As has been already said, the splendid block of triglyphs representing Phœbus Apollo with the four horses of the Sun, which I discovered last July, must, as the triglyph on the left side proves, have stood over the entrance of the temple, probably on its propylæa, and must have had another block of triglyphs of the same size on its right side. It would be of the greatest interest to archæology if I should find the second block of triglyphs, which, as happened with the other block, has probably been thrown from the summit of the hill down the steep declivity. I have also previously expressed the opinion, that the block of triglyphs which I saved had been thrown down by fanatical Turks because it represented living creatures, which is strictly prohibited in the Koran. However, the locality has not been inhabited at all since the ninth century, and the labourers of the distant Turkish villages cannot possibly have given themselves the trouble of rolling down from the hill such tremendous weights from mere religious zeal. Besides this, the good state in which the sculpture has been preserved proves that it cannot possibly have stood upon the top of the hill up to the time of the Turkish invasion, and this leads me to suppose that it was thrown down by the early Christians more than a thousand years before, very likely even in the fourth century A.D.; for it is well known, that all sculptures of heathen gods which were difficult to destroy they simply hurled from the top of the hills upon which they stood. That this is the only true explanation is also confirmed by the covering of earth, 3¼ feet thick, which enveloped the sculpture on the declivity of the hill. According to the average accumulation of the soil in this locality, the formation of such a covering would be impossible in the course of three or four centuries: it would have required more than a thousand years.
It is now quite certain that the Doric temple, which at one time stood on the north side, and in the depths of which I have so long been working, was the sanctuary of Apollo; and that the block of Doric triglyphs so frequently mentioned belonged to this temple of Apollo, and to none other; since Ilium’s great temple, which I am now investigating, could only have been dedicated to the tutelary goddess of Ilium, Athena, for in the great inscription quoted in my last report it is simply called “τὸ ἱερόν.”
In order to try to find the second block of triglyphs, I have since yesterday set 25 men to work upwards from the foot of the hill at the point where the Phœbus Apollo was found, over a breadth of 59 feet, to remove the débris which unfortunately I had thrown down the declivity last year, and which forms a covering of 23 feet in thickness; and then to dig away the whole steep side of the hill to a depth of 4½ feet from the bottom upwards.
As soon as I have workmen to spare, I shall also employ thirty to make a deep cutting into the theatre, the stage of which, as already said, is 197 feet broad; this cutting I intend to make 33 feet broad and 148 feet long; for, in a small opening which I made there last year, I found a number of fragments of broken statues, and it is quite possible that some, which might be of the greatest interest to archæology, escaped the zeal of the early Christians.
The many thousands of stones which I bring out of the depths of Ilium have induced the inhabitants of the surrounding villages to erect buildings which might be called grand for the inhabitants of this wilderness. Among others, they are at present building with my Ilian stones a mosque and a minaret in the wretched Turkish village of Chiplak, and a church-tower in the Christian village of Yenishehr. A number of two-wheeled carts, drawn by oxen, are always standing by the side of my excavations, ready to receive the stones which can be of any use as soon as they have been brought to the surface; but the religious zeal of these good people is not great enough for them to offer to help me in the terrible work of breaking the large, splendidly hewn blocks so as to make them more convenient to remove.
Although spring is only just commencing, there is already a great deal of malignant fever in consequence of the mild winter, and the poor people of the neighbourhood are already daily beginning to make large claims upon my stock of quinine.
I found myself obliged to raise the men’s wages to 10 piasters or 2 francs, eight days ago.
