It is also with gratitude that I think of the great German scholar, who unfortunately succumbed five years ago to his unwearied exertions, Julius Braun, the advocate of the theory that Homer’s Troy was to be found only on the site of Ilium, in the depths of the hill of HISSARLIK. I most strongly recommend his excellent work, ‘Die Geschichte der Kunst in ihrem Entwickelungsgang,’ to all those who are interested in whatever is true, beautiful and sublime.
Neither can I do otherwise than gratefully mention my honoured friend, the celebrated Sanscrit scholar and unwearied investigator Émile Burnouf, the Director of the French school in Athens, who personally, and through his many excellent works, especially the one published last year, ‘La Science des Religions,’ has given me several suggestions, which have enabled me to decipher many of the Trojan symbols.[68]
It is also with a feeling of gratitude that I think of my honoured friend, the most learned Greek whom I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, Professor Stephanos Kommanoudes, in Athens, who has supported me with his most valuable advice whenever I was in need of it. In like manner I here tender my cordial thanks to my honoured friend the Greek Consul of the Dardanelles, G. Dokos, who showed me many kindnesses during my long excavations.
I beg to draw especial attention to the fact that, in the neighbourhood of Troy, several types of very ancient pottery—like those found in my excavations at a depth of from 10 to 33 feet—have been preserved down to the present day. For instance, in the crockery-shops on the shores of the Dardanelles there are immense numbers of earthen vessels with long upright necks and the breasts of a woman, and others in the shape of animals. In spite of their gilding and other decorations, these vessels cannot, either in regard to quality or elegance of form, be compared with the Ilian terra-cottas, not even with those from a depth of 10 feet; but still they furnish a remarkable proof of the fact that, in spite of manifold political changes, certain types of terra-cottas can continue in existence in one district for more than 3000 years.
After long and mature deliberation, I have arrived at the firm conviction that all of those vessels—met with here in great numbers at a depth of from 10 to 33 feet, and more especially in the Trojan layer of débris, at a depth of from 23 to 33 feet—which have the exact shape of a bell and a coronet beneath, so that they can only stand upon their mouth, and which I have hitherto described as cups, must necessarily, and perhaps even exclusively, have been used as lids to the numerous terra-cotta vases with a smooth neck and on either side two ear-shaped decorations, between which are two mighty wings, which, as they are hollowed and taper away to a point, can never have served as handles, the more so as between the ear-shaped decorations there is a small handle on either side. Now, as the latter resembles an owl’s beak, and especially as this is seen between the ear-shaped ornaments, it was doubtless intended to represent the image of the owl with upraised wings on each side of the vases, which image received a noble appearance from the splendid lid with a coronet. I give a drawing of the largest vase of this type, which was found a few days ago in the royal palace at a depth of from 28 to 29½ feet; on the top of it I have placed the bell-shaped lid with a coronet, which was discovered close by and appears to have belonged to it.