DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0442
I874-] THE TROJAN INSCRIPTIONS. 36$
Thus, before the first trench was dug at Hissarlik, a clue
was already supplied to the race of the primitive inhabi-
tants, if any such had dwelt there, and to the nature of
their language, if they had left any written records.
Among the patterns engraved upon the whorls and
other terra-cottas, many were soon found, as Dr. Schliemann
has fully shown, to.be the most ancient sacred emblems of
the Aryan race; and the discovery of these at all depths,
below the ruins of Greek Ilium, attested the common
Aryan descent of all the nations that had dwelt successively
on the hill before the historic Grecian colony. The ab-
sence of any trace of Egyptian influence, and almost
equally of Assyrian, seemed to attest an independent and
very ancient Aryan civilization; while the general character
of the works in terra-cotta, resembling those found in Cyprus
and some of the islands of the iEgean, appeared to belong
to the style which Professor Conze, of Vienna, had defined
as the earliest Greek or European Indo-Germanic. The
characters, which looked so exactly like writing, were cer-
tainly not hieroglyphs in any of their varieties; nor—though
there were some cuneiform marks—was there any true
cuneiform writing; while the few semblances of Phoenician
characters were soon found to be deceptive. This last fact,
again, helped to carry back the time of the settlement
of Hissarlik beyond the age when Greeks and Phoenicians
had entered into close relations of civilization on the shores of
the iEgean, that is, before the date of the Homeric poems,
which are full of allusions to Phoenician influence.
It has often been observed how remarkably new dis-
coveries coincide in point of time, just when they are
needed to throw light upon one another. At the very
moment when Dr. Schliemann was bringing to light the
remains buried in the Hill of Hissarlik, Orientalists were
engaged in deciphering the inscriptions found among the
antiquities of Cyprus, and upon the rock tablets in the
island, by the aid of the still recent results of cuneiform
Thus, before the first trench was dug at Hissarlik, a clue
was already supplied to the race of the primitive inhabi-
tants, if any such had dwelt there, and to the nature of
their language, if they had left any written records.
Among the patterns engraved upon the whorls and
other terra-cottas, many were soon found, as Dr. Schliemann
has fully shown, to.be the most ancient sacred emblems of
the Aryan race; and the discovery of these at all depths,
below the ruins of Greek Ilium, attested the common
Aryan descent of all the nations that had dwelt successively
on the hill before the historic Grecian colony. The ab-
sence of any trace of Egyptian influence, and almost
equally of Assyrian, seemed to attest an independent and
very ancient Aryan civilization; while the general character
of the works in terra-cotta, resembling those found in Cyprus
and some of the islands of the iEgean, appeared to belong
to the style which Professor Conze, of Vienna, had defined
as the earliest Greek or European Indo-Germanic. The
characters, which looked so exactly like writing, were cer-
tainly not hieroglyphs in any of their varieties; nor—though
there were some cuneiform marks—was there any true
cuneiform writing; while the few semblances of Phoenician
characters were soon found to be deceptive. This last fact,
again, helped to carry back the time of the settlement
of Hissarlik beyond the age when Greeks and Phoenicians
had entered into close relations of civilization on the shores of
the iEgean, that is, before the date of the Homeric poems,
which are full of allusions to Phoenician influence.
It has often been observed how remarkably new dis-
coveries coincide in point of time, just when they are
needed to throw light upon one another. At the very
moment when Dr. Schliemann was bringing to light the
remains buried in the Hill of Hissarlik, Orientalists were
engaged in deciphering the inscriptions found among the
antiquities of Cyprus, and upon the rock tablets in the
island, by the aid of the still recent results of cuneiform