Hogarth, David G.; Smith, Cecil Harcourt [Contr.]: Excavations at Ephesus: the archaic Artemisia: Text (London, 1908)

Excavations of 1904-5. 45

been turned over right down to the sand, and one can only be thankful that the
objects it still contained can be dated by comparison with many others found in
less disturbed earth elsewhere. I am at a loss to know to whom to ascribe this
deep excavation. It can hardly have been of Wood's making, for not only does
he give no hint of such work in his book, but, had he been responsible for it, he
must have made discoveries as to the character of the Basis itself, as well as
the contents of the lower strata, which he certainly did not make. Perhaps
this ground was hastily searched in Byzantine times after the quarrying
operations had been carried down to a low level, and possibly had revealed
some chance object in precious metal. That, nevertheless, certain precious
things were left for us, is easily to be explained by the difficulty of
finding anything at all in such slime, without elaborate care and the use
of sieves.

As for early structures, we found very few stones still in position one upon
another until the eastern Primitive boundary was opened out; but plenty of
stones from ruined structures lay loose in the slime. In the space between the
thickened east extension wall of the Basis and the first parallel wall (see
plan, Atlas, II.), which was filled, like the corresponding intervals on north
and south, with rammed earth, occurred a few objects in bone and ivory
(e.g., the carved dish, plate xxvii.), and some scraps of gold and electrum.
A part of this space had been protected by a patch of large Croesus foundation-
blocks abutting on the south-east angle of the Basis, and under the clay bed
of these were found a broken alabastron and some fragments of painted
pottery, e.g., of small aryballi. After beginning operations on the south side
of the area beyond this parallel wall, we had very little reward for some time.
The earth was much disturbed, but not wholly empty. The figurine in amber,
a glazed terracotta hawk, the rudest of our ivory statuettes, the snake and
an electrum hawk-brooch were found in the sieves in deposit taken from this
quarter. Among the blocks tumbled from an upper stratum into this ooze were
two bits of Croesus sculpture. Both lay almost on the line of the destroyed
southern Primitive boundary. It was not till the workmen had passed over to
the northern half of the eastern area, after a fortnight's comparatively barren
toil, and had begun to remove the belt of Croesus foundations, that many objects
were found. But at last a pocket of productive earth was exposed close to the
east face of a foundation which, as on the north and south, encroached on the
outer edge of the parallel wall facing the Basis, and at a level below -4-30.
This pocket contained over 160 small stars in electrum, of two patterns, but
all having eye-holes for attachment. The material on which they were sewn