The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-03-20
sCHLIEMANNs DISCOVERIES.
The Ruins of TrOy--The Remains o
Four Cities.

The Ruins OF TrOy--The Remains OF
| Four Cities.
| Schliemann's wonderful success in 1875
was due, In great measure, to the CON
| clusions which he had reached DURING
the excavations of 1872. He continued
| the classification of the ruins and the
relics they contained, and so found that
they might be divided into four distinct
strata, each of which represented long
historic period. Further comparison
! convinced him that the third of these
strata, counting from the top, was the
| only one which met the requirements
of Homer and Greek tradition; conse-
quently, here was Troy. But under
Troy there was an earlier layer of ruin,
varying from thirteen to twenty feet in
depth, before the primitive soil was
reached. This discovery is hardly less
interesting than that of the position of
Troy. 1t carries the antiquity of the
city back into that immense, shadewy
past of the human race, which stretches
like mysterious twilight land behind
our oldest history. The geographical
position of Ilium explains its impor-
tance in those far off ages. The gorges
of Ida protect it in the rear seated at
the junction of the Hellespont with the
Hgean, it made a station between
Colchis, at the eastern extremity of the
Euxine, and all the Grecian, Egyptian
and Phpnician coasts the rich plain
around it furnished abundant supplies.
which would be readily exchanged for
foreign merchandise, and as its people
became rich and impregns BILE within
their citadel-town, the other and ruder
tribes in their neighborhood would yield
to their power. It is certainly older.
by great many centuries, than Athens,
and its immemCrial importance was no
doubt the first cause of the jealousy of
the sensitive Greeks.
the topmost historical stratum, which
is only 69 feet in depth, seems to begin
about the year 700 B. c., when a Gre
clan settlement was established there
under the Lydian dynasty. From that
period, coins and inscriptions indicate
the subsequent centuries until about
the middle of the fourth century of our
era. There are no later coins or medals
than of Constans IL. whose reign ceased
in 361 A. d. Schliemann is of tn opin-
ion that the city was destroyed at that
time or soon afterward, but gives no
conjecture of the manner of its fall 1t
seems to me thst the raids of the Cloths.
then settled on the northern shore of
the Black Sea, where they built fleets,
even sailing through the Bosphorus in
proud defiance of ConstantInople, to
ravage the coasts of Greece and Asia
Minor, give us an easy explanation.
The Greek Ilium, which covered the
whole of the lower plateau of Hissarlik,
must have contained 100, 900 inhabi-
tants. 1t was a rich, and at that time
luxurious city, clearly Wis
ible from the waters of the Hcllespont.
speedily reached and incapable of re-
sisting such stalwart invaders
We have thus an age of ,OjO years
for the first g. feet of rubbish. At this |
depth the Greek masonry suddenly |
ceases, and a stratum II feet in thick |
ness intervenes between it and the mas |
sive buildings of the Trojan era. The |
relics here found are of a perplexing |
and will give plenty of work |
to the archeologis s. The walls are
built cf earth and small stones, but the |
abundance of wood ashes shows that /
the city--or the successive cities-was
chiefly built of wood If the chronol-
ogy of the Trojan age can be approx
mately established, it will, of course,
give us the duration of this intermedi-
ate belt OF ruin; at present, 1t Is scarce
ly possible even to guess.
The ruins of Troy form stratum
averaging 10 feet in thickness, the |
depth CfrOm the surface) reaching from
233 to 49, feet Since the foundation
of the city is conjectured to have taken
place about 140O B. c., and its fall and
destruction by fire to have occurred
100 B. c., this would give three centu-
ries for the formation of ten feet of
is quite sufficient if we
imagine a small but crowded city, with
houses of more than one story and
much woodwork, of which the ruins
gave ample evidence. The marks of
intense heat are everywhere manifest.
When the Scean Gate was first uncov-
cred, the pavement seemed uniformly
perfect; but at the end of two or three