Since my report of the 18th I have continued the excavations with the utmost energy, with, on an average, 80 workmen, and I have to-day reached an average depth of 4 meters (13 feet). At a depth of 6½ feet I discovered a well, covered with a very large stone, and filled with rubbish. Its depth I have not been able to ascertain; it belongs to the Roman period, as is proved by the cement with which the stones are joined together. Ruins of buildings, consisting of hewn stones joined or not joined by cement, I only find at about a depth of 2 meters (6½ feet). In the layers of débris between 2 and 4 meters deep (6½ to 13 feet), I find scarcely any stones, and to my delight the huge blocks of stone no longer occur at all. Medals belonging to Ilium and to the first and second centuries before Christ, and the first two centuries after Christ, as well as coins of Alexandria Troas and Sigeum, the age of which I do not know, were found almost immediately below the surface, and only in some few cases as deep as 1 meter (3¼ feet). By far the greater number of the Ilian coins bear the image of Minerva, of Faustina the elder, of Marcus Aurelius, of Faustina the younger, of Commodus or of Crispina, and I found one with the following inscription: ΦΑΥΣΤΙΝΑ ϶ΚΤΩΡ ΙΛΙΕΩΝ. As far down as 2 meters (6½ feet) I found, as during my last year’s excavations in this hill, an immense number of round articles of terra-cotta, red, yellow, grey and black, with two holes, without inscriptions, but frequently with a kind of potter’s stamp upon them. I cannot find in the holes of any one of these articles the slightest trace of wear by their having been used for domestic purposes, and therefore I presume that they have served as Ex votos for hanging up in the temples. Upon most of those bearing a stamp I perceive in it an altar, and above the latter a bee or fly with outspread wings; upon others there is a bull, a swan, a child, or two horses. Curiously enough these articles vanish all at once at a depth of a 2 meters (6½ feet), and from this depth downwards I find, in their stead, pieces that are sometimes as round as a ball, exactly the shape of a German humming-top, sometimes in the form of hemispheres, others again in the form of cones, tops (carrouselen), or volcanoes. They are from ¾ of an inch to 2¼ inches high and broad, and all the different forms have a hole right through the centre; almost all of them have on one side the most various kinds of decorations encircling the central hole.[83] With the exception of a few of these objects made of blue stone, from ¾ of an inch to 1½ inch broad, and found at a depth of 3 meters (10 feet), they are all made of terra-cotta, and it is quite evident that the decorations were engraved when the clay was still in a soft state. All are of such excellent clay, and burnt so hard, that I at first believed them to be of stone, and only perceived my mistake after having carefully examined them. In the depth we have now arrived at I also find very many of those elegant round vertebræ which form the backbone of the shark, and of which walking-sticks are often made. The existence of these vertebræ seems to prove that in remote antiquity this sea contained sharks, which are now no longer met with here. To-day I also found upon a fragment of rough pottery the representation of a man’s head with large protruding eyes, a long nose, and a very small mouth, which seems clearly to be of Phœnician workmanship.
I also constantly come upon immense quantities of mussel-shells, and it seems as if the old inhabitants of Ilium had been very fond of this shell-fish. Oyster-shells are also found, but only seldom; on the other hand, I find very many fragments of pottery. As far as the depth yet reached, all the buildings which have stood upon this hill in the course of thousands of years seem to have been destroyed by fire; every one of them is distinctly indicated by a layer of calcined ruins. This is at all events the reason why I do not also find other objects, and especially why I no longer find earthen vessels. Those I have hitherto found uninjured are very small pots of coarse workmanship; however, the fragments of the pottery prove that even in the time to which the ruins belong, at a depth of 4 meters (13 feet), there already existed good kitchen utensils.
In the quadrangular building already mentioned I found, at a depth of about 5 feet, a slab of marble 25·6 inches in length, the upper part of which is 13·6 inches in breadth, and the lower part 15·36 inches. It contains the following inscription:—
Ἐπειδὴ Διαφένης Πολλέως Τημνίτης, διατρίβων παρὰ τῷ βασιλεῖ, φίλος ὢν καὶ εὔνους διατελεῖ τῷ δήμῳ, χρείας παρεχόμενος προθύμως εἰς ἃ ἄν τις αὐτὸν παρακαλῇ, δεδόχθαι τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ ἐπαινέσαι μὲν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τούτοις, παρακαλεῖν δὲ καὶ εἰς τὸ λοιπὸν εἶναι φιλότιμον εἰς τὰ τοῦ δήμου συμφέροντα, δεδόσθαι δὲ αὐτῷ πολιτείαν, προξενίαν, ἔγκτησιν, ἀτέλειαν ὧν καὶ οἱ πολῖται ἀτελεῖς εἰσι καὶ ἔφοδον ἐπὶ τὴν βουλὴν πρώτῳ μετὰ τὰ ἱερὰ καὶ ἄφιξιν καὶ ἐμ πολέμῳ καὶ ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἀσυλεὶ καὶ ἀσπονδεί· ἀναγράψαι δὲ τὰ δεδομένα αὐτῷ ταῦτα εἰς στήλην καὶ (ἀνα)θεῖναι ε(ἰς....
The king spoken of in this inscription must have been one of the kings of Pergamus, and from the character of the writing I believe that it must be assigned to the third century before Christ.
At about the same depth, and by the side of the building, I found a second marble slab 16·5 inches in length and 13·4 inches in breadth. The inscription runs as follows:—
Ἰλιεῖς ἔδοσαν Μενελάῳ Ἀῤῥαβαίου Ἀθηναίῳ εὐεργέτῃ γενομένῳ αὐτῶν καὶ περὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἀνδρὶ ἀγαθῷ γενομένῳ προξενίαν καὶ εὐεργεσίαν.
This second inscription, to judge from the form of the letters, appears to belong to the first century B.C. “Ἀῤῥαβαῖος” here occurs for the first time as an Attic name.
At the same depth, and likewise by the side of the foundations of the same building, I found a third marble slab, nearly 15 inches long and about 14 broad. Its inscription is:—
Μηνόφιλος Γλαυρίου εἶπεν· ἐπειδὴ πλείονες τῶν πολιτῶν ἐπελθόντες ἐπὶ τὴν βουλήν φασιν Χαιρέαν τὸν τεταγμένον ἐπ’ Ἀβύδου εὔνουν τε εἶναι τῇ πόλει καὶ ἐνίοις πρεσβευομένοις ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου πρὸς αὐτὸν βουλόμενον τῇ πόλει χαρίζεσθαι τὴν πᾶσαν σπουδὴν καὶ πρόνοιαν ποεῖσθαι καὶ τοῖς συναντῶσιν αὐτῷ τῶν πολιτῶν φιλανθρώπως προσφέρεσθαι, ἵνα οὖν καὶ ὁ δῆμος φαίνηται τὴν καθήκουσαν χάριν ἀποδιδοὺς τοῖς προσαιρουμένοις τὴν πό(λιν)....... δεδόχθαι.