DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0336
270 TROY AND ITS REMAINS. [Chap. XIX.
could of course easily be melted down and re-cast, and it
must not even be supposed that I shall find any except
those which were lost in the tumult of battle, or were pre-
served amidst the destruction of the city. Therefore the
fact that I find immensely larger numbers of silex knives
than of copper knives, and by far more axes and hammers
of stone than of copper, by no means proves that at the time
of the Trojan war there were more stone than copper instru-
ments. Stone lances are, moreover, very rarely met with;
this year I found only two of which I know positively that
they are lances ; the one was discovered at a depth of
11 £ feet, the other at 20 feet deep.
Mr. Frank Calvert of the Dardanelles, who wishes to
convince me by the hippopotamus which I found at a
depth of 23 feet, that the debris at this depth belongs to
a period when hippopotami inhabited the rivers of the
Troad, has expressed the opinion, in his article in the Levant
Herald of the 25th of January, 1873, tnat Homer would
necessarily have mentioned stone knives and instruments
if they had existed in Troy, and that, as he speaks of none,
there could have been none; consequently, that none of the
ruined strata which I have cut through, containing stone
implements, can belong to the Homeric Troy, and that the
stratum directly following the Greek ruins, which extend as
far down as 6i feet, must be more than 1000 years older
than the Trojan war.
If Mr. Calvert had taken the trouble to look into
Homer, he would have found that the word 'hammer
(paia-TTjp) occurs only once (Iliad, XVIII. 477), and that is
in the hand of Hephaestus. It is, indeed, not said of what
material the hammer was made; the fire-god, however,
would probably have had none other than a copper hammer.
Mr. Calvert also does not appear to have ever seen a silex
knife, for otherwise he would know that they are almost
always only from i£ to i\, and rarely 3, inches long; and
moreover, with but few exceptions, they are made in the
could of course easily be melted down and re-cast, and it
must not even be supposed that I shall find any except
those which were lost in the tumult of battle, or were pre-
served amidst the destruction of the city. Therefore the
fact that I find immensely larger numbers of silex knives
than of copper knives, and by far more axes and hammers
of stone than of copper, by no means proves that at the time
of the Trojan war there were more stone than copper instru-
ments. Stone lances are, moreover, very rarely met with;
this year I found only two of which I know positively that
they are lances ; the one was discovered at a depth of
11 £ feet, the other at 20 feet deep.
Mr. Frank Calvert of the Dardanelles, who wishes to
convince me by the hippopotamus which I found at a
depth of 23 feet, that the debris at this depth belongs to
a period when hippopotami inhabited the rivers of the
Troad, has expressed the opinion, in his article in the Levant
Herald of the 25th of January, 1873, tnat Homer would
necessarily have mentioned stone knives and instruments
if they had existed in Troy, and that, as he speaks of none,
there could have been none; consequently, that none of the
ruined strata which I have cut through, containing stone
implements, can belong to the Homeric Troy, and that the
stratum directly following the Greek ruins, which extend as
far down as 6i feet, must be more than 1000 years older
than the Trojan war.
If Mr. Calvert had taken the trouble to look into
Homer, he would have found that the word 'hammer
(paia-TTjp) occurs only once (Iliad, XVIII. 477), and that is
in the hand of Hephaestus. It is, indeed, not said of what
material the hammer was made; the fire-god, however,
would probably have had none other than a copper hammer.
Mr. Calvert also does not appear to have ever seen a silex
knife, for otherwise he would know that they are almost
always only from i£ to i\, and rarely 3, inches long; and
moreover, with but few exceptions, they are made in the