Page:Troja by Heinrich Schliemann.djvu/76

cotta trays or plates, which are peculiar to the second city.

I further dug a trench 40 mètres long close to the Acropolis on the north-west side (see Plan VIII. in this volume), where I hoped to find the prolongation of the great wall of the second city. In fact, I found there, at the exact place where it must be supposed to have existed, the rock artificially levelled, so that there can be no doubt that the wall once stood here; but not a stone of it remained in situ.

I also dug a trench, 110 mètres long, 3 mètres broad, on the plateau of the lower city of Ilium, on the south side of Hissarlik (see Plan VIII.). Here the excavation was much easier, the depth of the débris being 6 mètres close to the citadel-hill, and only 2 mètres at the end of my trench. I struck here a portico of syenite columns with Corinthian capitals of white marble. It is paved with large well-wrought blocks of calcareous stone, and has evidently been destroyed at a late period, for the columns had only fallen when the pavement was already covered up with débris 0.30 m. deep; and, as all the columns which are visible lie in a north-westerly direction, it is probable that the edifice was destroyed by an earthquake.^[1] In this trench we also struck many Hellenic house-walls, and found masses of Hellenic pottery, but in the lowest layers of débris again a very large quantity of prehistoric terra-cottas of the first two cities of Hissarlik. Visitors can easily convince themselves of the existence of this pottery, if they will only take the trouble to pick with a knife in the sides of the trench from the rock to o 30 m. or 0.40 m. above it. I also sunk a large number of shafts on the plateau, south and east of the citadel-hill, as well as on the