Thus the opinion which I have previously expressed, that only the first inhabitants of this hill had walls and fortifications, is now proved to be erroneous. For these three walls, which at one time stood at the edge of the declivity, and the three which I cut through at the south-east side of the hill, can only have been walls of fortification, and they evidently belong to the various tribes who inhabited this locality after the destruction of the first nation up to the foundation of the Greek colony.
As my further excavations have shown, at a depth of 8 meters (26 feet), immediately below the Temple of Athena, and at a distance of 131 feet from the above-mentioned street, a large wall runs out from the Tower in a southern direction. I have had 6½ feet of this wall laid bare to the south. But how far it extends in this direction cannot be ascertained without making new and enormous excavations. It is also impossible for me to ascertain its breadth without breaking down the curious pre-Hellenic house. It also appears to me that the Tower ends here, for in my investigations at the foot of that ancient house I no longer found any trace of it. Instead of it I came upon very ancient houses, the walls of which, still partially covered with a coating of clay and white colour, all bearing traces of a terrible conflagration, which has so completely destroyed everything that was in the rooms, that we only occasionally find charred fragments of pottery among the red wood-ashes with which the spaces are filled. Curiously enough we again find, below these very ancient houses, other house-walls which must certainly be older; and these too show indications of having been exposed to a terrible heat. In fact, the labyrinth of very ancient house-walls, built one above another, and found in the depths of the Temple of Athena erected by Lysimachus, is unique, and presents the archæologist with the richest materials for his investigations. But what is most inexplicable to me about this labyrinth of walls is a wall of fortification, 11¾ feet high, running through it from W.N.W. to E.S.E. This is likewise built of stone joined with earth, and is 6 feet broad at the top and 12 feet broad at the foot: it does not stand directly upon the primary rock, and was not built till the rock had gradually become covered with a layer of earth 1¾ foot in thickness. It appears therefore to be somewhat less ancient than the Great Tower, which stands directly upon the primary rock. Running parallel with this wall of fortification, only 2½ feet from it and at the same depth, there is a wall 2 feet high, which is likewise built of stones joined with earth.
The room at the greatest depth which I have excavated is 10 feet high and 11¼ feet broad; but it may have been higher; its length I have not yet ascertained. One of the compartments of the uppermost houses, below the Temple of Athena and belonging to the pre-Hellenic period, appears to have been used as a wine-merchant’s cellar or as a magazine, for in it there are nine enormous earthen jars (πίθοι) of various forms, about 5¾ feet high and 4¾ feet across, their mouths being from 29½ to 35¼ inches broad.[247] Each of these earthen jars has four handles, 3¾ inches broad, and the clay of which they are made has the enormous thickness of 2¼ inches. Upon the south side of these jars I found a wall 26 feet in extent and 10 feet high, built of sun-dried bricks, which, however, had become really burnt bricks through the conflagration. This wall, which likewise appears to me to be a fortification and very thick, I have had broken down to the perpendicular line of the foundations of the Temple of Athena.
PLATE XI.
I am in great fear lest the Turks should make off with the large stone altar, the upper part of which forms a crescent, to use it for building a minaret in the village of Chiplak; therefore, without moving it from its place, I shall have it carefully split in two, so that it will be useless for building purposes. This stone and its pedestal are daubed over with a white crust of clay, which upon the pedestal is nearly an inch thick.