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
"I also found in the Treasure three great silver vases, the largest of
which is above eight and one-fourth inches high and nearly eight
inches in diameter, and has a handle five and one-half inches in
length and three and one-half in breadth. (No. 23.) The second vase is
6.9 inches high and nearly six inches in diameter; another silver vase
is welded to the upper part of it (No. 22), of which, however, only
portions have been preserved. No. 19 is a splendid Terra-cotta vase
from the Palace of Priam. It is the largest vase of the type frequent
in the ruins, with two small handles and two great upright wings. The
cover was found near it.
[Illustration: LIDS AND METALS OF PRIAM.]
"On the south side of the hill, where, on account of the slight
natural slope, I had to make my great trench with an inclination of
fourteen degrees, I discovered, at a distance of 197 feet from the
declivity, a Tower, forty feet thick, which I have uncovered on the
north and south sides along the whole breadth of my trench, and have
convinced myself that it is built on the rock at a depth of forty-six
and a half feet.
"The Tower is at present only twenty feet high, but the nature of its
surface, and the masses of stones lying on both sides, seem to prove
that it was at one time much higher. For the preservation of what
remains we have only to thank the ruins of Troy, which entirely
covered the Tower as it now stands. It is probable that after the
destruction of Troy much more of it remained standing, and that the
part which rose above the ruins of the town was destroyed by the
successors of the Trojans, who possessed neither walls nor
fortifications. The western part of the Tower, so far as it is yet
uncovered, is only from 121 to 124 feet distant from the steep western
slope of the hill; and, considering the enormous accumulation of
_debris_, I believe that the Tower once stood on the western edge of
the Acropolis, where its situation would be most interesting and
imposing, for its top would have commanded, not only a view of the
whole Plain of Troy, but of the sea with the Islands of Tenedos,
Imbros and Samothrace. There is not a more sublime situation in the
area of Troy than this, and I therefore presume that it is the 'Great
Tower of Ilium' which Andromache ascended because 'she had heard that
the Trojans were hard pressed and that the power of the Achæans was
great.'
"'But to the height of Ilion's topmost tower
Andromache is gone; since tidings came
The Trojan force was overmatched, and great
The Grecian strength.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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