Page:Troja by Heinrich Schliemann.djvu/236

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FOURTH PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT.
[Chap. IV.

proportions. This also explains the tremendous masses of mussel and other small shells, some of which are still closed. The house-walls of clay-bricks must also have contributed to the rapid accumulation of débris, for by the alternate influence of rain, sunshine, and wind, these bricks get completely dissolved.

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No. 97.—Vase with an owl-face, the characteristics of a woman, and two wing-like upright projections. Size 1:4; depth about 5 m.

We cannot say with certainty how the fourth settlement came to an end; but, as we found the upper part of its fortification-walls destroyed, it is natural to suppose that the settlement may have perished by the hand of enemies. We see in several houses traces of fire, but these are not more considerable than those in the third settlement, and certainly there has not been a general destruction.

We found again in the débris of the fourth settlement a very large quantity of pottery, like that represented and discussed in Ilios, pp. 521–562, Nos. 986–1219, but no

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