SECRETS OF TROY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 89, 12 October 1938, Page 26

SECRETS OF TROY

MORE DISCOVERIES

RELICS OF FIRST TROJANS

DATE OF THE SIEGE

The American _ expedition now excavating the site of Troy is conchiding its operations this season, says a writer in the "Manchester "Guardian." Troj' will then have yielded * almost' all its secrets The ultimate' scientific publication that will result will be the fullest record yet published. . - ■

The excavation of the site for the third time since Schliemann first camped upon it has been rich in unusual results. ThjE procejss of excavation was largely helped by the wisdom of the first, excavator, who left at intervals on the site "islands" of unexcavated soil which contained the complete stratification from the latest and ninth "city" to the first. These islands have served as a perfect control for the present excavators. By his decision to leave such untouched specimens of the site intact Schliemann invented a method which all subsequent archaeologists have followed. The wisdom of his method is how made clear. The excavators adhere to the main division of the periods of history of the site made by Doerpfold from 1 to j IX, but have been forced to subdivide 1 these periods, and over forty subperiods have been identified within the main framework of the nine. TROY I FORTIFIED. The latest excavations have unexpectedly revealed information of the utmost importance for our knowledge of the very first Trojans. As yet no one can say who the Trojans were "or whence they came, but we know for certain that they arrived on the site of Troy with a fully developed culture. For at the level of Troy I the excavators found the foundations of great palatial houses of the "megaron" type, and last season made one of their most interesting major discoveries. Apparently the first and earliest settlement of Trojans was fortified, and [ shortly after they had settled they built an enormous ring wall".of powerful masonry, fortified with buttresses and entered by gates. Hitherto it had always been thought that the famous Settlement was the earliest to be fortified. These newly-discovered walls are of a small circular fortress not a hundred yards in diameter, but immensely strong. They seem to have been built to replace the' provisional defences which the settlers had built on arrival. No hint of their existence was revealed by the excavations of Schliemann and Doerpfeld. The second citadel was an enlargement of the circuit laid down by the. first, and in the house foundations of the second level were found traces which indicated the existence of houses with wooden plank floors. Such a method of floor building is otherwise unknown in ancient times, although the usual custom today. Earth or stone floors were the-invariable rule in an- | cient Greece and Rome. AN EARLY CIVILISATION. One astonishing find in the First Citadel was of three stone "stelae," or slabs, one of which actually bore in relief the sculpture, highly formalised, of a human face. The other "stelae" had hollow markings like the "cupmarkings" on Western European megalithic monuments. Indeed, the character of the sculptured human face, while perpetuated later in the well-known "face-jars" of Trojan pottery, suggests comparison with similar carvings in the Early Bronze Age of "Western Europe. The date of Troy I, however, !is of immense antiquity, going back to the fourth millennium, and so antedates anything western. The excavators note that this carving has a feeling for style and is the product of a long age of development: "The institution of kingship, of centralised royal power, and of a court that fostered art in the north-eastern j Mediterranean may thus be traced ' back to a much earlier period than was heretofore possible, and the origin Jof civilisation is seen to recede still I further into the remote and inscrutable | past." This is the conclusion of the excavators resulting from their illumination of the high stage of culture represented by the first Trojans of the dawn of history. These settlers must have had a previous history in their place of origin, of long" duration. But whether their origin is to be found in Asia Minor or in Europe is one of those baffling problems which remain for solution. At least we can say now with assurance that they were not mere | savages who drifted to Troy and slowIly developed there. They arrived with i a knowledge of elaborate architecture i and the power of primitive sculpture. HISTORY UNALTERED. The history of the Second Settlement remains unaltered. The excavators examined anew the site of the house near the main gate where Schliemann found his famous "Treasure of Priam," and they noted that the violent destruction of this settlement by fire and i sudden onslaught " was verifiable in j completeness. They found that the inhabitants had fled or been largely exterminated; for they had left behind them in ihany houses their most valuable possessions. ■ Gold was found in almost every, part of Troy II that the present excavators examined. A small hoard of gold, pins and beads, 252 large and 1029 small gold beads in all, was found. All the gold objects alike were of the type known from the "Treasure iof Priam." • One of the most important of the earlier discoveries by the American excavators was the knowledge that the Sixth Settlement, previously identified as the Troy of Homer, was, in fact, destroyed by a violent earthquake about the year 1350 8.C., long before the Trojan War. It was rebuilt and reoccupied again, and the next settlement (entitled VIIA) came to a disastrous end almost precisely at the b year' 1200. That is . the date usually assigned by tradition to the fall r^ Troy to the Acheans. Tlie second destruction was not by ' earthquake but by human agency. INDISPUTABLE PROOF. Proof of this was clear and indisputable, for in the narrow streets that I branched off from the south gate adjoining houses whose date was firmly ; fixed at 1200 B.C. were the skeletons of the defenders of the city, lying where they had fallen. Troy was un- ! doubtedly sacked at approximately the i date (1184 is the date usually accepted in Greek tradition) at which legend said that event occurred. Historians and literary experts can take heart :from the work "of the archaeologists! j There was proof even of the siege of Troy, for in the period immediately preceding the fall it seems that the inhabitants were grossly overcrowded. Not only were1 there too many houses within the circuit of the walls, but some of these houses had been built right up against the interior face of the wall itself. This alone is some indication of urgency, for it was an almost unbroken rule in antiquity never to build houses thus, as it allowed the possibility of treachery. A private resident might tunnel through i the wall and, communicate with the

enemy. Apparently the inhabitants of I the plain, of Troy had concentrated I within the-walls :of'their, central citadel, just as the Athenians did at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, This strongly suggests a siege. TROY NOT ABANDONED. In one respect the results of the investigation of Troy VIIA went contrary to tradition. Troy was-reoccupied by refugees after its "fall, refugees of the same race carrying on ; the same tradition. Aeneas was reputed to have returned to Troy after its "fall; but the main legends assume that Troy was abandoned. But after this reoccupation apparently a tribe of wandering barbarians from Thrace or Hungary came and settled also and mixed with the surviving Trojans. This is verified by the archaeological- evidence that concerns, the level jxnown as Troy VIIB. The excavators have carried out their work with the greatest scientific precision. No fewer than 400 soil samples from different levels have been secured for pollen analysis and geological examination. Their excar } vations of the walls of Troy VI have restored to view no less than forty yards of the superb battlements of this age, and a further • gate has been discovered. All the animal bones; have been scrupulously examined arid interesting results established.; 150,000 bones in all were examined. Twenty species of quadrupeds were identified. Sheep, goats, ahd pigs were the main source of food throughout, though at all periods the inhabitants were great- ] ly addicted to "shore dinners." The visitor to Troy is always struck by the immense quantity of sea shells, ! cockles and the like, in the soil of all • periods. One surprising result of the bone analysis was that the horse was first known only in the Sixth Settlement, from about 1800 B.C. In the Seventh Settlement traces, of the leopard were found, and the bear was known. Fowl were as common a ' source of food almost as fish through- ; out the history of the site.

In the Sixth Settlement at one place an immense deposit of "murex" shell was found, proof of the existence at that time of a large purple-dyeing industry.

The present season may yet reveal more surprises, but.it would be'difficult to expect more results than those already achieved, which are eminently satisfactory.