DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.748#0206
164 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.
is far away on the other side of the plain. To this difficulty the fol-
lowing solution has been offered: The Mendereh has within a com-
paratively short time changed its bed, whereas in Homer's day it
flowed where the Kalifatli Asmak now is, and having received the
tribute of the Doumbrek near the present village of Koum Kioi
(" Sandville "), it emptied into the Hellespont, close to the promontory
of Rhoiteion, through the channel known as the In Tepeh Asmak.
This explanation would certainly remove many difficulties. It would
make just such a triangular battlefield on the north side of the town
as is described by Homer. It would account, too, for the ford of the
Scamander on the way from the ships to the town, often mentioned
by the poet (xiv. 434, xxi. 2, xxiv. 693 k. t. A.).
It is most natural that a student at a distance, especially one fa-
miliar only with Occidental rivers, should be surprised when he reads
of so bold an alteration in the great feature of the plain; and he can-
not but suspect that this is a hypothesis invented to remedy some fatal
discrepancy between the alleged site and the poet's description.
One piece of evidence, or at least of illustration, especially satisfac-
tory perhaps to those who cannot themselves make a careful study of
the ground, has not yet, to our knowledge, been brought into the
discussion. The next important river of the peninsula south of the
Mendereh is the Touzla, which passes in sight of Assos, and is generally
identified with the "fair-flowing Satnioeis " (Iliad vi. 34, xiv. 445, xxi.
87, Strabo, p. 605). Like the Mendereh, it breaks from the mountains
some miles above its mouth, and flows to the sea through a level and
fertile plain. This plain shows no trace of any change in the course of
the stream, save one. Several hundred metres away from the present
river bed are yet standing, almost intact, the arches of the Roman
bridge. Within two thousand years the river has not only found a
new course, but has completely effaced (doubtless by the alluvium
deposited during inundations) all traces of the old channel.
The chief proofs advanced, that the great river of the Trojan Plain
once flowed through the channel now marked by the Asmaks, are
these. First, the great bar opposite the mouth of the In Tepeh As-
mak, clearly shown by the three-fathom line on the Admiralty chart.
Second, the fact that pits sunk along the channels of these creeks
reveal syenitic sand and gravel, whereas the streams which now flow
there deposit only black mud. This sand has apparently been brought
is far away on the other side of the plain. To this difficulty the fol-
lowing solution has been offered: The Mendereh has within a com-
paratively short time changed its bed, whereas in Homer's day it
flowed where the Kalifatli Asmak now is, and having received the
tribute of the Doumbrek near the present village of Koum Kioi
(" Sandville "), it emptied into the Hellespont, close to the promontory
of Rhoiteion, through the channel known as the In Tepeh Asmak.
This explanation would certainly remove many difficulties. It would
make just such a triangular battlefield on the north side of the town
as is described by Homer. It would account, too, for the ford of the
Scamander on the way from the ships to the town, often mentioned
by the poet (xiv. 434, xxi. 2, xxiv. 693 k. t. A.).
It is most natural that a student at a distance, especially one fa-
miliar only with Occidental rivers, should be surprised when he reads
of so bold an alteration in the great feature of the plain; and he can-
not but suspect that this is a hypothesis invented to remedy some fatal
discrepancy between the alleged site and the poet's description.
One piece of evidence, or at least of illustration, especially satisfac-
tory perhaps to those who cannot themselves make a careful study of
the ground, has not yet, to our knowledge, been brought into the
discussion. The next important river of the peninsula south of the
Mendereh is the Touzla, which passes in sight of Assos, and is generally
identified with the "fair-flowing Satnioeis " (Iliad vi. 34, xiv. 445, xxi.
87, Strabo, p. 605). Like the Mendereh, it breaks from the mountains
some miles above its mouth, and flows to the sea through a level and
fertile plain. This plain shows no trace of any change in the course of
the stream, save one. Several hundred metres away from the present
river bed are yet standing, almost intact, the arches of the Roman
bridge. Within two thousand years the river has not only found a
new course, but has completely effaced (doubtless by the alluvium
deposited during inundations) all traces of the old channel.
The chief proofs advanced, that the great river of the Trojan Plain
once flowed through the channel now marked by the Asmaks, are
these. First, the great bar opposite the mouth of the In Tepeh As-
mak, clearly shown by the three-fathom line on the Admiralty chart.
Second, the fact that pits sunk along the channels of these creeks
reveal syenitic sand and gravel, whereas the streams which now flow
there deposit only black mud. This sand has apparently been brought