“It will be easily understood that, being engaged with my superhuman works, I have not a moment to spare, and therefore I cannot waste my precious time with idle talk. I beg M. Nikolaïdes to come to Troy, and to convince himself with his own eyes that, in refuting his erroneous statements, I have described all I see here before me with the most perfect truth.”
CHAPTER XI.
Increase of men and machinery and cost on the works: but slow progress—Continued hurricane on “the windy Ilium” (Ἴλιος ἠνεμόεσσα)—The great platform proves too high—New cutting—Excavation of the temple—Objects found—Greek statuettes in terra-cotta—Many whorls with 卐 and suns—Wheel-shaped whorls with simple patterns in the lowest strata—Terra-cotta balls with suns and stars—Use of the whorls as amulets or coins discussed—Little bowls, probably lamps—Other articles of pottery—Funnels—A terra-cotta bell—Various beautiful terra-cottas—Attempts at forgery by the workmen—Mode of naming the men—The springs in front of Ilium—Question of Homer’s hot and cold spring—Course of the Simoïs—The tomb of Batiea or Myrina identified with the Pacha Tépé—Theatre of Lysimachus—Heat and wind—Plague of insects and scorpions—Konstantinos Kolobos, a native genius without feet.
On the Hill of Hissarlik, July 13th, 1872.
MY last report was dated the 18th of June. As the great extent of my excavations renders it necessary for me to work with no less than 120 men, I have already been obliged, on account of the harvest season, to increase the daily wages to 12 piasters since the 1st of June; but even this would not have enabled me to collect the requisite number of men, had not Mr. Max Müller, the German Consul in Gallipoli, had the kindness to send me 40 workmen from that place. In consequence of this, even during the busiest harvest season, I have always had from 120 to 130 workmen, and now that the harvest is over, I have constantly 150. To facilitate the works, I have procured, through the kindness of the English Consul in Constantinople, Mr. Charles Cookson, 10 “man-carts,” which are drawn by two men and pushed by a third. The same gentleman also sent me 20 wheel-barrows, so that I now work with 10 man-carts and 88 wheel-barrows. In addition to these I keep six more carts with horses, each of which costs 5 francs a day, so that the total cost of my excavations amounts to more than 400 francs (16l.) a day. Besides battering-rams, chains, and windlasses, my implements consist of 24 large iron levers, 108 spades, and 103 pickaxes, all of the best English manufacture. From sunrise to sunset all are busily at work, for I have three capital foremen, and my wife and I are always present at the works. But for all this I do not think that I now remove more than 400 cubic yards of débris in a day, for the distance is always increasing, and in several places it is already more than 262 feet. Besides this, the continual hurricane from the north, which drives the dust into our eyes and blinds us, is exceedingly disturbing. This perpetual high wind is perhaps explained by the fact that the Sea of Marmora, with the Black Sea behind it, is connected with the Ægean Sea by a strait comparatively so narrow. Now, as such perpetual high winds are unknown in any other part of the world, Homer must have lived in the Plain of Troy, otherwise he would not have so often given to his Ἴλιος the appropriate epithet of “ἠνεμόεσσα” (the “windy” or “stormy”), which he gives to no other place.
As I have already said, at a perpendicular depth of 12 meters (39½ feet) below the summit of the hill (on the site of what is probably the temple built by Lysimachus) I have dug a platform, 102 feet broad below and 112 feet wide at the top: it already extends to a length of 82 feet. But to my great alarm I find that I have made it at least 5 meters (16½ feet) too high; for, in spite of the great depth and the great distance from the declivity of the hill, I am here still in the débris of the Greek colony, whereas on the northern declivity of the hill I generally reached the ruins of the preceding people at a depth of less than 6½ feet. To make the whole platform 16½ feet lower would be a gigantic piece of work, for which I have no patience at present, on account of the advanced season of the year. But in order as soon as possible to find out what lies hidden in the depths of this temple, I have contented myself with making a cutting 26 feet broad above and 13 feet wide below, exactly 16¼ feet below the platform and in the centre of it. This cutting I am having dug out at the same time from below and on two terraces, so it advances rapidly.
Since the discovery of the Sun-god with the four horses, many blocks of marble with representations of suns and flowers have been found, but no sculptures of any importance. As yet very few other objects have been brought to light from the excavation of the temple; only a few round terra-cottas with the usual decoration of the central sun surrounded by three, four, or five triple or quadruple rising suns; knives of silex in the form of saws, a few pretty figures in terra-cotta, among which is a priestess with very expressive Assyrian features, with a dress of a brilliant red and green colour, and a red cloth round her head; also a small bowl, the lower end of which represents the head of a mouse. The mouse, it is well known, is a creature inspired by the vapours of the earth, and, as the symbol of wisdom, was sacred to Apollo. According to Strabo (XIII. p. 613) Apollo is said to have caused mice to show the Teucrians, who migrated from Crete, the place where they were to settle. However, the bowl with the head of a mouse is no more a proof that the temple built here by Lysimachus was dedicated to Apollo than is the metopé representing the Sun-god with four horses.
In the other parts of my excavations, since my last report, we have again brought to light an immense number of round terra-cottas, and among them, from a depth of from 4 to 10 meters (13 to 33 feet), a remarkable number with three, four, or five 卐 round the central sun.[184] One, from a depth of 23 feet,[185] shows the central sun surrounded by six suns, through each of which a 卐 passes; upon another, found at a depth of 33 feet, the central sun has 12 trees instead of rays;[186] upon a third, brought from a depth of 16½ feet, the sun has seven rays in the form of fishing-hooks, one in the form of the figure three and two in the shape of the Phœnician letter Nun, then follow 12 sheaves of rays, in each of which are four little stars; upon a fourth terra-cotta, which I found at a depth of 16½ feet, there are four rising suns and a tree in the circle round the sun.[187] I very frequently find between the rising suns three or four rows of three dots running towards the central sun,[188] which, as already said, according to É. Burnouf, denote “royal majesty” in the Persian cuneiform inscriptions. It is certain that this symbol is here also intended to glorify the Sun-god. At a depth of from 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33 feet) we also find round terra-cottas, upon which the entire surface round the sun is filled with little stars, and in addition only one 卐.
During the last few days we have also found, in the strata next above the primary soil, at a depth of from 46 to 36 feet, a number of round brilliant black terra-cottas of exquisite workmanship; most of them much flatter than those occurring in the higher strata, and resembling a wheel; many are in the shape of large flat buttons.[189] But we also meet with some in the form of tops and volcanoes, which differ from those found in the higher strata only by the fineness of the terra-cotta and by their better workmanship. The decorations on these very ancient articles are, however, generally much simpler than those met with above a depth of 10 meters (33 feet), and are mostly confined to the representation of the sun with its rays, or with stars between the latter, or of the sun in the centre of a simple cross, or in the middle of four or five double or treble rising suns. At a depth of 6 meters (20 feet) we again found a round terra-cotta in the form of a volcano, upon which are engraved three antelopes in the circle round the sun.
At a depth of from 5 to 8 meters (16½ to 26 feet) a number of terra-cotta balls were found, the surface of each being divided into eight fields; these contain a great many small suns and stars, either enclosed by circles or standing alone. Most of the balls, however, are without divisions and covered with stars; upon some I find the 卐 and the tree of life, which, as already said, upon a terra-cotta ball found at a depth of 26 feet, had stars between its branches.