DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0007
PREFACE.
Vll
distinct types. Most of these types are exhibited on
Plates XXII. and XXIII.
The selection of the 300 illustrations inserted in the
body of the work has been a matter of no ordinary labour.
One chief point, in which the present work claims to be an
improvement on the original, is the exhibition of the most
interesting objects in Dr. Schliemann's collection in their
proper relation to the descriptions in his text. The work
of selection from 4000 objects, great as was the care it
required, was the smallest part of the difficulty. It is no
disparagement to Dr. Schliemann to recognize the fact that,
amidst his occupations at the work through the long days
of spring and summer, and with little competent help save
from Madame Schliemann's enthusiasm in the cause, the
objects thrown on his hands from day to day could only be
arranged and depicted very imperfectly. The difficulty was
greatly enhanced by a circumstance which should be noticed
in following the order of Dr. Schliemann's work. It dif-
fered greatly from that of his forerunners in the modern
enterprise of penetrating into the mounds that cover the
primeval cities of the world. When, for example, we follow
Layard into the mound of Nimrud, and see how the rooms
of the Assyrian palaces suddenly burst upon him, with
their walls lined with sculptured and inscribed slabs, we
seem almost to be reading of Aladdin's descent into the
treasure-house of jewels. But Schliemann's work consisted
in a series of transverse cuttings, which laid open sections
of the various strata, from the present surface of the hill to
the virgin soil. The work of one day would often yield
objects from almost all the strata; and each successive
trench repeated the old order, more or less, from the re-
mains of Greek Ilium to those of the first settlers on the
hill. The marvel is that Dr. Schliemann should have been
able to preserve any order at all, rather than that he was
Vll
distinct types. Most of these types are exhibited on
Plates XXII. and XXIII.
The selection of the 300 illustrations inserted in the
body of the work has been a matter of no ordinary labour.
One chief point, in which the present work claims to be an
improvement on the original, is the exhibition of the most
interesting objects in Dr. Schliemann's collection in their
proper relation to the descriptions in his text. The work
of selection from 4000 objects, great as was the care it
required, was the smallest part of the difficulty. It is no
disparagement to Dr. Schliemann to recognize the fact that,
amidst his occupations at the work through the long days
of spring and summer, and with little competent help save
from Madame Schliemann's enthusiasm in the cause, the
objects thrown on his hands from day to day could only be
arranged and depicted very imperfectly. The difficulty was
greatly enhanced by a circumstance which should be noticed
in following the order of Dr. Schliemann's work. It dif-
fered greatly from that of his forerunners in the modern
enterprise of penetrating into the mounds that cover the
primeval cities of the world. When, for example, we follow
Layard into the mound of Nimrud, and see how the rooms
of the Assyrian palaces suddenly burst upon him, with
their walls lined with sculptured and inscribed slabs, we
seem almost to be reading of Aladdin's descent into the
treasure-house of jewels. But Schliemann's work consisted
in a series of transverse cuttings, which laid open sections
of the various strata, from the present surface of the hill to
the virgin soil. The work of one day would often yield
objects from almost all the strata; and each successive
trench repeated the old order, more or less, from the re-
mains of Greek Ilium to those of the first settlers on the
hill. The marvel is that Dr. Schliemann should have been
able to preserve any order at all, rather than that he was