Upon the newly made western terrace, directly beside my last year’s excavation, we have laid bare a portion of a large building—the walls of which are 6¼ feet thick, and consist for the most part of hewn blocks of limestone joined with clay. (No. 24 on [Plan II].) None of the stones seem to be more than 1 foot 9 inches long, and they are so skilfully put together, that the wall forms a smooth surface. This house is built upon a layer of yellow and brown ashes and ruins, at a depth of 6 meters (20 feet), and the portion of the walls preserved reaches up to within 10 feet below the surface of the hill. In the house, as far as we have as yet excavated, we found only one vase, with two breasts in front and one breast at the side; also a number of those frequently mentioned round terra-cottas in the form of the volcano and top, all of which have five or six quadruple rising suns in a circle round the central sun.[134] These objects, as well as the depth of 6 meters (20 feet), and the architecture of the walls described above, leave no doubt that the house was built centuries before the foundation of the Greek colony, the ruins of which extend only to a depth of 6½ feet. It is with a feeling of great interest that, from this great platform, that is, at a perpendicular height of from 33 to 42 feet, I see this very ancient building (which may have been erected 1000 years before Christ) standing as it were in mid air. To my regret, however, it must in any case be pulled down, to allow us to dig still deeper. As I said before, directly below this house there is a layer of ruins consisting of yellow and brown ashes, and next, as far as the terrace, there are four layers more of ashes and other débris, each of which represents the remains of one house at least. Immediately above the terrace, that is 13 feet below the foundation of that very ancient house, I find a wall about 6 feet thick, built of large blocks of limestone, the description of which I must reserve for my next report, for a large portion of the building I have mentioned, and immense masses of the upper strata of débris, as well as the high earthen wall of the terrace (26 feet thick and 20 feet high) must be pulled down, before I can lay bare any portion of this wall and investigate how far down it extends. If it reaches to or even approaches the primary soil, then I shall reverently preserve it. (See No. 25 on [Plan II].) It is a very remarkable fact, that this is the first wall built of large stones that I have hitherto found at the depth of from 10 to 16 meters (33 to 52½ feet).[135] I cannot explain this, considering the colossal masses of loose stones which lie irregularly beside one another (especially at a depth of from 36 to 52½ feet), in any other way than by supposing that the houses of the Trojans were built of blocks of limestone joined with clay, and consequently easily destroyed. If my excavations are not interrupted by any accident, I hope, in this at all events, to make some interesting discoveries very soon, with respect to this question.
Unfortunately during the last twelve days I have not been able to pull down much of the lower firm earth-wall, for, in order to avoid fatal accidents, I have had to occupy myself especially in making and enlarging the side terraces. I have now, however, procured enormous iron levers of nearly 10 feet in length and 6 inches in circumference, and I thus hope henceforth to be able at once to break down, by means of windlasses, the hardest of the earth-walls, which are 10 feet thick, 66 broad, and from 16 to 26 feet high. In the small portion of the earth-wall pulled down during these last days, I repeatedly found the most irrefutable proofs of a higher civilization; but I will only mention one of these, a fragment of a brilliant dark grey vessel which I have at present lying before me, found at a depth of 15 meters (49 feet). It may probably have been nearly 2 feet in diameter, and it has decorations both outside and inside, which consist of engraved horizontal and undulating lines. The former are arranged in three sets in stripes of five lines, and the lowest space is adorned with eight and the following with five undulating lines, which are probably meant to represent the waves of the sea; of the next set no part has been preserved; the thickness of the clay is just 3/5 of an inch.
In my report of the 25th of last month,[136] I mentioned the discovery of one of those terra-cottas upon which were engraved three animals with antlers in the circle round the central sun. Since then four others of these remarkable objects with similar engravings have been discovered. Upon one of them, found at a depth of 6 meters (20 feet), there are only two animals with antlers in the circle round the sun, and at the end of each antler, and connected with it, is an exceedingly curious sign resembling a large candlestick or censer, which is certainly an especially important symbol, for it is repeatedly found here standing alone.[137] Upon a second, there is below a rough representation of a man who seems to be praying, for he has both arms raised towards heaven; this position reminds us forcibly of the two uplifted arms of the owl-faced vases; to the left is an animal with but two feet and two trees on its back.[138] Indian scholars will perhaps find that this is intended to represent the falcon, in which shape the sun-god stole the sacred sôma-tree from heaven. Then follow two animals with two horns, probably antelopes, which are so frequently met with upon ancient Greek vases, and which in the Rigvêda are always made to draw the chariot of the winds. Upon a third terra-cotta there are three of these antelopes with one or two rows of stars above the back, which perhaps are intended to represent heaven; then five fire-machines, such as our Aryan ancestors used; lastly, a sign in zigzag, which, as already said, cannot represent anything but the flaming altar.[139] Upon the fourth whorl are four hares, the symbols of the moon, forming a cross round the sun. They probably represent the four seasons of the year.[140]
At a depth of 14 meters (46 feet) we found to-day two of those round articles of a splendidly brilliant black terra-cotta, which are only 3/5 of an inch in height, but 2-1/3 inches in diameter, and have five triple rising suns and five stars in the circle round the central sun. All of these decorations, which are engraved, as in every other case, are filled in with a very fine white substance. When looking at these curious articles, one of which is exactly the shape of a carriage-wheel,[141] the thought involuntarily strikes me that they are symbols of the sun’s chariot, which, as is well known, is symbolized in the Rigvêda by a wheel, and that all and each of these articles met with in the upper strata (although their form deviates from that of a wheel on account of their greater thickness) cannot be anything but degenerated representations of the sun’s wheel. I conjecture this all the more, because not only is the sun the central point of all the round terra-cottas, but it is almost always surrounded by one, two, three, four or five circles, which may represent the nave of the wheel. At a depth of 16 meters (52½ feet) we found a round terra-cotta, which is barely an inch in diameter, and a fifth of an inch thick; there are five concentric circles round the central point, and between the fourth and fifth circle oblique little lines, which are perhaps meant to denote the rotation of the wheel.