DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0314
Ch. XVII. 1873.] GREEK TEMPLE OF ATHENA. 249
wilderness is the hideous shrieking of the innumerable owls
which build their nests in the holes of the walls of my
excavations; their shrieks sound mysterious and horrible,
and are especially unendurable at night.
I have proceeded with the excavation of the site of
the Temple of Athena with the greatest energy. The
foundations of this sanctuary nowhere extend deeper
than 2 meters (6h feet), and generally only to 1 meter
(3! feet). The floor, which consists of large slabs of
sandstone, and which rests upon double layers of large
hewn blocks of the same stone, is frequently covered only
with a foot, and never with more than 3^ feet, of
vegetable soil; this explains the total absence of entire
sculptures. For whatever sculptures there were in or upon
the temple could not sink into the ground on the summit of
the hill, and they therefore remained lying on the surface
for many centuries, till they were destroyed by religious zeal
or wantonness. This, and this alone, explains the enormous
mass of fragments of statues which cover the entire hill.
I find, however, a great number of large sculptured
blocks of marble in the Corinthian style which are difficult
to destroy, and the removal of which causes me great trouble
and loss of time. As the Tower, which I partly uncovered
last year, extends directly below the temple at a great
depth, and as I wish at all events to lay bare its entire
breadth, I shall leave only the ruins of the north and
south walls of the temple standing, and break away all the
rest, except a reservoir, 27 feet long and 26 feet broad,
which is in the sanctuary, and is built of blocks of limestone
laid together without cement or lime, and the walls of which
have a thickness of 8 feet. The four aqueducts mentioned
in my last report empty themselves into the reservoir. I
shall leave it standing in order to give visitors to the Troad
a faint idea of the trouble which 1 have to take in removing
all the stones of a temple which is about 288 feet long and
72i feet broad. But what is even much more difficult
wilderness is the hideous shrieking of the innumerable owls
which build their nests in the holes of the walls of my
excavations; their shrieks sound mysterious and horrible,
and are especially unendurable at night.
I have proceeded with the excavation of the site of
the Temple of Athena with the greatest energy. The
foundations of this sanctuary nowhere extend deeper
than 2 meters (6h feet), and generally only to 1 meter
(3! feet). The floor, which consists of large slabs of
sandstone, and which rests upon double layers of large
hewn blocks of the same stone, is frequently covered only
with a foot, and never with more than 3^ feet, of
vegetable soil; this explains the total absence of entire
sculptures. For whatever sculptures there were in or upon
the temple could not sink into the ground on the summit of
the hill, and they therefore remained lying on the surface
for many centuries, till they were destroyed by religious zeal
or wantonness. This, and this alone, explains the enormous
mass of fragments of statues which cover the entire hill.
I find, however, a great number of large sculptured
blocks of marble in the Corinthian style which are difficult
to destroy, and the removal of which causes me great trouble
and loss of time. As the Tower, which I partly uncovered
last year, extends directly below the temple at a great
depth, and as I wish at all events to lay bare its entire
breadth, I shall leave only the ruins of the north and
south walls of the temple standing, and break away all the
rest, except a reservoir, 27 feet long and 26 feet broad,
which is in the sanctuary, and is built of blocks of limestone
laid together without cement or lime, and the walls of which
have a thickness of 8 feet. The four aqueducts mentioned
in my last report empty themselves into the reservoir. I
shall leave it standing in order to give visitors to the Troad
a faint idea of the trouble which 1 have to take in removing
all the stones of a temple which is about 288 feet long and
72i feet broad. But what is even much more difficult