The Scæan Gate gives us the age of the royal edifice in front of which it stands, and of the vessels of pottery which are found in that house. This earthenware is indeed better than what is generally found here at a depth of from 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33 feet), but it is exactly similar; and consequently all the strata of débris from these depths belong to the Trojan people. These strata are composed of red, yellow, and occasionally black wood-ashes, and every stone found there bears the marks of the fearful heat to which it has been exposed. In these strata we never meet with those brilliant black plates and dishes, with a long horizontal ring on either side, found at the depth of from 13 to 16 meters (42½ to 52½ feet), nor do we meet with the vases with two long tubes on either side. Besides the vessels in the lowest strata are entirely different in quality and in form from those found at a depth of from 23 to 33 feet, so that they certainly cannot have belonged to the same people. But they belong, at all events, to a kindred Aryan nation, as these too possessed in common with the Trojans the whorls ornamented with Aryan religious symbols, and also idols of the Ilian Athena. I formerly believed that the most ancient people who inhabited this site were the Trojans, because I fancied that among their ruins I had found the δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον, but I now perceive that Priam’s people were the succeeding nation, because in their ruins I have discovered the actual δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον, made of gold and also of terra-cotta, and likewise the Scæan Gate.
Several geologists, who have visited me here, maintain that the stratum of scoriæ, which runs through the greater part of the hill, at an average depth of 9 meters (29½ feet), has been formed by melted lead and copper ore, quantities of which must have existed here at the time of the destruction of Troy; and this opinion is also shared by the engineer, Adolphe Laurent, who has returned to help me with my last works, and to make some new plans.
Strabo says,[308] “No trace of the ancient city (Troy) has been preserved. This is very natural; for, as all the towns round about were desolated, yet not completely destroyed, while Troy was razed to the ground, so all the stones were carried off to renovate the others. Thus, at least, Archæanax of Mitylene is said to have built a wall round Sigeum with the stones.” These statements of Strabo are, however, completely erroneous, and the tradition of antiquity, that Troy was razed to the ground, can only be explained by its having been buried deep beneath colossal masses of wood-ashes and stone, which were built over by a new town; the latter being again destroyed, and again surmounted by buildings which had a similar fate; till at last the mass of débris lying upon Troy reached a height of from 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 feet), and upon this was established the Acropolis of the Ilium of the Greek colony.
In consequence of my former mistaken idea, that Troy was to be found on the primary soil or close above it, I unfortunately, in 1871 and 1872, destroyed a large portion of the city, for I at that time broke down all the house-walls in the higher strata which obstructed my way. This year, however, as soon as I had come by clear proofs to the firm conviction that Troy was not to be found upon the primary soil, but at a depth of from 23 to 33 feet, I ceased to break down any house-wall in these strata, so that in my excavations of this year a number of Trojan houses have been brought to light. They will still stand for centuries, and visitors to the Troad may convince themselves that the stones of the Trojan buildings can never have been used for building other towns, for the greater part of them are still in situ. Moreover, they are small, and millions of such stones are to be found upon all the fields of this district.
Valuable stones, such as those large flags which cover the road leading from the Scæan Gate to the Plain, as well as the stones of the enclosing wall and of the Great Tower, have been left untouched, and not a single stone of the Scæan Gate is wanting. Nay, with the exception of the houses which I myself destroyed, it would be quite possible to uncover the “carcasses” of all the houses, as in the case of Pompeii. The houses, as I have already said, must have been very high, and a great deal of wood must have been used in their construction, for otherwise the conflagration could not have produced such an enormous quantity of ashes and rubbish.
In my excavations of 1871 and 1872, at a depth of from 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33 feet), I found only house-walls composed of sun-dried bricks; and, as anyone may convince himself by examining the houses which I have uncovered, this style of building was almost exclusively met with during that year. It is only the buildings by the side of the Scæan Gate, and a few houses in the depths of the Temple of Athena, that are made of stones and earth.
