[Illustration: Altar and Reservoir PLATE IX.
UPPER PART OF THE BUILDINGS DISCOVERED IN THE DEPTHS OF THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA.
Weather and progress of the work--The lion-headed handle of a sceptre--Lions formerly in the Troad--Various objects found--Pottery--Implements of stone and copper--Whorls--Balls curiously decorated--Fragments of musical instruments--Remains of house-walls--The storks of the Troad.
During this last week we have again had constant splendid weather, and, with 150 men on an average, I have got through a good piece of work. On the north side of the excavation on the site of the Temple of Athena, I have already reached a depth of 26 feet, and have laid bare the Tower in several places. The space to be dug down is now divided into four terraces, and I am having the lowest terrace, which forms the surface of the Tower, worked with especially great energy. As the paths are getting both steeper and longer, the men with the wheelbarrows have now to stop and rest half-way, so the work proceeds more slowly every day. Still I hope that I shall bring to light the whole breadth of the Tower in the eastern direction in three weeks, but the western side in a week and a half. The only part of the interior of the Temple of Athena which I have left standing is the reservoir built of large white stones without cement, which, owing to my excavations, will in a few days be 26 feet above the Tower, and will have a very pretty appearance. It is only by excavating the west side of that part of the Great Tower which I uncovered last year, that I shall be able to judge in what direction the walls run out from it, and what my next work will be. The most remarkable of the objects found this week is certainly a large knob belonging to a stick, of the purest and finest crystal, and in the form of a very beautifully wrought lion’s head; it was discovered upon the Tower at a depth of 26 feet. It must have been the ornament of a Trojan’s staff or sceptre (σκῆπτρον), for I found it among those brilliant red and black fragments of pottery, which only occur at a depth of from 36 to 46 feet, except upon the Tower. Not only this lion’s head, but the illustrations drawn from the lion, which occur repeatedly in the Iliad, make it seem extremely probable that in remote antiquity lions existed in this neighbourhood. Homer could not possibly have described so excellently the characteristics of this animal, had he not had frequent opportunity of watching them, and his geographical knowledge of southern countries is too slight for us to suppose that he had visited them, and had there become intimately acquainted with the characteristics of the lion. Not far from the lion’s head I found a splendidly cut hexagon of the purest crystal, as well as a small pyramid, 1½ inch long and broad, and 1-2/3 inch high, made of black, white and blue streaked marble, such as is not found in this district; the hole which runs through the centre of the pyramid is filled with lead.
