I have already proved the relationship of the four different peoples, who inhabited the site of Troy before the arrival of the Greek colony, by the small terra-cottas in the form of volcanoes and tops which are met with in quantities in all of the strata, and by the similarity of the Aryan religious symbols engraved upon them. I prove this relationship further, and above all, by the plastic representations of Athena, the owl-faced tutelary goddess of Ilium, for this representation is common to all the four nations which preceded the Greek colony. Immediately below the strata of the last, at a depth of 2 meters (6½ feet), I found this owl’s face upon terra-cotta cups with a kind of helmet, which likewise occur in all the succeeding layers of débris to a depth of 12 meters (39½ feet), and are of very frequent occurrence down to a depth of 9 meters (29½ feet). These cups may, as my learned friend Émile Burnouf thinks, have served only as lids to the vases which occur contemporaneously with them, and which have two up-raised wings, and the breasts and abdomen of a woman, for they fit these vases perfectly. I found likewise in all the layers of débris, from a depth of 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) down to a depth of 10 meters (33 feet), vases with owls’ faces, two upraised wings (not arms, as I formerly thought), and the two large breasts and abdomen of a woman, and even, at a depth of 6 meters (nearly 20 feet), a vase upon which the navel is ornamented with a cross and four nails. As far down as a depth of 14 meters (46 feet) I found the upper portion of a vase and the fragment of a dish adorned with owls’ faces. Besides these, in all the layers of débris, from a depth of 6½ feet downwards, as far as the primary soil, there were found idols of very fine marble, of bone, of mica-schist, of slate, and even of ordinary limestone, which are from ¼ of an inch to 7¼ inches in length, and from 0·6 of an inch to 4·8 inches in breadth. Upon a great many of these there is an owl’s face, and some have even long female hair engraved upon them; many also have a woman’s girdle. As upon several of the idols, upon which I find the owl’s head, it is not cut, but represented in a red or black colour, I presume that this was once the case with all the idols which now possess no indications of an owl, and that the colour upon these latter has been destroyed by damp, during the course of thousands of years. Upon several idols of marble and bone there are mere indications of wings on the sides. But I also find the petrified vertebra of an antediluvian animal upon which the Trojans have carved a large owl’s head. Further, at a depth of 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 14 meters (10, 13, 20, 23, 26, 30 and 46 feet), I found twelve idols of terra-cotta, and all, with only one exception, have owls’ faces upon them; most of them also have the two breasts of a woman, and upon the back traces of long female hair. One of these owl-headed idols has the form of a vessel, with a funnel on each side in the shape of a smaller vessel; the front part of the body of the goddess, up to the neck, is covered by a long shield, and on the back of the body there is the long female hair hanging down, like that of the Karyatides in the Acropolis of Athens. Upon several of these terra-cotta idols there are indications of wings.
