As the Turkish papers have charged me in a shameful manner with having acted against the letter of the firman granted to me, in having kept the Treasure for myself instead of sharing it with the Turkish Government, I find myself obliged to explain here, in a few words, how it is that I have the most perfect right to that treasure. It was only in order to spare Safvet Pacha, the late Minister of Public Instruction, that I stated in my first memoir, that at my request, and in the interest of science, he had arranged for the portion of Hissarlik, which belonged to the two Turks in Kum-Kaleh, to be bought by the Government. But the true state of the case is this. Since my excavations here in the beginning of April 1870, I had made unceasing endeavours to buy this field, and at last, after having travelled three times to Kum-Kaleh simply with this object, I succeeded in beating the two proprietors down to the sum of 1000 francs (40l.) Then, in December 1870, I went to Safvet Pacha at Constantinople, and told him that, after eight months’ vain endeavours, I had at last succeeded in arranging for the purchase of the principal site of Troy for 1000 francs, and that I should conclude the bargain as soon as he would grant me permission to excavate the field. He knew nothing about Troy or Homer; but I explained the matter to him briefly, and said that I hoped to find there antiquities of immense value to science. He, however, thought that I should find a great deal of gold, and therefore wished me to give him all the details I could, and then requested me to call again in eight days. When I returned to him, I heard to my horror that he had already compelled the two proprietors to sell him the field for 600 francs (24l.), and that I might make excavations there if I wished, but that everything I found must be given up to him. I told him in the plainest language what I thought of his odious and contemptible conduct, and declared that I would have nothing more to do with him, and that I should make no excavations.
But through Mr. Wyne McVeagh, at that time the American Consul, he repeatedly offered to let me make excavations, on condition that I should give him only one-half of the things found. At the persuasion of that gentleman I accepted the offer, on condition that I should have the right to carry away my half out of Turkey. But the right thus conceded to me was revoked in April 1872, by a ministerial decree, in which it was said that I was not to export any part of my share of the discovered antiquities, but that I had the right to sell them in Turkey. The Turkish Government, by this new decree, broke our written contract in the fullest sense of the word, and I was released from every obligation. Hence I no longer troubled myself in the slightest degree about the contract which was broken without any fault on my part. I kept everything valuable that I found for myself, and thus saved it for science; and I feel sure that the whole civilized world will approve of my having done so. The new-discovered Trojan antiquities, and especially the Treasure, far surpass my most sanguine expectations, and fully repay me for the contemptible trick which Safvet Pacha played me, as well as for the continual and unpleasant presence of a Turkish official during my excavations, to whom I was forced to pay 4¾ francs a day.
It was by no means because I considered it to be my duty, but simply to show my friendly intentions, that I presented the Museum in Constantinople with seven large vases, from 5 to 6½ feet in height, and with four sacks of stone implements. I have thus become the only benefactor the Museum has ever had; for, although all firmans are granted upon the express condition that one-half of the discovered antiquities shall be given to the Museum, yet it has hitherto never received an article from anyone. The reason is that the Museum is anything but open to the public, and the sentry frequently refuses admittance even to its Director, so everyone knows that the antiquities sent there would be for ever lost to science.
The great Indian scholar, Max Müller of Oxford, has just written to me in regard to the owl-headed tutelary divinity of Troy. “Under all circumstances, the owl-headed idol cannot be made to explain the idea of the goddess. The ideal conception and the naming of the goddess came first; and in that name the owl’s head, whatever it may mean, is figurative or ideal. In the idol the figurative intention is forgotten, just as the sun is represented with a golden hand, whereas the ideal conception of ‘golden-handed’ was ‘spreading his golden rays.’ An owl-headed deity was most likely intended for a deity of the morning or the dawn, the owl-light; to change it into a human figure with an owl’s head was the work of a later and more materializing age.”
I completely agree with this. But it is evident from this that the Trojans, or at least the first settlers on the hill, spoke Greek, for if they took the epithet of their goddess, “γλαυκῶπις,” from the ideal conception which they formed of her and in later times changed it into an owl-headed female figure, they must necessarily have known that γλαῦξ meant owl, and ὠπή face. That the transformation took place many centuries, and probably more than 1000 years, before Homer’s time, is moreover proved by owls’ heads occurring on the vases and even in the monograms in the lowest strata of the predecessors of the Trojans, even at a depth of 46 feet.
I have still to draw attention to the fact, that in looking over my Trojan collection from a depth of 2 meters (6½ feet), I find 70 very pretty brilliant black or red terra-cottas, with or without engraved decorations, which, both in quality and form, have not the slightest resemblance either to the Greek or to the pre-historic earthenware. Thus it seems that just before the arrival of the Greek colony yet another tribe inhabited this hill for a short time.[73] These pieces of earthenware may be recognised by the two long-pointed handles of the large channelled cups, which also generally possess three or four small horns.
DR. HENRY SCHLIEMANN.
