New cutting from S.E. to N.W.—Walls close below the surface—Wall of Lysimachus—Monograms on the stones—An inscription in honour of Caius Cæsar—Patronage of Ilium by the Julii as the descendants of Æneas—Good wine of the Troad.
Pergamus of Troy, February 22nd, 1873.
I RETURNED here on the 31st of January with my wife, in order to continue the excavations, but we have been repeatedly interrupted by Greek church festivals, thunderstorms, and also by the excessive cold, so that I can scarcely reckon that I have had as yet more than eight good days’ work. Last autumn, by the side of my two wooden houses, I had a house built for myself of stones from the old Trojan buildings, the walls of which were 2 feet thick, but I was compelled to let my foremen occupy it, for they were not sufficiently provided with clothes and wrappers, and would have perished through the great cold. My poor wife and I have therefore suffered very much, for the strong icy north wind[215] blew with such violence through the chinks of our house-walls which were made of planks, that we were not even able to light our lamps of an evening; and although we had fire on the hearth, yet the thermometer showed 4 degrees of cold (Réaumur = 23° Fahrenheit), and the water standing near the hearth froze in solid masses. During the day we could to some degree bear the cold by working in the excavations, but of an evening we had nothing to keep us warm except our enthusiasm for the great work of discovering Troy. Fortunately this extreme cold lasted only four days, from the 16th to the 19th of this month, and since then we have had glorious weather.
Besides Georgios Photidas, who was with me during the excavations of last year, I have as foremen Georgios Barba Tsirogiannis (a sea-captain from Chalcis in Eubœa), and an Albanese from Salamis, whom, however, I shall shortly send back on account of his uselessness, and get two other foremen from the Piræus in his stead. A good foreman is more useful to me than ten common workmen, but I find that the gift of command is rarely met with except among seamen.
I have also brought with me an artist, that I may have the objects found copied immediately in Indian ink, and the drawings multiplied in Athens by means of photography. This will, however, render it impossible for me to state the depths at which the objects were found upon distinct plates, as I have hitherto done. The articles discovered in the different depths are now mixed together, but in each case the depth, as well as the relative size, is stated in meters, in addition to the number in the catalogue.
Workmen are at present not so easily to be had as before; for a merchant from Smyrna residing here has engaged 150 men to gather a medicinal root, which is here called γλυκόριζα, out of which liquorice-juice is prepared. The German word lakritze, the French lacorice, and the English liquorice, are evidently corruptions of γλυκόριζα. Now, as the men employed by the Smyrna merchant work the ground at a certain price by square measure, they earn from 12 to 23 piasters (2 frcs. 40 cent, to 4 frcs. 60 cent.) daily; whereas I can give them only 9 piasters (1 frc. 80 cent.) during the present short days. At Easter I can offer them 10 piasters, and after the 1st of June 12 piasters. As the roots are dug up in the neighbourhood of Renkoï, it is principally the people of this village that are engaged in the work; and for carrying on my excavations I have to apply to the villages of Kafatli-Asmak, Yenishehr, and Neo-Chori, which are situated in and round about the Plain of Troy. If the weather is dry, I can count upon obtaining after to-morrow 120 workmen every day.