Pergamus of Troy, March 1st, 1873.
SINCE Monday morning, the 24th of last month, I have succeeded in increasing the number of my workmen to 158, and as throughout this week we have had splendid weather, I have been able to accomplish a good stroke of work in the six days, in spite of the many hindrances and difficulties which I had at first to struggle against. Since the 1st of February I have succeeded in removing more than 11,000 cubic yards of débris from the site of the temple. To-day, at last, I have had the pleasure of uncovering a large portion of that buttress, composed of large unhewn white stones, which at one time covered the entire north-eastern corner of the declivity, whereas, in consequence of its increase in size during the course of many centuries by the ashes of the sacrificed animals, the present declivity of the hill is 131 feet distant from it to the north, and 262½ feet distant to the east. To my surprise I found that this buttress reaches to within 26 feet of the surface, and thus, as the primary soil is elsewhere always at from 46 to 52½ feet below the surface, it must have covered an isolated hill from 20 to 26 feet high, at the north-east end of the Pergamus, where at one time there doubtless stood a small temple. Of this sanctuary, however, I find nothing but red wood-ashes, mixed with the fragments of brilliant black Trojan earthenware, and an enormous number of unhewn stones, which seem to have been exposed to a fearful heat, but no trace of sculpture: the building must therefore have been very small. I have broken through the buttress of this temple-hill at a breadth of 13 feet, in order to examine the ground at its foundation. I dug it away to a depth of 5 feet, and found that it consists of the virgin soil, which is of a greenish colour. Upon the site of the small and very ancient temple, which is indicated by the buttress, I find in two places pure granular sand, which appears to extend very far down, for after excavating it to a depth of 6½ feet I did not reach the end of the stratum. Whether this hill consists entirely, or but partially, of earth and sand, I cannot say, and must leave it undecided, for I should have to remove thousands more of cubic yards of rubbish. Among the débris of the temple we found a few, but exceedingly interesting objects, for instance, the largest marble idol that has hitherto been found, which is 5¼ inches long and 3 inches broad. Further, the lid of a pot, which is divided into twelve fields by roughly engraved lines. Ten of the fields are ornamented with little stars, one with two signs of lightning, and another with six lines. There was also a small idol of terra-cotta with the owl’s head of the Ilian tutelary goddess, with two arms and long hair hanging down at the back of the head; but it is so roughly made that, for instance, the eyes of the goddess are above the eyebrows. I also found among the débris of the temple a vase with the owl’s face, two female breasts and a large navel; of the face only one eye and an ear is preserved. I must draw especial attention to the fact that both upon the vases with owls’ heads two female breasts and a navel, and upon all of the others without the owl’s face and adorned only with two female breasts and a navel, the latter is always ten times larger than the breasts. I therefore presume that the navel had some important significance, all the more so as it is frequently decorated with a cross, and in one case even with a cross and the marks of a nail at each of the four ends of the cross.[220] We also discovered among the ruins of the small and very ancient building some pretty wedges (battle-axes), and a number of very rude hammers made of diorite; besides a quantity of those small red and black terra-cotta whorls, with the usual engravings of four or five 卐, or of three, four, or five triple rising suns in the circle round the central sun, or with other extremely strange decorations.