The original work[2] was published, at the beginning of this year, as an octavo volume, accompanied by a large quarto “Atlas” of 217 photographic plates, containing a Map, Plans, and Views of the Plain of Troy, the Hill of Hissarlik, and the excavations, with representations of upwards of 4000 objects selected from the 100,000 and more brought to light by Dr. Schliemann, which were elaborately described in the letter-press pages of the Atlas. The photographs were taken for the most part from drawings; and Dr. Schliemann is the first to acknowledge that their execution left much to be desired. Many of his original plans and drawings have been placed at our disposal; and an especial acknowledgment is due both to Dr. Schliemann and Monsieur Émile Burnouf, the Director of the French School at Athens, for the use of the admirable drawings of the terra-cotta whorls and balls made by M. Burnouf and his accomplished daughter. A selection of about 200 of these objects, which are among the most interesting of Dr. Schliemann’s discoveries, occupies the 32 lithographic plates at the end of this volume. With the exception of the first three [Plates (XXI.-XXIII.)], which are copied from the Atlas, in order to give a general view of the sections of the whorls and the chief types of the patterns upon them, all the rest are engraved from M. Burnouf’s drawings. They are given in the natural size, and each whorl is accompanied by its section. The depth at which each object was found among the layers of débris is a matter of such moment (as will be seen from Dr. Schliemann’s work) that the Editor felt bound to undertake the great labour of identifying each with the representation of the same object in the Atlas, where the depth is marked, to which, unfortunately, the drawings gave no reference. The few whorls that remain unmarked with their depth have either escaped this repeated search, or are not represented in the Atlas. The elaborate descriptions of the material, style of workmanship, and supposed meanings of the patterns, which M. Burnouf has inscribed on most of his drawings, are given in the “List of Illustrations.” The explanations of the patterns are, of course, offered only as conjectures, possessing the value which they derive from M. Burnouf’s profound knowledge of Aryan antiquities. Some of the explanations of the patterns are Dr. Schliemann’s; and the Editor has added a few descriptions, based on a careful attempt to analyze and arrange the patterns according to distinct types. Most of these types are exhibited on Plates [XXII]. and [XXIII.]
The selection of the 300 illustrations inserted in the body of the work has been a matter of no ordinary labour. One chief point, in which the present work claims to be an improvement on the original, is the exhibition of the most interesting objects in Dr. Schliemann’s collection in their proper relation to the descriptions in his text. The work of selection from 4000 objects, great as was the care it required, was the smallest part of the difficulty. It is no disparagement to Dr. Schliemann to recognize the fact that, amidst his occupations at the work through the long days of spring and summer, and with little competent help save from Madame Schliemann’s enthusiasm in the cause, the objects thrown on his hands from day to day could only be arranged and depicted very imperfectly. The difficulty was greatly enhanced by a circumstance which should be noticed in following the order of Dr. Schliemann’s work. It differed greatly from that of his forerunners in the modern enterprise of penetrating into the mounds that cover the primeval cities of the world. When, for example, we follow Layard into the mound of Nimrud, and see how the rooms of the Assyrian palaces suddenly burst upon him, with their walls lined with sculptured and inscribed slabs, we seem almost to be reading of Aladdin’s descent into the treasure-house of jewels. But Schliemann’s work consisted in a series of transverse cuttings, which laid open sections of the various strata, from the present surface of the hill to the virgin soil. The work of one day would often yield objects from almost all the strata; and each successive trench repeated the old order, more or less, from the remains of Greek Ilium to those of the first settlers on the hill. The marvel is that Dr. Schliemann should have been able to preserve any order at all, rather than that he was obliged to abandon the attempt in the later Plates of his Atlas (see [p. 225]); and special thanks are due for his care in continuing to note the depths of all the objects found. This has often given the clue to our search, amidst the mixed objects of a similar nature on the photographic Plates, for those which he describes in his text, where the figures referred to by Plate and Number form the exception rather than the rule. We believe that the cases in which we have failed to find objects really worth representing, or in which an object named in the text may have been wrongly identified in the Plates, are so few as in no way to affect the value of the work. How much, on the other hand, its value is increased by the style in which our illustrations have been engraved, will be best seen by a comparison with the photographic Plates. It should be added that the present work contains all the illustrations that are now generally accessible, as the Atlas is out of print, and the negatives are understood to be past further use.
Twelve of the views (Plates [II]., [III]., [IV]., [V]., [VI]., [VII]. A and B, [IX]., [X]., [XI]. A and B, and [XII]., besides the Great Altar, No. 188) were engraved by Mr. Whymper; all the other views and cuts by Mr. James D. Cooper; and the lithographed map, plans, and plates of whorls and balls by Messrs. Cooper and Hodson. In the description appended to each engraving all that is valuable in the letter-press to the Atlas has been incorporated, and the depth at which the object was found is added. Some further descriptions of the Plates are given in the “[List of Illustrations].”
The text of Dr. Schliemann’s work has been translated by Miss L. Dora Schmitz, and revised throughout by the Editor. The object kept in view has been a faithful rendering of the Memoirs, in all the freshness due to their composition on the spot during the progress of the work. That mode of composition, it is true, involved not a few of those mistakes and contradictions on matters of opinion, due to the novelty and the rapid progress of the discoveries, which Dr. Schliemann has confessed and explained at the opening of his work (see [p. 12]). To have attempted a systematic correction and harmonizing of such discrepancies would have deprived the work of all its freshness, and of much of its value as a series of landmarks in the history of Dr. Schliemann’s researches, from his first firm conviction that Troy was to be sought in the Hill of Hissarlik, to his discovery of the “Scæan Gate” and the “Treasure of Priam.” The Author’s final conclusions are summed up by himself in the “Introduction;” and the Editor has thought it enough to add to those statements, which seemed likely to mislead the reader for a time, references to the places where the correction may be found. On one point he has ventured a little further. All the earlier chapters are affected by the opinion, that the lowest remains on the native rock were those of the Homeric Troy, which Dr. Schliemann afterwards recognized in the stratum next above. To avoid perpetual reference to this change of opinion, the Editor has sometimes omitted or toned down the words “Troy” and “Trojan” as applied to the lowest stratum, and, both in the “Contents” and running titles, and in the descriptions of the Illustrations, he has throughout applied those terms to the discoveries in the second stratum, in accordance with Dr. Schliemann’s ultimate conclusion.
In a very few cases the Editor has ventured to correct what seemed to him positive errors.[3] He has not deemed it any part of his duty to discuss the Author’s opinions or to review his conclusions. He has, however, taken such opportunities as suggested themselves, to set Dr. Schliemann’s statements in a clearer light by a few illustrative annotations. Among the rest, the chief passages cited from Homer are quoted in full, with Lord Derby’s translation, and others have been added (out of many more which have been noted), as suggesting remarkable coincidences with the objects found by Dr. Schliemann.
From the manner in which the work was composed, and the great importance attached by Dr. Schliemann to some leading points of his argument, it was inevitable that there should be some repetitions, both in the Memoirs themselves, and between them and the Introduction. These the Editor has rather endeavoured to abridge than completely to remove. To have expunged them from the Memoirs would have deprived these of much of the interest resulting from the discussions which arose out of the discoveries in their first freshness; to have omitted them from the Introduction would have marred the completeness of the Author’s summary of his results. The few repetitions left standing are a fair measure of the importance which the Author assigns to the points thus insisted on. A very few passages have been omitted for reasons that would be evident on a reference to the original; but none of these omissions affect a single point in Dr. Schliemann’s discoveries.
The measures, which Dr. Schliemann gives with the minutest care throughout his work, have been preserved and converted from the French metric standard into English measures. This has been done with great care, though in such constant conversion some errors must of course have crept in; and approximate numbers have often been given to avoid the awkwardness of fractions, where minute accuracy seemed needless. In many cases both the French and English measures are given, not only because Dr. Schliemann gives both (as he often does), but for another sufficient reason. A chief key to the significance of the discoveries is found in the depths of the successive strata of remains, which are exhibited in the form of a diagram on [page 10]. The numbers which express these in Meters[4] are so constantly used by Dr. Schliemann, and are so much simpler than the English equivalents, that they have been kept as a sort of “memory key” to the strata of remains. For the like reason, and for simplicity-sake, the depths appended to the Illustrations are given in meters only. The Table of French and English Measures on page 56 will enable the reader to check our conversions and to make his own. The Editor has added an Appendix, explaining briefly the present state of the deeply interesting question concerning the Inscriptions which have been traced on some of the objects found by Dr. Schliemann.
With these explanations the Editor might be content to leave the work to the judgment of scholars and of the great body of educated persons, who have happily been brought up in the knowledge and love of Homer’s glorious poetry, “the tale of Troy divine,” and of
“Immortal Greece, dear land of glorious lays.”
Long may it be before such training is denied to the imagination of the young, whether on the low utilitarian ground, or on the more specious and dangerous plea of making it the select possession of the few who can acquire it “thoroughly":