CHAPTER VII.
Smoking at work forbidden, and a mutiny suppressed—Progress of the great platform—Traces of sacrifices—Colossal blocks of stone belonging to great buildings—Funereal and other huge urns—Supposed traces of Assyrian art—Ancient undisturbed remains—Further discoveries of stone implements and owl-faced idols—Meaning of the epithet “γλαυκῶπις”—Parallel of Ἥρα βοῶπις, and expected discovery of ox-headed idols at Mycenæ—Vases of remarkable forms—Dangers and engineering expedients—Georgios Photidas—Extent of the Pergamus of Troy—Poisonous snakes, and the snake-weed—The whorls with the central sun, stars, the suastika, the Sôma, or Tree of Life, and sacrificial altars—The name of Mount Ida, probably brought from Bactria.
On the Hill of Hissarlik, April 25th, 1872.
SINCE my report of the 5th of this month I have continued the excavations most industriously with an average of 120 workmen. Unfortunately, however, seven of these twenty days were lost through rainy weather and festivals, one day also by a mutiny among my men. I had observed that the smoking of cigarettes interrupted the work, and I therefore forbad smoking during working hours, but I did not gain my point immediately, for I found that the men smoked in secret. I was, however, determined to carry my point, and caused it to be proclaimed that transgressors would be forthwith dismissed and never taken on again. Enraged at this, the workmen from the village of Renkoï—about 70 in number—declared that they would not work, if everyone were not allowed to smoke as much as he pleased; they left the platform, and deterred the men from the other villages from working by throwing stones. The good people had imagined that I would give in to them at once, as I could not do without them, and that now I could not obtain workmen enough; that moreover during the beautiful weather it was not likely that I would sit still a whole day. But they found themselves mistaken, for I immediately sent my foreman to the other neighbouring villages and succeeded (to the horror of the 70 Renkoïts, who had waited the whole night at my door) in collecting 120 workmen for the next morning without requiring their services. My energetic measures have at last completely humbled the Renkoïts, from whose impudence I had very much to put up with during my last year’s excavations, and have also had a beneficial effect upon all of my present men. Since the mutiny I have not only been able to prohibit smoking, but even to lengthen the day’s work by one hour; for, instead of working as formerly from half-past five in the morning to half-past five in the evening, I now always commence at five and continue till six in the evening. But, as before, I allow half an hour at nine and an hour and a half in the afternoon for eating and smoking.
According to an exact calculation of the engineer, M. A. Laurent, in the seventeen days since the 1st of the month I have removed about 8500 cubic meters (11,000 cubic yards) of débris; this is about 666 cubic yards each day, and somewhat above 5-1/3 cubic yards each workman.
We have already advanced the platform 49 feet into the hill, but to my extreme surprise I have not yet reached the primary soil. The opinion I expressed in my report of the 24th of November of last year, that the thickness of the hill on the north side had not increased since the remotest times, I find confirmed as regards the whole western end of my platform, to a breadth of 45 meters (147½ feet); for it is only upon the eastern portion of it, to a breadth of 82 feet, that I found 6½ and even 10 feet of soil; below and behind it, as far as 16½ feet above the platform, there is débris as hard as stone, which appears to consist only of ashes of wood and animals, the remains of the offerings presented to the Ilian Athena. I therefore feel perfectly convinced that by penetrating further into this part I shall come upon the site of the very ancient temple of the goddess. The ashes of this stratum have such a clayey appearance, that I should believe it to be the pure earth, were it not that I find it frequently to contain bones, charcoal, and small shells, occasionally also small pieces of brick. The shells are uninjured, which sufficiently proves that they cannot have been exposed to heat. In this very hard stratum of ash, at 11 feet above the platform, and 46 feet from its edge, I found a channel made of green sandstone nearly 8 inches broad and above 7 inches high, which probably once served for carrying away the blood of the animals sacrificed, and must necessarily at one time have discharged its contents down the declivity of the hill. It therefore proves that the thickness of the hill at this point has increased fully 46 feet since the destruction of the temple to which it belonged.
