Page:Troja by Heinrich Schliemann.djvu/128

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
78
THE SECOND CITY: TROY.
[Chap. III.

All these longitudinal grooves, as well as all the cross holes, had been originally filled with wooden beams; as is proved with the greatest certainty by their form and by the impressions the branches have left in the clay cement. But it is a curious fact, that in none of the grooves or holes have we been able to discover the slightest vestige of charred wood. In some rare cases these grooves and holes had, after the artificial baking of the brick walls, been left open, either intentionally or by inadvertence; but in general they were filled with baked brick matter mixed with vitrified pieces of brick, probably such as had fallen from the walls during the baking operation, for we find occasionally a fragment of pottery in this brick débris.

As further proofs that the walls were built of crude bricks and were baked after having been erected, I may state that the clay cement between the bricks has been baked exactly in the same manner as the bricks themselves, and further that the upper parts of the walls were but very slightly baked. This again is proved by a fragment of a cross-wall, which contains clay-bricks still quite unbaked, and by the upper parts of the lateral walls, which have fallen into the interior of the edifice, portions of their bricks being altogether unbaked.

The foundations of the brick walls of this temple A consist throughout of walls of unwrought calcareous stones, 2.50 m. high, which are covered with large limestone or sandstone slabs, on which the brick walls rested. These foundations protrude in the south-eastern part of the edifice 0.30 m. above the floor; but, as the latter rises gradually towards the north-west, the foundations are there on a level with the floor. The bricks are on an average 0.45 m. broad, 0.67 m. long, and about 0.12 m. thick. With this proportion of 2:3 in the breadth and length of the bricks, the walls could be regularly bonded in such a way that, together with the joints, three and two bricks alternately formed the thickness of the wall, viz. 1.45 m.

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.