Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-03-08


feet belowthe surface, sixteen feet wide,
and paved with stone blocks about four
feet square. Schliemann Immediately
wrote, on making the announcement:
sBeyend the least doubt it leads to
the Scaan Gate, which cannot be more
than $50 yards distant from the
tower" Early in May, the ex-
cavation 81 the stteet, sitter
having led to the finding of another
large Trojan house, upon the ruins of
which a dwelling of the later Greek
period had been erected, terminated at
a massive double gate, the copper bolts
of which were found among, the rub
bish. There could be little doubt that
this was really the Scean gate, in men,
tioning which Homer always uses the
plural. The first entrance is about IL
feet wide, with smooth massive pave
ment. The foundations of the large
Trojan house, lying between the gate
and the tower; proved 10. have Been
built upon a mound artifcially formed
of the ruins of the prehistoric city. Its
situs ton, its stately dimensions, and
the treasures afterward found in its
chambers, seem to justify the discov-
efef in calling it, if not the House of
Priam, certainly the house of prince
or ruler of the Trojans.
The value by weight of all the gold
and silver found in the so-called House
of Priam was about $4,000. Within
were found d helmet and silver vase
about u inches in hight, in which were
two diadems of golden scales, golden
coronet, Sc golden earrings, and $3.50
small gold rings, buttons, etc. The
following extract from MIR. Taylor's
letter will serve as a fit conclusion to
this meagre sketehi
''Schliemann's wonderful success in
1873 was due, IN great measure, to
The conclusions which he had reached
during the excavations of 1872. He
continued the classification of the ruins
and the relics they contained, and soon
found that they might be divided into
four distinct strata, each of which rep
resented a long histGricperiod. 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 ira
dition; consequently, here was Troy,
But under Troy there was an earlier
layer of ruin, vaying from IL to 20
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 i'm
mense, shadowy past of the human
race, which stretches like a mysterious
twilight land behind our Oldest history.
The geographical position of Ilium ex-
plains its Importance in those far-off
ages. The gorges of Ida protect it in
the rear; seated at the junction of the
Hellespont with the Egean, it made
station between Colchis, at the eastern
extremity of the Euxine, and all the
Greeian, Egyptian and PhGnician
coasts; the rich plain around it furn-
ished abundant supplies, which could
readily be exchanged for foreign mer-
chandise, and as its people became rich
and impregnable within their citadel
town, the other and ruder tribes in
their neighborhood would yield to
their power. 1t is certainly older, by a
great many centuries, than Athens,
and its immemorial Importance was no
doubt the first cause of the jealousy of
the sensitive Greeks"