Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient LifeYaggy, L. W. (Levi W.)
History
Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life
Yaggy, L. W. (Levi W.)
Civilization, Ancient; Classical antiquities
The excavations made have sufficiently proved that the second nation
which built a town on this hill, upon the _debris_ of the first
settlers (which is from 13 to 20 feet deep), are the Trojans of whom
Homer sings. Their _debris_ lies from 23 to 33 feet below the surface.
This Trojan stratum, which, without exception, bears marks of great
heat, consists mainly of red ashes of wood, which rise from 5 to 10
feet above the Great Tower of Ilium, the double Scæan Gate, and the
great enclosing Wall, the construction of which Homer ascribes to
Poseidon and Apollo, and they show that the town was destroyed by a
fearful conflagration. How great the heat must have been is clear also
from the large slabs of stone upon the road leading from the double
Scæan Gate down to the Plain; for when the road was laid open all the
slabs appeared as uninjured as if they had been put down quite
recently; but after they had been exposed to the air for a few days,
the slabs of the upper part of the road, to the extent of some 10
feet, which had been exposed to the heat, began to crumble away, and
they have now almost disappeared, while those of the lower portion of
the road, which had not been touched by the fire, have remained
uninjured, and seem to be indestructible. A further proof of the
terrible catastrophe is furnished by a stratum of scoriæ of melted
lead and copper, from one fifth to one and one fifth of an inch thick,
which extends nearly through the whole hill at a depth of from 28 to
29-1/2 feet. That Troy was destroyed by enemies after a bloody war is
further attested by the many human bones which were found in these
heaps of _debris_, and above all the skeletons with helmets, found in
the depths of the Temple of Athena, for, as we know from Homer, all
corpses were burned and the ashes were preserved in urns. Of such urns
were found an immense number in all the pre-Hellenic strata on the
hill. Lastly, the Treasure, which some member of the royal family had
probably endeavored to save during the destruction of the city, but
was forced to abandon, leaves no doubt that the city was destroyed by
the hands of enemies. This Treasure was found on the large enclosing
wall by the side of the royal palace, at a depth of 27-1/2 feet, and
covered with red Trojan ashes from 5 to 6-1/2 feet in depth, above
which was a post-Trojan wall of fortification 19-1/2 feet high.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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