DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0088
3°
TROY AND ITS REMAINS
hammers, splendidly polished axes and battle-axes of diorite,
but considerably fewer than in the preceding stratum.
When the surface of the hill was about 2 meters (6i
feet) lower than it is now, Ilium was built by a Greek
colony; and we have already endeavoured to prove that
this settlement must have been founded about the year
700 b.c. From that time we find the remains of Hellenic
house-walls of large hewn stones joined without cement.
From about 1 meter (3% feet) below the surface, and upwards,
there are also ruins of buildings, the stones of which are
joined with cement or lime. We also meet with great numbers
of copper coins of Ilium of the time of the Roman empire,
from Augustus to Constans II. and Constantine II.; like-
wise older Uian coins with the image of Athena, and medals
of Alexandria Troas; also with some coins of Tenedos,
Ophrynium and Sigeum, in some few cases at 3* feet,
but generally at less than ao inches below the surface.
I once remarked erroneously that Byzantine coins were
also met with here near the surface. But in my three
years' excavations I have not found a single medal of a
later date than Constans II. and Constantine II., except
two bad coins belonging to a Byzantine monastery, which
may have been lost by shepherds; and, as there is here not
the remotest trace of Byzantine masonry or of Byzantine
pottery, it may be regarded as certain that the Ilium of
the Greek colony was destroyed towards the middle of the
fourth century after Christ, and that no village, much less a
town, has ever again been built upon its site. The wall
I mentioned in my memoir of the 1st of March, 1873,*
as consisting of Corinthian pillars joined with cement, and
which I believed to have belonged to the Middle Ages,
must be referred to the time of Constantine I. or to Constans
II., when the temple of Athena was destroyed by the pious
zeal of the first Christians.
* Chapter XVI., p. 239; comp. Chap. XV., p. 230, XVII., p. 250,
XIX, p. 272.
TROY AND ITS REMAINS
hammers, splendidly polished axes and battle-axes of diorite,
but considerably fewer than in the preceding stratum.
When the surface of the hill was about 2 meters (6i
feet) lower than it is now, Ilium was built by a Greek
colony; and we have already endeavoured to prove that
this settlement must have been founded about the year
700 b.c. From that time we find the remains of Hellenic
house-walls of large hewn stones joined without cement.
From about 1 meter (3% feet) below the surface, and upwards,
there are also ruins of buildings, the stones of which are
joined with cement or lime. We also meet with great numbers
of copper coins of Ilium of the time of the Roman empire,
from Augustus to Constans II. and Constantine II.; like-
wise older Uian coins with the image of Athena, and medals
of Alexandria Troas; also with some coins of Tenedos,
Ophrynium and Sigeum, in some few cases at 3* feet,
but generally at less than ao inches below the surface.
I once remarked erroneously that Byzantine coins were
also met with here near the surface. But in my three
years' excavations I have not found a single medal of a
later date than Constans II. and Constantine II., except
two bad coins belonging to a Byzantine monastery, which
may have been lost by shepherds; and, as there is here not
the remotest trace of Byzantine masonry or of Byzantine
pottery, it may be regarded as certain that the Ilium of
the Greek colony was destroyed towards the middle of the
fourth century after Christ, and that no village, much less a
town, has ever again been built upon its site. The wall
I mentioned in my memoir of the 1st of March, 1873,*
as consisting of Corinthian pillars joined with cement, and
which I believed to have belonged to the Middle Ages,
must be referred to the time of Constantine I. or to Constans
II., when the temple of Athena was destroyed by the pious
zeal of the first Christians.
* Chapter XVI., p. 239; comp. Chap. XV., p. 230, XVII., p. 250,
XIX, p. 272.