DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0161
IOO TROY AND ITS REMAINS. [Chap. VI.
digging down the slope of the hill, we came upon an
immense number of poisonous snakes, and among them a
remarkable quantity of the small brown vipers called antelion
('Avrrpuoi/), which are scarcely thicker than rain worms,
and which have their name from the circumstance that the
person bitten by them only survives till sunset. It seems
to me that, were it not for the many thousands of storks
which destroy the snakes in spring and summer, the Plain
of Troy would be uninhabitable, owing to the excessive
numbers of these vermin.
Through the kindness of my friends, Messrs. J. Henry
Schroder and Co., in London, I have obtained the best
English pickaxes and spades for loosening and pulling
down the rubbish, also 60 excellent wheel-barrows with
iron wheels for carrying it away.
For the purpose of consolidating the buildings on the
top of the hill, the whole of the steep northern slope has
evidently been supported by a buttress, for I find the
remains of one in several places. This buttress is however
not very ancient, for it is composed of large blocks of
shelly limestone, mostly hewn, and joined with lime or
cement. The remains of this wall have only a slight
covering of earth; but on all other places there is more
or less soil, which, at the eastern end of the platform,
extends to a depth of between 6£ and 10 feet. Behind
the platform, as well as behind the remains of the but-
tress, the debris is as hard as stone, and consists of the
ruins of houses, among which I find axes of diorite, sling-
bullets of loadstone, a number of flint knives, innu-
merable handmills of lava, a great number of small idols or
very fine marble, with or without the owl's-head and woman s
girdle, weights of clay in the form of pyramids and with
a hole at the point, or made of stone and in the form
of balls; lastly, a great many of those small terra-cotta
whorls, which have already been so frequently spoken of
in my previous reports. Two pieces of this kind, with
digging down the slope of the hill, we came upon an
immense number of poisonous snakes, and among them a
remarkable quantity of the small brown vipers called antelion
('Avrrpuoi/), which are scarcely thicker than rain worms,
and which have their name from the circumstance that the
person bitten by them only survives till sunset. It seems
to me that, were it not for the many thousands of storks
which destroy the snakes in spring and summer, the Plain
of Troy would be uninhabitable, owing to the excessive
numbers of these vermin.
Through the kindness of my friends, Messrs. J. Henry
Schroder and Co., in London, I have obtained the best
English pickaxes and spades for loosening and pulling
down the rubbish, also 60 excellent wheel-barrows with
iron wheels for carrying it away.
For the purpose of consolidating the buildings on the
top of the hill, the whole of the steep northern slope has
evidently been supported by a buttress, for I find the
remains of one in several places. This buttress is however
not very ancient, for it is composed of large blocks of
shelly limestone, mostly hewn, and joined with lime or
cement. The remains of this wall have only a slight
covering of earth; but on all other places there is more
or less soil, which, at the eastern end of the platform,
extends to a depth of between 6£ and 10 feet. Behind
the platform, as well as behind the remains of the but-
tress, the debris is as hard as stone, and consists of the
ruins of houses, among which I find axes of diorite, sling-
bullets of loadstone, a number of flint knives, innu-
merable handmills of lava, a great number of small idols or
very fine marble, with or without the owl's-head and woman s
girdle, weights of clay in the form of pyramids and with
a hole at the point, or made of stone and in the form
of balls; lastly, a great many of those small terra-cotta
whorls, which have already been so frequently spoken of
in my previous reports. Two pieces of this kind, with