DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0317
25a TROY AND ITS REMAINS. [Chap. XVII.
of the few knives of silex), are met with here in great
numbers at as small a depth as 6£ feet, that is, directly
below the Temple of Athena; those most frequently found
are clumsy hammers of diorite, but occasionally also ham-
mers of the same or of green stone very prettily worked;
some of them have a wide hole at both sides and a narrow
one in the middle, and I cannot understand how a handle
could have been fixed into them. The best finished
instrument is always the wedge,* which is of diorite or
of hard green stone, sometimes also of white silex, and
occurs in all sizes from about f of an inch to above
5 inches in length. This instrument is always of such
exquisite workmanship and so well polished, that it is really
astonishing how it was possible, with the miserable means
at the disposal of those times, to make anything of such an
excellent quality, for a modern artist with the best instru-
ments could not possibly make better ones. The knives of
silex, which I found last year in such great quantities, are
as yet but rarely met with in this excavation. As stone
implements do not occur elsewhere before reaching a depth
of 4 meters (13 feet), it is probable that the numbers of
stone implements met with here, as early as at a depth of
2 meters (6i feet) on the site of the temple, belong to the
dibris which was dug up when the large reservoir was con-
structed, for it appears to extend pretty far down, and its
foundations may perhaps reach down to the Tower.
As, even in the temple itself, I find exclusively the
round terra-cottas in the form of cones and without deco-
rations, while, on the other hand, below the foundations of
the temple I meet with great quantities of them in the form
of volcanoes and tops, with the most various Aryan religious
symbols, I am now of the opinion that all those bearing
such Aryan symbols must belong to the tribes zvhich pre-
ceded the Greek colony on this site.
* As elsewhere, the wedges here spoken of are what the Author
afterwards decided to be axes, and especially battle-axes.—[Kix]
of the few knives of silex), are met with here in great
numbers at as small a depth as 6£ feet, that is, directly
below the Temple of Athena; those most frequently found
are clumsy hammers of diorite, but occasionally also ham-
mers of the same or of green stone very prettily worked;
some of them have a wide hole at both sides and a narrow
one in the middle, and I cannot understand how a handle
could have been fixed into them. The best finished
instrument is always the wedge,* which is of diorite or
of hard green stone, sometimes also of white silex, and
occurs in all sizes from about f of an inch to above
5 inches in length. This instrument is always of such
exquisite workmanship and so well polished, that it is really
astonishing how it was possible, with the miserable means
at the disposal of those times, to make anything of such an
excellent quality, for a modern artist with the best instru-
ments could not possibly make better ones. The knives of
silex, which I found last year in such great quantities, are
as yet but rarely met with in this excavation. As stone
implements do not occur elsewhere before reaching a depth
of 4 meters (13 feet), it is probable that the numbers of
stone implements met with here, as early as at a depth of
2 meters (6i feet) on the site of the temple, belong to the
dibris which was dug up when the large reservoir was con-
structed, for it appears to extend pretty far down, and its
foundations may perhaps reach down to the Tower.
As, even in the temple itself, I find exclusively the
round terra-cottas in the form of cones and without deco-
rations, while, on the other hand, below the foundations of
the temple I meet with great quantities of them in the form
of volcanoes and tops, with the most various Aryan religious
symbols, I am now of the opinion that all those bearing
such Aryan symbols must belong to the tribes zvhich pre-
ceded the Greek colony on this site.
* As elsewhere, the wedges here spoken of are what the Author
afterwards decided to be axes, and especially battle-axes.—[Kix]