DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0369
Ch. XXII. 1873.] TUMULUS OF BATIEA. 301
always at hand. Besides this, the long days are of great
advantage to me, for I can continue work from a quarter
to five till a quarter past seven in the evening.
On the top of the tumulus, which' is half an hour
distant from the Pergamus, and which, according to the
Iliad (II. 811-815), was called by men the tomb of
Batiea, and by the gods the tomb of Myrina, I have had
a shaft sunk, 10J feet broad and iji feet long; and I find
that the layer of soil there is scarcely more than f of an
inch thick, and then follows brown earth as hard as stone,
which alternates with strata of calcareous earth. In the
brown earth I found a mass of fragments of brilliant black,
green, and brown vases, of the same description as those
which I find here in the Pergamus at a depth of from
8 to 10 meters (26 to 33 feet); also many fragments of
jars (ttWoi), Beyond these I discovered nothing at all,
and at a depth of 4.4 meters (13! feet) I came upon the
white limestone rock. What is most surprising to me is
that I did not even find any charcoal, much less the bones
of the burnt corpse. That I should have missed the traces
of the funeral pile, if such really existed, is inconceivable
to me, when I consider the size of my cutting and of its
perpendicular walls.
Now, although I have failed in the actual object of this
excavation, still it has this important result for archeology,
that, by means of all the fragments of pottery discovered
there, it enables us to determine with some degree of cer-
tainty the date of the erection of this mound; for it evi-
dently belongs to a time when the surface of the Pergamus
was from 26 to 33 feet lower than it is now. It is therefore
of the same date as the Tower-road already described, which
is paved with large flags of stone, and above which I have
carried on the excavations with the greatest industry. I
finished these excavations to-day. They have brought to
light two large buildings of different ages, the more recent
of which is erected upon the ruins of the more ancient one.
always at hand. Besides this, the long days are of great
advantage to me, for I can continue work from a quarter
to five till a quarter past seven in the evening.
On the top of the tumulus, which' is half an hour
distant from the Pergamus, and which, according to the
Iliad (II. 811-815), was called by men the tomb of
Batiea, and by the gods the tomb of Myrina, I have had
a shaft sunk, 10J feet broad and iji feet long; and I find
that the layer of soil there is scarcely more than f of an
inch thick, and then follows brown earth as hard as stone,
which alternates with strata of calcareous earth. In the
brown earth I found a mass of fragments of brilliant black,
green, and brown vases, of the same description as those
which I find here in the Pergamus at a depth of from
8 to 10 meters (26 to 33 feet); also many fragments of
jars (ttWoi), Beyond these I discovered nothing at all,
and at a depth of 4.4 meters (13! feet) I came upon the
white limestone rock. What is most surprising to me is
that I did not even find any charcoal, much less the bones
of the burnt corpse. That I should have missed the traces
of the funeral pile, if such really existed, is inconceivable
to me, when I consider the size of my cutting and of its
perpendicular walls.
Now, although I have failed in the actual object of this
excavation, still it has this important result for archeology,
that, by means of all the fragments of pottery discovered
there, it enables us to determine with some degree of cer-
tainty the date of the erection of this mound; for it evi-
dently belongs to a time when the surface of the Pergamus
was from 26 to 33 feet lower than it is now. It is therefore
of the same date as the Tower-road already described, which
is paved with large flags of stone, and above which I have
carried on the excavations with the greatest industry. I
finished these excavations to-day. They have brought to
light two large buildings of different ages, the more recent
of which is erected upon the ruins of the more ancient one.