But what above all other circumstances seems to prove that I never reached the stone period, and that, after digging further down into the strata of rude races between 13 and 23 feet, I have again come upon the remains of a more civilized nation, are two inscriptions, one of which, found at a depth of 7½ meters (about 25 feet), seems to be Phœnician, but consists of only about five letters, which have been scratched by a pointed instrument, into that side of a small terra-cotta disc which had been painted white, the disc being only about 2-1/3 inches in diameter. The letters, in any case, must have stood out very distinctly in the white colour, but the greater portion of it has disappeared, and thus two of the five written characters cannot G 2 easily be distinguished. I hope, however, that the inscription may nevertheless be deciphered.[96]
The other inscription was found at a depth of 8½ meters (27¾ feet) upon one of those small round articles of terra-cotta with a hole in the centre, which, from a depth of 6½ feet downwards, occur in immense numbers in the form of the humming-top, the carrousel, and the volcano. I have already expressed my opinion that they may have been used as Ex votos, and I may now suggest whether they might not even have been idols, and especially whether those in the form of a volcano do not represent Hephæstus? This thought struck me principally from the great resemblance between these objects and the colossal sepulchral mounds on the Plain of Troy, which cover the ashes of the corpses of the heroes, which were burnt by the fire of Hephæstus. At all events, the decorations introduced upon all of these objects—which seem to have been executed with very great care, especially on those made of immensely hard burnt terra-cotta—and also the white substance with which these decorations are filled so as to be more striking to the eye, leave no doubt that they have served important purposes. It was upon one of these small articles of terra-cotta, in the form of a top, that I found the second inscription.[97] It is so admirably engraved, that one is astonished to find such work possible in terra-cotta. As the writing runs right round the small whorl, and is formed on both sides alike, it seems to me, in my complete ignorance of the language, impossible to perceive with which letter it commences, or which is the upper or lower portion of it.
Upon an ordinary stone I at the same time found the character
