(29)
CHAPTER II.
The First Prehistoric Settlement on the Hill of Hissarlik.
My excellent architects have proved to me, beyond any doubt, that the first settlers built on the hill of Hissarlik only one or two large edifices. The length of this first settlement does not exceed 46 mètres, and its breadth can hardly have been greater. Of the walls which we have brought to light, the northern (fe on Plan VII.) and the two southern ones (fa and fb) are particularly remarkable, because they are fortification walls (see Plan VII.). Of the two southern walls, the inner one (fb) belongs, no doubt, to an older epoch of the first settlement, the outer wall to a later extension of it. These fortification-walls are made of unwrought calcareous stones, and in such a way that their outside is somewhat slanting, and consists of larger stones. It is difficult to ascertain their thickness accurately, their upper part having fallen on the inner side, but it is approximately 2.50 m. The extension of the settlement on the south side was a little more than 8 m. Between these fortification-walls there are, at intervals of 2½, 4, 5, 5½, and 6 mètres, five thinner walls, nearly parallel, o 60 m. to o'90 m. thick; besides two smaller walls and two cross walls (see Plan VII.). We have only been able to excavate them for the breadth of my great northern trench (X–Z on Plan VII.), say for a distance of 15 mètres; unfortunately we could not extend this excavation of the first city without destroying the ruins of the following city, which, as we shall see in the following pages, are of capital interest to science. The masonry of the walls consists of small stones joined with earth; the clay coating has been
