Besides the ear-rings, a great number of other ornaments strung on threads, or fastened on leather, had been put into the same large silver vase; for above and below them, as already said, I found 8750 small objects;[296] such as gold rings, only 1/8 of an inch in diameter; perforated dice, either smooth or in the form of little indented stars, about 1/6 of an inch in diameter; gold perforated prisms 1/10 of an inch high and 1/8 of an inch broad, decorated longitudinally with eight or sixteen incisions; small leaves about 1/5 of an inch long, and 1/6 of an inch broad, and pierced longitudinally with a hole for threading them; small gold pegs 1/3 of an inch long, with a button on one side, and a perforated hole on the other; perforated prisms about 1/5 of an inch long and 1/10 of an inch broad; double or triple gold rings soldered together and only ¼ of an inch in diameter, with holes on both sides for threading them; gold buttons or studs 1/5 of an inch high, in the cavity of which is a ring above 1/10 of an inch broad for sewing them on; gold double buttons, exactly like our shirt studs, 3/10 of an inch long, which, however, are not soldered, but simply stuck together, for from the cavity of the one button there projects a tube (αὐλίσκος) nearly ¼ of an inch long, and from the other a pin (ἔμβολον) of the same length, and the pin is merely stuck into the tube to form the double stud. These double buttons or studs can only have been used, probably, as ornament upon leather articles, for instance upon the handle-straps (τελαμῶνες) of swords, shields, or knives. I found in the vase also two gold cylinders above 1/10 of an inch thick and ¾ of an inch long; also a small gold peg above 4/5 of an inch in length, and from 6/100 to 8/100 of an inch thick; it has at one end a perforated hole for hanging it up, and on the other side six encircling incisions, which give the article the appearance of a screw; it is only by means of a magnifying glass that it is found not to be really a screw. I also found in the same vase two pieces of gold, one of which is 1/7 of an inch, the other above 2 inches, long; each of them has 21 perforations.[297]
The person who endeavoured to save the Treasure had fortunately the presence of mind to stand the silver vase, containing the valuable articles described above, upright in the chest, so that not so much as a bead could fall out, and everything has been preserved uninjured.
My esteemed friend M. Landerer, of Athens, a chemist well known through his discoveries and writings, who has most carefully examined all the copper articles of the Treasure, and analysed the fragments, finds that all of them consist of pure copper without any admixture of tin or zinc,[298] and that, in order to make them more durable, they have been wrought with the hammer (σφυρήλατον).
As I hoped to find other treasures here, and also wished to bring to light the wall that surrounded Troy, the erection of which Homer[299] ascribes to Poseidon and Apollo, as far as the Scæan Gate, I have entirely cut away the upper wall, which rested partly upon the gate, to an extent of 56 feet. Visitors to the Troad can, however, still see part of it in the north-western earth-wall opposite the Scæan Gate. I have also broken down the enormous block of earth which separated my western and north-western cutting from the Great Tower; but in order to do this, I had to pull down the larger one of my wooden houses, and I had also to bridge over the Scæan Gate, so as to facilitate the removal of the débris. The result of this new excavation is very important to archæology; for I have been able to uncover several walls, and also a room of the Royal Palace, 20 feet in length and breadth, upon which no buildings of a later period rest.
Of the objects discovered there I have only to mention an excellently engraved inscription found upon a square piece of red slate, which has two holes not bored through it and an encircling incision, but neither can my learned friend Émile Burnouf nor can I tell in what language the inscription is written.[300] Further, there were some interesting terra-cottas, among which is a vessel, quite the form of a modern cask, and with a tube in the centre for pouring in and drawing off the liquid. There were also found upon the wall of Troy, 1¾ feet below the place where the Treasure was discovered, three silver dishes (φιάλαι), two of which were broken to pieces in digging down the débris; they can, however, be repaired, as I have all the pieces.[301] These dishes seem to have belonged to the Treasure, and the fact of the latter having otherwise escaped our pickaxes is due to the above-mentioned large copper vessels which projected, so that I could cut everything out of the hard débris by means of a knife.