I had not noticed this buttress at the time of my departure on the 15th of August, and I have now only discovered it because the rain has laid bare two of its stones. It is built of blocks of shelly limestone (_Muschelkalk_), from about a foot to 2 feet 2 inches long and broad, joined with earth, and it probably covered the whole north-eastern corner of the hill from the bottom to the top. I presume that the drain of green sandstone, nearly 8 inches broad and about 7 inches high, which I spoke of in my report of the 25th of April, belongs to the very ancient temple of Athena; it will be remembered that I found it at about 11½ feet above my great platform, and at a distance of 46 feet from the edge of the declivity.
The block of triglyphs with the Sun-god and the four horses, which I found here, proves that the temple which it adorned was built in the Doric style; and, as the Doric is confessedly the oldest style of architecture, the ancient temple of the Ilian Athena was doubtless in that style. We know, however, from the Iliad[213] that there was also a temple of Apollo in the Pergamus. It probably stood at the south-eastern corner of the hill, for at the foot of it may be seen, in a small excavation, a wall composed of splendid Corinthian pillars joined by means of cement. It is probable that these pillars belong to a temple of Apollo of the time of Lysimachus. In excavating the Tower further to the east, I hope to find the site of this temple, and in its depths the ruins of the very ancient temple of Apollo.
If the Trojans possessed an alphabetical language, I shall probably find inscriptions in the ruins of the two temples. I am, however, no longer sanguine in regard to this, as I have hitherto found no trace of writing in the colossal strata of the four tribes which preceded the Greek colony.[214]
Return to Hissarlik in 1873--Interruptions by holydays and weather--Strong cold north winds--Importance of good overseers--An artist taken to draw the objects found--Want of workmen--Excavations on the site of the Temple--Blocks of Greek sculptured marble--Great increase of the hill to the east--Further portions of the great Trojan wall--Traces of fire--A terra-cotta hippopotamus, a sign of intercourse with Egypt--Idols and owl-faced vases--Vases of very curious forms--Whorls--Sling-bullets of copper and stone--Piece of ornamented ivory belonging to a musical instrument--New cutting from S.E. to N.W.--Walls close below the surface--Wall of Lysimachus--Monograms on the stones--An inscription in honour of Caius Cæsar--Patronage of Ilium by the Julii as the descendants of Æneas--Good wine of the Troad.