RELICS OF TROY

Evening Post, Issue 52, 2 March 1935, Page 27

RELICS OF TROY

IMPORTANT FINDS

ASHES OF HEROES

■ After years of search, archaeologists , have discovered ashes of heroes .of f ancient Troy. More important; from p a scientific view, they have learned r that the Troad region in Asia Minor, centring in the Troy of the Iliad, was , inhabited by successive cultures of , men as long ago as the Neolithic Age. !: Dr. Carl W. Blegen, professor ;of classical archaeology at the University of Cincinnati and director .of the university's three successive expeditions to the site of Troy,, announced recentjy that these were sortie of the results of the third Cincinnati expedi- l. tion's work, states the "Literary j Digest." " v The site of Troy proper is a lonely 9 hill, known as the Hill of .Hissarlik. c The Scammander of the Iliad is now s called the Menderez. Excavations i commenced about 1872 by the German Archaeological Institute established the 1 identity of these features, and also t that the ,Hill of Hissarlik was the site not of one, but nine successive cities. ' Their remains lie compressed one above the other like leaves of a book. A COMPLETE FLOOR. The sixth of these settlements (counting from the bottom) is that generally believed to have been the Troy of Priam, sung by Homer. Soundings in the ruins of a house of this settlement, still partly covered by the debris of centuries, revealed last season a complete floor, well preserved and covered with a layer of carbonised matter, such as might have been deposited upon the floors of a city destroyed by fire. . This is the first house of the sixth ' settlement to be found with its floor intact. The stone bases of the columns, probably of wood, which supported the upper storey or roof were in place, alined in two rows, apparently five in each row. The exact arrangement cannot be determined until excavation of the house is completed. The expedition kept a sharp look-out for objects not native to Troy. "A settlement of relatively great size and wealth, with a long history extending through the whole Bronze ,Age, and occupying a position almost unparalleled in its strategic aspect with reference to the main trade-routes of the ancient world, must have been a centre of traffic," Dr. Blegen explained , recently. In such an emporium, with a flourishing business in exports and imports, it might be expected that there would be relics from other lands to provide valuable evidence for dating the prehistoric cities. .1 : Many such items did come to light. In one portion of the excavations, in strata belonging to the sixth Troy and part of the early seventh, were found pieces of pottery in Mycenean style, along, with the characteristic grey wares of the Trojans. One of the most notable imported articles was a well-shaped kylix, a shallow earthenware drinking cup, decoratedl on either; side with a boldly painted I

octopus. Dr. Blogen believes that this article found in the upper layers of the sixth Troy, can ■ hardly have been made later than the fourteenth century B.C. . The prize of the season's work was the discovery of nineteen undisturbed cinerary urns and fragments of many broken ones,-buried just outside the citadel and .attributed to the sixth Troy. Hitherto no burials, have been found at the site, which is< not surprising in view of these urns,-which reveal that cremation was practised. The jars were of many shapes. They contained ashes,. remnants of burned bones, and ornaments which had not. been entirely consumed by the funeral pyres. .. ''./'{'■