Weather and progress of the work—The lion-headed handle of a sceptre—Lions formerly in the Troad—Various objects found—Pottery—Implements of stone and copper—Whorls—Balls curiously decorated—Fragments of musical instruments—Remains of house-walls—The storks of the Troad.
Pergamus of Troy, March 22nd, 1873.
DURING this last week we have again had constant splendid weather, and, with 150 men on an average, I have got through a good piece of work. On the north side of the excavation on the site of the Temple of Athena, I have already reached a depth of 26 feet, and have laid bare the Tower in several places. The space to be dug down is now divided into four terraces, and I am having the lowest terrace, which forms the surface of the Tower, worked with especially great energy. As the paths are getting both steeper and longer, the men with the wheelbarrows have now to stop and rest half-way, so the work proceeds more slowly every day. Still I hope that I shall bring to light the whole breadth of the Tower in the eastern direction in three weeks, but the western side in a week and a half. The only part of the interior of the Temple of Athena which I have left standing is the reservoir built of large white stones without cement, which, owing to my excavations, will in a few days be 26 feet above the Tower, and will have a very pretty appearance. It is only by excavating the west side of that part of the Great Tower which I uncovered last year, that I shall be able to judge in what direction the walls run out from it, and what my next work will be. The most remarkable of the objects found this week is certainly a large knob belonging to a stick, of the purest and finest crystal, and in the form of a very beautifully wrought lion’s head; it was discovered upon the Tower at a depth of 26 feet. It must have been the ornament of a Trojan’s staff or sceptre (σκῆπτρον), for I found it among those brilliant red and black fragments of pottery, which only occur at a depth of from 36 to 46 feet, except upon the Tower. Not only this lion’s head, but the illustrations drawn from the lion, which occur repeatedly in the Iliad, make it seem extremely probable that in remote antiquity lions existed in this neighbourhood. Homer could not possibly have described so excellently the characteristics of this animal, had he not had frequent opportunity of watching them, and his geographical knowledge of southern countries is too slight for us to suppose that he had visited them, and had there become intimately acquainted with the characteristics of the lion. Not far from the lion’s head I found a splendidly cut hexagon of the purest crystal, as well as a small pyramid, 1½ inch long and broad, and 1-2/3 inch high, made of black, white and blue streaked marble, such as is not found in this district; the hole which runs through the centre of the pyramid is filled with lead.
I also found upon the Tower a very primitive marble idol, 7½ inches in length, 3-1/3 inches broad, and 1-1/5 inch thick; also a very fine copper lance; further, a large mould of mica-schist for casting twelve different weapons and instruments, as well as a beautiful sling-bullet made of loadstone. In the higher strata, and in fact at a depth of 4 meters (13 feet), the most curious article certainly is an idol of the Trojan tutelary goddess made of slate, such as has never hitherto been found. It shows the owl’s face, two breasts and a navel, and long hair at the back of the head; two horizontal lines on the neck, which are joined by small cross lines, seem to denote armour. Marble idols without the owl’s face, but otherwise of exactly the same form as those with the owl’s face, are met with in numbers in all the strata between 3 and 8 meters deep (10 to 26 feet). I likewise found long, thin copper nails with round heads at the thick end, or without heads, but with the end bent round, which I now perceive can only be breast or hair pins, and not actual nails for driving into wood. I find them also in quantities in the strata of this excavation between 4 and 7 meters deep (13 to 23 feet), and I must therefore decidedly pronounce that the people to whom these strata of ruins belong were acquainted with copper.