T R O Y
AND   ITS   REMAINS;

A NARRATIVE OF RESEARCHES AND DISCOVERIES
MADE   ON   THE   SITE   OF   ILIUM,
AND IN THE TROJAN PLAIN.

BY   DR.   HENRY   SCHLIEMANN.

Translated with the Author’s Sanction.

EDITED
BY PHILIP SMITH, B.A.,

AUTHOR OF THE ‘HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD,’ AND OF THE
‘STUDENT’S ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST.’

WITH MAP, PLANS, VIEWS, AND CUTS,
REPRESENTING 500 OBJECTS OF ANTIQUITY DISCOVERED ON THE SITE.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
NEW YORK:
SCRIBNER, WELFORD, AND ARMSTRONG.
1875.

PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.

DR. SCHLIEMANN’S original narrative of his wonderful discoveries on the spot marked as the site of Homer’s Ilium by an unbroken tradition, from the earliest historic age of Greece, has a permanent value and interest which can scarcely be affected by the final verdict of criticism on the result of his discoveries. If he has indeed found the fire-scathed ruins of the city whose fate inspired the immortal first-fruits of Greek poetry, and brought to light many thousands of objects illustrating the race, language, and religion of her inhabitants, their wealth and civilization, their instruments and appliances for peaceful life and war; and if, in digging out these remains, he has supplied the missing link, long testified by tradition as well as poetry, between the famous Greeks of history and their kindred in the East; no words can describe the interest which must ever belong to the first birth of such a contribution to the history of the world. Or should we, on the other hand, in the face of all that has been revealed on the very spot of which the Greeks themselves believed that Homer sang, lean to the scepticism of the scholar who still says:—“I know as yet of one Ilion only, that is, the Ilion as sung by Homer, which is not likely to be found in the trenches of Hissarlik, but rather among the Muses who dwell on Olympus;” even so a new interest of historic and antiquarian curiosity would be excited by “the splendid ruins,” as the same high authority rightly calls those “which Dr. Schliemann has brought to light at Hissarlik.” For what, in that case, were the four cities, whose successive layers of ruins, still marked by the fires that have passed over them in turn, are piled to the height of fifty feet above the old summit of the hill? If not even one of them is Troy, what is the story, so like that of Troy, which belongs to them?

What is the light that is struggling to break forth from the varied mass of evidence, and the half-deciphered inscriptions, that are still exercising the ingenuity of the most able enquirers? Whatever may be the true and final answer to these questions—and we have had to put on record a signal proof that the most sanguine investigators will be content with no answer short of the truth[1]—the vivid narrative written by the discoverer on the spot can never lose that charm which Renan has so happily described as “la charme des origines.”

The Editor may be permitted to add, what the Author might not say, that the work derives another charm from the spirit that prompted the labours which it records. It is the work of an enthusiast in a cause which, in our “practical” age, needs all the zeal of its remaining devotees, the cause of learning for its own sake. But, in this case, enthusiasm has gone hand in hand with the practical spirit in its best form. Dr. Schliemann judged rightly in prefixing to his first work the simple unaffected record of that discipline in adversity and self-reliance, amidst which he at once educated himself and obtained the means of gratifying his ardent desire to throw new light on the highest problems of antiquity, at his own expense. His readers ought to know that, besides other large contributions to the cause of learning, the cost of his excavations at Hissarlik alone has amounted to 10,000l.; and this is in no sense the speculative investment of an explorer, for he has expressed the firm resolution to give away his collection, and not to sell it.

Under this sense of the high and lasting value of Dr. Schliemann’s work, the present translation has been undertaken, with the object of laying the narrative before English readers in a form considerably improved upon the original. For this object the Editor can safely say, on behalf of the Publisher and himself, that no pains and cost have been spared; and Dr. Schliemann has contributed new materials of great value.

The original work[2] was published, at the beginning of this year, as an octavo volume, accompanied by a large quarto “Atlas” of 217 photographic plates, containing a Map, Plans, and Views of the Plain of Troy, the Hill of Hissarlik, and the excavations, with representations of upwards of 4000 objects selected from the 100,000 and more brought to light by Dr. Schliemann, which were elaborately described in the letter-press pages of the Atlas. The photographs were taken for the most part from drawings; and Dr. Schliemann is the first to acknowledge that their execution left much to be desired. Many of his original plans and drawings have been placed at our disposal; and an especial acknowledgment is due both to Dr. Schliemann and Monsieur Émile Burnouf, the Director of the French School at Athens, for the use of the admirable drawings of the terra-cotta whorls and balls made by M. Burnouf and his accomplished daughter. A selection of about 200 of these objects, which are among the most interesting of Dr. Schliemann’s discoveries, occupies the 32 lithographic plates at the end of this volume. With the exception of the first three Plates (XXI.-XXIII.), which are copied from the Atlas, in order to give a general view of the sections of the whorls and the chief types of the patterns upon them, all the rest are engraved from M. Burnouf’s drawings. They are given in the natural size, and each whorl is accompanied by its section. The depth at which each object was found among the layers of débris is a matter of such moment (as will be seen from Dr. Schliemann’s work) that the Editor felt bound to undertake the great labour of identifying each with the representation of the same object in the Atlas, where the depth is marked, to which, unfortunately, the drawings gave no reference. The few whorls that remain unmarked with their depth have either escaped this repeated search, or are not represented in the Atlas. The elaborate descriptions of the material, style of workmanship, and supposed meanings of the patterns, which M. Burnouf has inscribed on most of his drawings, are given in the “List of Illustrations.” The explanations of the patterns are,