Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric PeoplesNadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
History
Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples
Nadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
Archaeology; Prehistoric peoples
The first layer of rubbish rests on the rock itself, and may very well
have belonged to the town built by Dardanus, of which Tlepolemus
relates the destruction by his grandfather Hercules.42 According to the
Homeric story six generations, and according to generally accepted
modern calculations two centuries, separate Dardanus from Priam. If
therefore we accept 1200 B.C. as the date of the Trojan war, the town
built by Dardanus would date from 1400 B.C., and we should possess
data, if not absolutely certain, at least approximately so.43
There remain but a few relics of the buildings erected by the first
inhabitants of the bill of Hissarlik, which relics consist of great
blocks of irregular size, with remains of bearing walls composed of
small stones cemented together with clay and faced with a glaze which
has withstood the wear and tear of centuries.
The second town, which would appear to have been that described in the
Iliad, was probably built by a race foreign to those who erected the
first. The hill, which was to become the Acropolis of the new town, was
surrounded by the new-comers with a wall several feet thick, of which
the foundations consisted of unhewn stones; whilst the upper part was
made of artificially baked bricks, the baking having been done after
they were put in place, by large fires lit in vacant places left at
regular intervals; an arrangement recalling what we have said in
speaking of vitrified forts.44 It is also interesting to note a similar
mode of construction at Aztalan in Wisconsin in structures which
probably date from the time of the Mound Builders. The walls at
Hissarlik were protected by re-entering angles and projecting forts.
The interior of the _enceinte_ was reached by three doors, and it is
still easy to make out the ruins of the different buildings. A room
sixty-five feet long by thirty-two wide is surrounded by very thick
walls, and towards the southeast is a square vestibule, opening into
the room by a large door.45 These, Dr. Schliemann thinks, were the
_naos_ and _pronaos_ of a temple dedicated to the tutelary gods of the
town. Quite close to them is another building with similar
dispositions; a square vestibule giving access to a large room, which
in its turn leads to a smaller apartment. These two buildings, which
are reached through a _propylæum_, are the only ones of which the
explorers have been able to make out the measurements with any
exactitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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