The question then forces itself upon us: For what were these objects used? They cannot possibly have been employed in spinning or weaving, or as weights for fishing-nets, for they are too fine and elegant for such purposes; neither have I as yet been able to discover any indication that they could have been used for any handicraft. When, therefore, I consider the perfect likeness of most of these objects to the form of the heroic sepulchral mounds, I am forced to believe that they, as well as those with two holes which occurred only at a depth of 6½ feet, were used as Ex votos.
Again, to my surprise, I frequently find the Priapus, sometimes represented quite true to nature in stone or terra-cotta, sometimes in the form of a pillar rounded off at the top (just such as I have seen in Indian temples, but there only about 4 inches in length). I once also found the symbol in the form of a little pillar only about 1 inch in length, made of splendid black marble striped with white and beautifully polished, such as is never met with in the whole of this district. I consequently have not the slightest doubt that the Trojan people of the stone period worshipped Priapus as a divinity, and that, belonging to the Indo-Germanic race, they brought this religion from Bactria; for in India, as is well known, the god of production and of destruction is represented and worshipped in this form. Moreover, it is probable that these ancient Trojans are the ancestors of the great Hellenic nation, for I repeatedly find upon cups and vases of terra-cotta representations of the owl’s head, which is probably the great-great-grandmother of the Athenian bird of Pallas-Athena.
With the exception of the above-mentioned piece of silver wire and two copper nails, I have as yet found no trace of metal in the strata of the stone period.
As in the upper strata, so in those of the stone period, I find a great many boars’ tusks, which, in the latter strata, have without exception been pointed at the end, and have served as implements. It is inconceivable to me how the men of the stone period, with their imperfect weapons, were able to kill wild boars. Their lances—like all their other weapons and instruments—are, it is true, made of very hard black or green stone, but still they are so blunt that it must have required a giant’s strength to kill a boar with them. Hammers and axes are met with of all sizes and in great numbers.[93] I likewise find very many weights of granite, also a number of hand-mills of lava, which consist of two pieces about a foot in length, oval on one side and flat on the other, between which the corn was crushed. Sometimes these mill-stones are made of granite. Knives are found in very great numbers; all are of flint, some in the form of knife-blades, others—by far the greater majority—are jagged on one or on both sides, like saws. Needles and bodkins made of bone are of frequent occurrence, and sometimes also small bone spoons. Primitive canoes, such as I frequently saw in Ceylon, formed out of a hollowed trunk of a tree, are often met with here in miniature, made of terra-cotta, and I presume that these small vessels may have served as salt-cellars or pepper-boxes. I likewise find a number of whetstones about 4 inches in length and nearly as much in breadth, which are sometimes made of clay, sometimes of green or black slate; further, a number of round, flat stones a little under and over two inches in diameter, painted red on one side; also many hundreds of round terra-cottas of the like size and shape, with a hole in the centre, and which have evidently been made out of fragments of pottery, and may have been used on spindles. Flat stone mortars are also met with.
I also find in my excavations a house-wall of the stone period, consisting of stones joined by clay, like the buildings which were discovered on the islands of Therasia and Thera (Santorin) under three layers of volcanic ashes, forming together a height of 68 feet.
My expectations are extremely modest; I have no hope of finding plastic works of art. The single object of my excavations from the beginning was only to find Troy, whose site has been discussed by a hundred scholars in a hundred books, but which as yet no one has ever sought to bring to light by excavations. If I should not succeed in this, still I shall be perfectly contented, if by my labours I succeed only in penetrating to the deepest darkness of pre-historic times, and enriching archæology by the discovery of a few interesting features from the most ancient history of the great Hellenic race. The discovery of the stone period, instead of discouraging me, has therefore only made me the more desirous to penetrate to the place which was occupied by the first people that came here, and I still intend to reach it even if I should have to dig another 50 feet further down.
Note.—The “Stone Period” described in this chapter seems to be that of the third stratum upwards from the rock (4 to 7 meters, or 13 to 23 feet deep); but the description does not make this perfectly clear.—{ED.}
(9M.) (7M.) (14M.)