CHAPTER X.
A third platform dug—Traces of former excavations by the Turks—Block of triglyphs, with bas-relief of Apollo—Fall of an earth-wall—Plan of a trench through the whole hill—Admirable remains in the lowest stratum but one—The plain and engraved whorls—Objects of gold, silver, copper, and ivory—Remarkable terra-cottas—The pottery of the lowest stratum quite distinct from that of the next above—Its resemblance to the Etruscan, in quality only—Curious funereal urns—Skeleton of a six months’ embryo—Other remains in the lowest stratum—Idols of fine marble, the sole exception to the superior workmanship of this stratum—The houses and palaces of the lowest stratum, of large stones joined with earth—Disappearance of the first people with the destruction of their town.
THE second settlers, of a different civilization—Their buildings of unburnt brick on stone foundations—These bricks burnt by the great conflagration—Destruction of the walls of the former settlers—Live toads coëval with Troy!—Long duration of the second settlers—Their Aryan descent proved by Aryan symbols—Various forms of their pottery—Vases in the form of animals—The whorls of this stratum—Their interesting devices—Copper weapons and implements, and moulds for casting—Terra-cotta seals—Bracelets and ear-rings, of silver, gold, and electrum—Pins, &c., of ivory and bone—Fragments of a lyre—Various objects.
The third stratum: the remains of an Aryan race—Hardly a trace of metal—Structure of their houses—Their stone implements and terra-cottas coarser—Various forms of pottery—Remarkable terra-cotta balls with astronomical and religious symbols—Whorls—Stone weapons—Whetstones—Hammers and instruments of diorite—A well belonging to this people—This third town destroyed with its people.
The fourth settlers: comparatively savage, but still of Aryan race—Whorls with like emblems, but of a degenerate form—Their pottery inferior, but with some curious forms—Idols of Athena—Articles of copper—Few stones—Charred remains indicating wooden buildings—Stone weights, hand-mills, and knives and saws of flint—With this people the pre-Hellenic ages end—The stone buildings and painted and plain terra-cottas of Greek Ilium—Date of the Greek colony—Signs that the old inhabitants were not extirpated—The whorls of very coarse clay and patterns—Well, and jars for water and wine—Proofs of the regular succession of nations on the hill—Reply to the arguments of M. Nikolaïdes for the site at Bunarbashi—The Simoïs, Thymbrius, and Scamander—The tomb of Ajax at In-Tépé—Remains in it—Temple of Ajax and town of Aianteum—Tomb of Achilles and town of Achilleum—Tombs of Patroclus and Antilochus—The Greek camp—The tomb of Batiea or Myrina—Further discussion of the site.
On the Hill of Hissarlik, June 18th, 1872.
SINCE my report of the 23rd of last month I have been excavating, with the consent of my honoured friend, Mr. Frank Calvert, on that half of the hill which belongs to him, on condition that I share with him the objects I may find. Here, directly beside my large platform, and at a perpendicular depth of 40 feet below the plateau, I have laid out a third platform about 109 feet broad, with an upper terrace 112 feet broad, and I have seventy men digging there. Immediately beside the edge of the steep northern declivity I found a square depression in the ground about 112 feet long and 76 feet broad, which can only have been caused by excavations made by the Turks hundreds of years ago, when searching for pillars or other kinds of marble blocks suitable for tombstones: for all of the old Turkish cemeteries in the Plain of Troy and its vicinity, nay even as far as beyond Alexandria Troas, possess thousands of such marble blocks, taken from ancient buildings. The innumerable pieces of marble, which cover the whole of Mr. Frank Calvert’s part of the plateau, leave no doubt that the field, at least that part of it with the square depression, has been ransacked by marble-seeking Turks.
I had scarcely begun to extend this third platform horizontally into the hill, when I found a block of triglyphs of Parian marble, about 6½ feet long, nearly 2 feet 10 inches high, and nearly 22 inches thick at one end, and a little over 14 inches on the other. In the middle there is a piece of sculpture in high relief, a little above 2 feet 10 inches long and nearly the same height, which represents Phœbus Apollo, who, in a long woman’s robe with a girdle, is riding on the four immortal horses which pursue their career through the universe. Nothing is to be seen of a chariot. Above the splendid, flowing, unparted, but not long hair on the head of the god, there is seen about two-thirds of the sun’s disc with ten rays 2-1/3 inches long, and ten others 3½ inches long. The face of the god is very expressive, and the folds of his long robe are so exquisitely sculptured that they vividly remind one of the masterpieces in the temple of Νίκη ἄπτερος in the Acropolis of Athens. But my admiration is especially excited by the four horses, which, snorting and looking wildly forward, career through the universe with infinite power. Their anatomy is so accurately rendered that I frankly confess that I have never seen such a masterly work. On the right and left of this metopé are Doric triglyphs; there is a third triglyph on the left side of the marble block, which is nearly 22 inches thick, whereas the right side (14 inches thick) contains no sculpture. Above and below the block, iron clamps are fastened by means of lead; and from the triglyphs on the left side I presume that this metopé, together with another sculpture which has a Doric triglyph on the right side as well, adorned the propylæa of the temple. (See [Plate IV]., p. 32.)
It is especially remarkable to find the sun-god here, for Homer knows nothing of a temple to the Sun in Troy, and later history does not say a word about the existence of such a temple. However, the image of Phœbus Apollo does not prove that the sculpture must have belonged to a temple of the Sun; in my opinion it may just as well have served as an ornament to any other temple.
As early as my report of the 11th of May,[150] I ventured to express the conjecture that the image of the Sun, which I find represented here thousands and thousands of times upon the whorls of terra-cotta, must be regarded as the name or the emblem of the town, that is Ἴλιος. I now venture to express the opinion, that in like manner this Sun-god shone in the form of a woman upon the Propylæa of the temple of the Ilian Athena as a symbol of the Sun-city (τῆς Ἰλίου). I have heard a learned friend express the opinion that this masterpiece belonged to the period between Pericles and Alexander the Great, because the Sun-god’s outstretched hand is very similar to that of Phœbus Apollo on the coins of Rhodes of the same period. But, according to Strabo (XIII. I), Alexander the Great, on his visit to Ilium, found there a little temple (εὐτελῆ ναόν) of the Ilian Athena; and a little temple, of course, cannot have possessed such excellent works of plastic art. Besides this, the head of the Sun-god appears to me to have so much of the Alexandrian style, that I must adhere to history and believe that this work of art belongs to the time of Lysimachus, who, according to Strabo (XIII. I), after the death of Alexander the Great, built here the new temple of the Ilian Athena, which Alexander had promised to the town of Ilium after the subjugation of the Persian Empire.[151]