DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0319
2.54 TROY AND ITS REMAINS. [Chap. XVII.
belief is confirmed by a copper nail, about 5 inches long,
with a head of the usual form, and the fragment of a similar
nail, which were found only 3 inches below the surface, in
a small groove, which my men had made round their reed-
hut to allow the rain-water to run off. On the head of the
nail there is a small gold ball, and then there follows down-
wards on the nail a row of eighteen similar little gold balls.
At the end of this row there is a second row of nine gold
balls of like size. The rows of the little balls are in the
form of necklaces, and cover a third part of the nail. The
fragment of the other nail is still more remarkable, for it
shows a string of little balls which form a perfect bow;
they are made of the alloy which in antiquity was called
electrutn (rjkeKTpov), consisting of three parts of gold and
one part of silver; below the bow, in a horizontal direction,
there is a row of little balls, which are probably intended
to represent the string. The little balls are firmly soldered
to both of the nails. In addition to this I must also men-
tion that the silver nails so frequently met with are gene-
rally of the same form and size as the copper ones, and can
certainly never have been used for driving into wood.
On the west side of the Great Tower, which I laid bare
last year, I am likewise making an excavation 47 feet long
and 48 feet broad, so as to bring to light more of this side,
and to see how the walls of Ilium are connected with it. It
is worth a journey round the world to see this Tower, whose
site was at all events so high, that it not only commanded
a view of the Plain, but also of the plateau lying to the
south of it, whereas its summit now lies a great many feet
below the level of the plateau. According to this it seems
that the accumulation of debris on the site of the city is as
large as it is in the Pergamus.*
* It is perhaps unnecessary to remind the reader again how the
Author afterwards gave up the idea of this distinction between the city
and its Pergamus.—[Ed.]
belief is confirmed by a copper nail, about 5 inches long,
with a head of the usual form, and the fragment of a similar
nail, which were found only 3 inches below the surface, in
a small groove, which my men had made round their reed-
hut to allow the rain-water to run off. On the head of the
nail there is a small gold ball, and then there follows down-
wards on the nail a row of eighteen similar little gold balls.
At the end of this row there is a second row of nine gold
balls of like size. The rows of the little balls are in the
form of necklaces, and cover a third part of the nail. The
fragment of the other nail is still more remarkable, for it
shows a string of little balls which form a perfect bow;
they are made of the alloy which in antiquity was called
electrutn (rjkeKTpov), consisting of three parts of gold and
one part of silver; below the bow, in a horizontal direction,
there is a row of little balls, which are probably intended
to represent the string. The little balls are firmly soldered
to both of the nails. In addition to this I must also men-
tion that the silver nails so frequently met with are gene-
rally of the same form and size as the copper ones, and can
certainly never have been used for driving into wood.
On the west side of the Great Tower, which I laid bare
last year, I am likewise making an excavation 47 feet long
and 48 feet broad, so as to bring to light more of this side,
and to see how the walls of Ilium are connected with it. It
is worth a journey round the world to see this Tower, whose
site was at all events so high, that it not only commanded
a view of the Plain, but also of the plateau lying to the
south of it, whereas its summit now lies a great many feet
below the level of the plateau. According to this it seems
that the accumulation of debris on the site of the city is as
large as it is in the Pergamus.*
* It is perhaps unnecessary to remind the reader again how the
Author afterwards gave up the idea of this distinction between the city
and its Pergamus.—[Ed.]