Schliemann resolved to put his convictions to the test of actual
excavation. In April, 1870, he cut the first sod of his excavation
at Hissarlik. The work went on with varying, but never brilliant,
fortune, until the year 1873, when his faith and constancy began
at last to meet with their reward. On the south-west of the site
a great city gate was uncovered, lines of wall, already partly
disclosed, began to show themselves more plainly, and quite close
to the gate there was discovered the famous 'Treasure of Priam,'
so called, a considerable mass of vessels and ornaments in gold
and silver, with a number of spearheads, axes, daggers, and cups,
wrought in copper. As the excavations progressed, it became evident
that not one city, but many cities, had stood upon this ancient
site. The First City, reached, of course, at the lowest level of the
excavation, immediately above the virgin soil, belonged to a very
early stage of human development. Its remains yielded such objects
as stone axes and flint knives, together with the black, hand-made,
polished pottery, known as 'bucchero,' which is characteristic of
Neolithic sites in the AEgean, ornamented frequently with incised
patterns which are filled in with a white chalky substance. The
stratum of debris belonging to the First City averages about 8
feet in depth.
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