DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0146
1871.] EXCAVATIONS AT OTHER SITES. 85
Upon an ordinary stone I at the same time found the
character \). I should be immensely delighted if any
one were able to read these inscriptions, and thus be in
a position to give an explanation about the use of these
remarkable objects, about the people who made them, and
about the epoch in which I found myself at the depth of
from 25 to 28 feet.
When, at the time of writing my last report, I saw
stone implements and weapons brought to light, and none
but stone, and was forced to believe that I had penetrated
into the stratum of the people belonging to the stone
period, I really began to fear that the actual object of my
excavations, to find here the Pergamus of Priam, had failed ;
that I had already reached a period long anterior to the
Trojan war, and that the colossal sepulchral mounds in
the Plain of Troy were perhaps thousands of years older
than the deeds of Achilles. But as I find ever more and
more traces of civilization the deeper I dig, I am now per-
fectly convinced that I have not yet penetrated to the
period of the Trojan war, and hence I am more hopeful
than ever of finding the site of Troy by further excava-
tions; for if there ever was a Troy—and my belief in
this is firm—it can only have been here, on the site of
'hum. I think that my excavations of 1868 on the
heights of Bunarbashi have proved the impossibility of
a city or even a village ever having stood there, except
at the extreme end of Balidagh, where Consul Hahn has
made excavations, but where, owing to the small space,
which is limited by precipices, there can only have been a
small town of 2000 inhabitants at most. Upon the site of
me IXteW Kafir), which place was regarded as the site
°f ancient Troy by Strabo—who had never visited the
"lain of Troy—in accordance with the theory of Deme-
ntis of Scepsis, which I discussed in my report of the 26th
ot 'ast month—I have, since Tuesday the 21st, employed
en workmen to lay bare a portion of the surrounding wall
Upon an ordinary stone I at the same time found the
character \). I should be immensely delighted if any
one were able to read these inscriptions, and thus be in
a position to give an explanation about the use of these
remarkable objects, about the people who made them, and
about the epoch in which I found myself at the depth of
from 25 to 28 feet.
When, at the time of writing my last report, I saw
stone implements and weapons brought to light, and none
but stone, and was forced to believe that I had penetrated
into the stratum of the people belonging to the stone
period, I really began to fear that the actual object of my
excavations, to find here the Pergamus of Priam, had failed ;
that I had already reached a period long anterior to the
Trojan war, and that the colossal sepulchral mounds in
the Plain of Troy were perhaps thousands of years older
than the deeds of Achilles. But as I find ever more and
more traces of civilization the deeper I dig, I am now per-
fectly convinced that I have not yet penetrated to the
period of the Trojan war, and hence I am more hopeful
than ever of finding the site of Troy by further excava-
tions; for if there ever was a Troy—and my belief in
this is firm—it can only have been here, on the site of
'hum. I think that my excavations of 1868 on the
heights of Bunarbashi have proved the impossibility of
a city or even a village ever having stood there, except
at the extreme end of Balidagh, where Consul Hahn has
made excavations, but where, owing to the small space,
which is limited by precipices, there can only have been a
small town of 2000 inhabitants at most. Upon the site of
me IXteW Kafir), which place was regarded as the site
°f ancient Troy by Strabo—who had never visited the
"lain of Troy—in accordance with the theory of Deme-
ntis of Scepsis, which I discussed in my report of the 26th
ot 'ast month—I have, since Tuesday the 21st, employed
en workmen to lay bare a portion of the surrounding wall