The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-01-15
PRIAM'S PALACE.
Has It Been Unearthed by DR.. Schlie-
mann?
Remnants of an older Troy Than That
OF Homer.

London Athenseum an account OF his exca-
vations at Hissarlik during the past season,
of which the following is a part:
what have brought to light of the Tro-
jan houses in general. and the last town
chief Is or kings mansion, in particular, are
merely the substructions, on an average, five
feet high, which in the absence of cellars
served as store rooms. A similar habit
appears to have existed at the time
of the poet, for we see in the niad wi.
2SS 81 that Hecuba descends to the store
room where the artfully embroidered gar
ments were stored. Had the store room
been on the floor inhabited by the family,
the poet would not have said that the queen
descended. The substructions of the royal
house consist of uncut stones joined with
clay; the inner side of the house walls has
thick coating of clay which has been white
washed with clay If asked, Is this Priam's
palace as described by Homer? Iliad wi.
242 81 would answer by the verse of Virgil:
Isl parva licet componere magnis.' In fact.
according to the poet, the palace contained
so chambers for the kings SONS and u for
his daughters, and all were of polished stone
But Homer can never have been the Troy
whose tragic fate he describes, because at his
time, and
PROBABLY AGES BEFORE HIS TIME,
the city he glorifies was buried beneath
mountains of debris. But at his time pub
lie ediices, and probably also royal man
sions, were built of polished stones, and he,
therefore, attributes the same architecture
10 Priam's mansion, magnifying 1t with
poetic license. This building has toward
the gate a corridor 40 feet s inches long by
6 feet broad, leading to a chamber only
feet 6-inches long by feet 6 inches broad,
in which the ingenious DR.. Moss discovered
- h1x,, &1,;c
nearly filled by a huge jar 5 feet inches
high and 4 feet inches broad. By a door
only l foot 10 inches broad this chamber
communicates with another larger one,
which is II feet 5 4 inches long and feet 4
inches broad, and contains three immense
jars, OF precisely the same size as that just
referred to- and q somewhat smaller
one; the pottery of the jars is upward of two
inches thick. From this room we enter by
a door feet inches broad, into a
larger one, which runs parallel with the
aforesaid corridor, and is "a feet four inches
long and II feet broad, and leads to another
chamber 10 feet long and feet broad.
This is the best preserved part of the man
sion, to which belong also the buildings
which separate it from the northern part of
the great wall. l therefore do not see any
reason why the mansion, if, as is highly
probable, it had five or SIX upper stories OF
sun-dried bricks or wood, may not have had
even more Than a hundred smaller or larger
rooms 1 secured one of the bricks, which
is feet long l foot three inches broad,
and 81 inches thick, and which has in the
confagration been converted into burned
brick.
I'm several directions beneath the royal
mansion we see the walls of still much
more ancient building, which we can not
but ascribe to the first city erected on these
sacred premises, because all the fragments
of pottery which we find in the very cham
bers of the ancient mansion, Immediately
below the Trojan stratum, have on both
sides that beautiful lustrous red, black or
brown color which / never yet found else
where but in the strata of the first city.
now feel even bold enough to say that the
great circuit wall was not built by the Tro
jams, but by their predecessors, because in
carefully digging off the debris from that
wall find it covered by layer of rubbish
about one foot thick, which is
NOT TROJAN,
because it does not contain any burned mat
ter, and because it is full of pottery peculiar
to the first city, which can not possibly be
there by mere accident Above this layer
the great wall is covered six and seven feet
deep with brick colored ashes of the tower
like buildings of sun dried bricks and wood,
which once served both as its ornaments and
as its works of defense, and DR.. Moss calls to
my remembrance that in this respect Troy
resembles several cities in Scriptures SO, e. e.,
Joshua iii, 15) describes the house of Rahab,
situated on the circuit wall of Jericho. l
have equally acquired the certainty that the
gate, which has now turned out to be
treble. was built by the inhabitants of
the first city, OF large, rudely cut white
stones, which We see IN all the lower layers
OF the gate walls, and the passage was
paved by them with white fiegs. The sue
ceeding people, whom l identity with the
rrojans, had merely repaired the gate, COW
er;ng white flags with others of a reddish
halo toni ti,oo do los
white slabs by masonry of small stones.
The reddish flags, having suffered too much
by the white heat in the conhagration, have
nearly all crunbled away since l brought
them to light OF the white flags lifted
one, and having dug beneath it large square
hole, three feet deep, 1 only found there
potsherds belonging to the first city. The
third gate is LIZ feet broad, and beyond it
the masonry continues still for 10 feet on
either side. OF course, the three gates, as
We now see them, are merely the substitute
lions of tower-Iike building of sun dried
bricks and wood.
zone of the most curious objects ever
| found here is undoubtedly distaff IL inches
long, around which is lengthwise wound a
| large quantity of wooden thread, black like
! coal, probably from being charred; but
| trust that, locked up in glass vessel, it will
keep very we'll. l discovered it in the royal
mansion, at depth of Is feet below the sur
| face. According TO DR.. Moss the wood of
| the distaff is the stem of very young tree.
ssVisitors see in the talus of my trenches
billions of cookies and muscles. which are
not found here on the seashore, bul only in
| the deep inlets which communicate with the
sea; of course they must have been used as
| food by the Inhabitants. In the Trojan
stratum, in which all the kitchen middens
are charred, DR.. Moss recognizes RAZOR shells,
limpets, pectans and oysters, mixed with
ses sand, hare and pig, as well as small fish
bones, flint chips, boar tusks and stag horns.
He observes that the latter are nearly all
cast antlers. with the burr much worn,
which implies that they were probably
COLLECTED 70 MAKE IMPLEMENTS,
aud not merely brought TO the town with
the products of the chase. He also found in
tie Trojan layer of debris an ulna of boar
| with flint flake upon II. Visitors will see
that the well which has been dug by the late
Greek Ilians, is at depth of % feet below