Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/162

134 cliff, and from its form suggests the probability that a tumulus, since levelled, once stood here.

At the distance of an hour to S.W. of Renköi, and within a few minutes' walk of the sea, are the ruins of an old Byzantine church, called Agios Athanasi. The foundations of this church are 66 feet in length by 57 feet in breadth. Among the ruins are fragments of columns and capitals of the Roman period. Coins of Sigeum have been found here.

Near the confluence of the small river Kemar with the Mendere, at the distance of five hours to the south of the Dardanelles, is a chiflik, or farm, of the Calverts, situated at the village of Atshik-koi. Here are two ancient tumuli, marked in the Admiralty chart as Herman Tepe and Khani Tepe. During our visit to Renköi, Mr. Frank Calvert drove a gallery and shaft through Khani Tepe. Nothing was found in the interior except a layer of ashes near the bottom, but the excavation was not carried low enough to obtain a conclusive result; for it is well known that the most important remains have been found in Greek tumuli below their apparent base.$61$

Between these two tumuli is a spot on the banks of the river Kemar, which, on examination, proved to be an Hellenic cemetery. I was present at an excavation made here by Mr. Calvert. The dead were here buried in large crocks or jars of coarse red pottery. These jars were called by the ancients pithoi. It was in such a pithos, and not, as is vulgarly supposed, in a tub, that Diogenes dwelt. Jars similar in shape and scale are used by the Greeks at the present day to hold water. They are