DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4945#0048
Excavations of 1904-5. 37
rubbish, and seemed to have been all inserted of set purpose and at one time,
stones, precious objects, bones and all. It has been remarked already that the
general character of the filling- was identical from top to bottom. There was
no apparent distinction of strata. But it should be stated here that below a
certain level (about —4-00), the filling could not be properly observed in situ,
but only after it had been dredged up. From that level down to the sand
the search had to be carried on in the first season blindly under water, by men
immersed to mid-thigh. In the second season, when only corners remained to
be examined, the pumps rendered inspection before dredging more possible,
but even then under only very unfavourable conditions, every stone or other
object being thickly covered with liquid slime.
Before the season of 1904 closed some sinkings had been made in the lower
strata outside the Basis on all four sides, and it was the result of these which
rendered it certain that a second season must be devoted to exploration below
the Croesus pavement. In a trench, dug along the west outward face of the
Basis, a structure was discovered projecting from it, below the level of the
Croesus foundations ; and lying upon its surface were a small ivory statuette
and some fragments of bronze ornaments. Flooded as this structure then was,
I believed it to be a pavement. In the second season, however, it was seen
to be a foundation, bonded with the west wall of the Basis itself (see p. 57).
The Croesus foundations had been removed (by Wood ?) from a narrow belt
running westward for some 4'00 from the centre of the Basis; and in the free
space thus offered, I sank a trench through the clay bed, but, being unable
in an unenclosed area to reduce the water-level sufficiently, did not, at that
time, get quite to the bottom of the stratum. Under the clay, however,
early objects were found in dark earth, e.g., parts of an early painted kylix,
fragments of bronze hoop-bracelets and pins, a small ivory plaque, and a strip
of plain gold foil, such as was used for diadems. Close to the north wall
of the Basis extension a gold pin was dredged up from a slightly lower level
than the ivory statuette. The trials made on the east and south yielded no
small objects, but revealed the presence of an angle of wall enclosing the south-
east corner of the Basis at a radius of -6o. Since large blocks of Hellenistic
foundation projected over this, the fact was sufficiently established that older
structures existed at more than one point outside the Basis.
When it was desired to resume work in the lower strata outside the Basis,
the whole area of the Croesus cella, now deeply flooded, had to be converted
into an enclosed pool by dams of mud and stone which were built across gaps in
its outer walls and their foundations, as soon as the great steam-pump had
rubbish, and seemed to have been all inserted of set purpose and at one time,
stones, precious objects, bones and all. It has been remarked already that the
general character of the filling- was identical from top to bottom. There was
no apparent distinction of strata. But it should be stated here that below a
certain level (about —4-00), the filling could not be properly observed in situ,
but only after it had been dredged up. From that level down to the sand
the search had to be carried on in the first season blindly under water, by men
immersed to mid-thigh. In the second season, when only corners remained to
be examined, the pumps rendered inspection before dredging more possible,
but even then under only very unfavourable conditions, every stone or other
object being thickly covered with liquid slime.
Before the season of 1904 closed some sinkings had been made in the lower
strata outside the Basis on all four sides, and it was the result of these which
rendered it certain that a second season must be devoted to exploration below
the Croesus pavement. In a trench, dug along the west outward face of the
Basis, a structure was discovered projecting from it, below the level of the
Croesus foundations ; and lying upon its surface were a small ivory statuette
and some fragments of bronze ornaments. Flooded as this structure then was,
I believed it to be a pavement. In the second season, however, it was seen
to be a foundation, bonded with the west wall of the Basis itself (see p. 57).
The Croesus foundations had been removed (by Wood ?) from a narrow belt
running westward for some 4'00 from the centre of the Basis; and in the free
space thus offered, I sank a trench through the clay bed, but, being unable
in an unenclosed area to reduce the water-level sufficiently, did not, at that
time, get quite to the bottom of the stratum. Under the clay, however,
early objects were found in dark earth, e.g., parts of an early painted kylix,
fragments of bronze hoop-bracelets and pins, a small ivory plaque, and a strip
of plain gold foil, such as was used for diadems. Close to the north wall
of the Basis extension a gold pin was dredged up from a slightly lower level
than the ivory statuette. The trials made on the east and south yielded no
small objects, but revealed the presence of an angle of wall enclosing the south-
east corner of the Basis at a radius of -6o. Since large blocks of Hellenistic
foundation projected over this, the fact was sufficiently established that older
structures existed at more than one point outside the Basis.
When it was desired to resume work in the lower strata outside the Basis,
the whole area of the Croesus cella, now deeply flooded, had to be converted
into an enclosed pool by dams of mud and stone which were built across gaps in
its outer walls and their foundations, as soon as the great steam-pump had