664 BEPORT— 1880. 



are found to-day as then described. There are some portions of these Nurhags 

 ■which appear of an older date, possibly the same as that of the towers in Minorca, 

 as they are very rude, and from these lolaus probably designed and improved and 

 produced the present Nurhage, adding the staircase. 



The remains in Minorca differ altogether from the Nurhags of Sardinia, by 

 having, as a part of them, stone tables, said to be for sacrifice, and circles of 

 monoliths, neither of which are found in Sardinia. If they existed previously, 

 they were probably removed ou the coming of lolaus, and the new-comers intro- 

 duced their own religion. Another .special class of monuments in Minorca ditlers 

 altogether from anything in Sardinia. These are vast ships built of stone of an 

 immense age, as pioved by their masourj'. The monuments themselves, as shown 

 by photographs, and compared with photographs of the earlier Cyclopean masonry 

 of Greece and Samothrace, are fomid to be of the very earliest type, assimilating 

 more to the most ancient circular structures in Etruria than any other remains. 



Dr. Phene then described the architectural beauties of the city of Palma, his 

 various journeys and researches, the mixture of races on the islands, and quoted 

 the known classical references to these islands, remarking on the people, and their 

 ancient and modern customs. 



3. On a recent Examination of the TopocirapTiij of the Troad. 

 By Dr. Phene, F.8.A., F.B.G.S. 



The author stated that during .several successive visits to the Plains of Troy, 

 his attention had been drawn to the former course of the Scamander from the 

 remains of irregularities in the surface which indicated a former defence by earth- 

 works, and also a number of heaps of earth which he concluded indicated Trojan 

 interments. The latter were on the heights, and the whole occupied the space 

 between His.sarlik and Balidagh near Buuarhashi. His object in noticing these 

 was to point out what appeared to him an omission by former explorers, as the 

 line he indicated would be the natural line of defence of the Trojans, the Scaman- 

 der forming a formidable frontier defence, which with a comparatively slight 

 earthwork, to protect the defenders, would have prolonged the siege indefinitely. 



From the heights at the rear of this defence, on which were the tumuli 

 referred to, every operation of the Greeks could have been observed, and on them 

 the large body of allies securely encamped, while the land also could have been 

 tilled in security. Homer applied the term 'epifiwKa^ (fertile-soiled) to Troy, by 

 which he must have meant the part outside the walls. 



This topography would establish and reconcile all conflicting views, as the site 

 of Hissarlik would then become the place of the city or mart of Troj- (evidently, 

 from its geographical position, a place for interchange of commerce, and where 

 the produce from the Caspian and Black Seas would meet that from Syria 

 and Egypt), and Balidagh would be the citadel. Homer also applied the term 

 elpvayvaia (broad- wayed) to Troy, to Mycene, and to Athens; and each of the two 

 latter places had long, broad, and defended roads to their citadels, the one from 

 Argos and Tiryus, the other from the Piraeus and Phalerura. That Troy should 

 be without such ways in face of this appellation given by Homer to it in common 

 with other cities found to have them, seemed improbable, and such ways were in 

 the other cases outside the walls, but; not outside the external bulwarks attached 

 to the city. 



The small dimensions of the foundations at Balidagh, which are of a verj- care- 

 ful construction, would be quite sufficient for Priam's Palace and the Scsean towers, 

 though not for the great city ; and the author attributed their present preser- 

 vation to the unburnt bricks which formed the superstructure, precisely as in 

 the case of Mantinea in Arcadia, which Pausanias states was built of such 

 material, and which city Dr. PheniS made a special journej' to examine, in order to 

 compare its foundations with those at Balidagh, which, being on the spurs of Mount 

 Ida, must be the classical site, and, like the temple and palace atEphesus, removed 

 from the tumult of the commercial city. In support of this, it was pointed out 



