Photo by Ernest L. Harris 



THE RUINS OE TROY 



The excavations at Troy have revealed that no less than nine layers exist upon which, 

 at various times during the past 5,000 years, human habitations have been built. The top- 

 most layer are the remains of the Roman city of Ilium (see page 531). "Next beneath it 

 lie two Hellenic villages which flourished between 1000 B. C. and the Christian era. The 

 sixth city from the bottom is now widely accepted as Homer's Troy. It has a mighty circuit 

 wall, with imposing towers, and is built of massive ashlar masonry. Its area is about two 

 and a half times as great as that of the Second City and it flourished in the latter half of 

 the second millennium B. C. Immediately below this stratum are the remains of three pre- 

 historic settlements, with unimportant houses of stone and brick built on and with the ruins 

 of the Second City and covering the period of circa 2000-1500 B. C. 



"Archjeologists were especially interested in the discovery of the Second or Burnt City, 

 which antedates Homeric Troy by as many years as separated the latter from classical times. 

 Tt was a small fortress, not more than one-third the size of the Acropolis at Athens, but 

 well built with stout walls of stone surmounted by brick. At this level was unearthed an 

 extraordinary mass of treasure, including silver jars, gold daggers, and diadems of pure 

 gold, one of which was woven of more than 16,000 rings and leaves — a Crown jewel indeed. 

 The Burnt City had a chequered career, for during an existence of about 500 years, 2500- 

 2000 B. C, it was attacked and destroyed three times. Its predecessor was an unimportant 

 primitive settletuent, with walls of small quarry stones and clay, built upon the virgin rock." 

 (From "Crete, Forerunner of Greece," by C. H. and H. Hawes.) 



Scattered about are bits of sculptured 

 marble, the remains perhaps of Roman 

 or Alexandrine occupation. Off in the 

 dreamy distance lies Tenedos — sinister 

 Tenedos, not discernible except in the 

 clearest weather — and by the shore near 

 Avhere the Dardanelles meets the sea, 

 whence Thetis might at any moment 

 arise, is a tumulus known as the Tomb 

 of Achilles, and near by another, the 

 Tomb of Patroclus. 



The coast, perhaps five miles away, 

 could scarcely have been so remote in 

 ancient times. In other words, the Simois 



and Scamander have been behaving just 

 like other rivers under the same circum- 

 stances — thrusting their silt and detritus 

 into the sea, building up the adjacent 

 shore, filling in their lower courses, and 

 so becoming stagnant and marshy behind 

 their work of repletion. In spite of their 

 marshiness, however, the plains of Troy 

 are beautiful, decidedly worth fighting 

 for ; and when one has seen the barren 

 mountain-sides of Greece and the narrow, 

 limited valleys that never could have 

 nourished a large population in a gen- 

 erous fashion, it sets him thinking. 



526 



