A strange instrument of copper, almost in the shape of a horse’s bit, but with two pointed hooks, was found at a depth of 10 feet. Besides this, we met with two somewhat crooked copper knives, at from 13 to 16½ feet down, as well as a small but very fine knife, in the form of a saw, made of a shell. Stone instruments are continually met with here in great numbers in all of the strata between 2 and 8 meters deep (6½ to 26 feet), whereas in my excavations of 1871 and 1872 I only found them below a depth of 13 feet. Two beautiful stone lances, one of diorite, the other of hard green stone, were found, the one at 20 feet down, the other at 11½ feet. During this week, I also found very many knives of silex in the form of saws or of sharp blades, with one or two edges; further, a very prettily cut piece of mica-schist with a perforated hole and a groove on the upper side, which may have been fastened to a fireplace and have served for turning a spit.
I have observed that the terra-cottas here generally occur in great numbers only in and below those strata of débris which are mixed with enormous quantities of small shells, and which usually commence at a depth of 13 feet, but sometimes not till 20 feet. However, every now and then we come upon beautiful terra-cottas above these shell strata; and thus, for instance, in the great cutting, directly in front of my door, we found, at a depth of 10 feet, several large and splendid vessels, among which was an extremely elegant black vase, in the shape of a soup-tureen, and at a depth of 11½ feet two mixing-bowls, the smaller one of which has two, the larger one four, handles; the larger mixing-bowl is two feet high, and its orifice is as much in diameter. (See Cut, No. 41, p. 74.) At a depth of 16½ feet I found an extremely curious large vase, which has two large handles at the top and two small ones at the sides. Various other vases of extremely curious forms were discovered at a depth of from 13 to 26 feet; of them I will only mention one large brilliant black vase with two female breasts and two handles, by the side of which are the stumps of the upraised arms which ornamented this vessel. The upper part of it, which, as is proved by the arms and breasts, was ornamented with the owl’s head of the Ilian Athena, is unfortunately wanting. It is strange that this vase has no navel.
Of the large and brilliant red goblets in the form of huge champagne-glasses, with two immense handles, we met with many in a more or less broken condition at a depth of from 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 feet); among them is an enormous goblet 15¾ inches long, of which I have been able to collect all the fragments and shall therefore be able to restore it. (See No. 112, p. 158.)
I found, at a depth of from 23 to 26 feet, quantities of earthen plates, some of which are of a brilliant red colour, but most of them are uncoloured. At a depth of 20 feet I found a fragment of pottery with a cross, at the four ends of which are dots, which can only indicate the nails by means of which it was fastened. Small terra-cotta whorls, with Aryan religious symbols, were again found in great numbers; several of them have decorations not hitherto met with. Of terra-cotta balls we have found three during these last days, two of them are very remarkable. One hemisphere of the first has nineteen figures like the Greek letter Rho (Ρ) in a circle round it, and ten of the same figures in a line through the middle point, also a number of little stars; the other hemisphere is entirely filled with little stars. The second ball has a half moon on the one hemisphere and large stars on the other.