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THE
ASSOS JOURNALS |
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In
the late 1870’s when modern archaeology was still in its infancy, a
young man named Francis H. Bacon toured the Aegean in a small craft with
his friend, Joseph Thatcher Clarke. Clarke had a small grant from the
newly founded Archaeological Institute of America to help him in his
study of
Doric architecture. It was the Institute’s hope that Clarke
would find an archaeological site suitable for extensive investigation.
Among the many ancient sites the two men visited was that of Assos in
the southern Troad, opposite Mytilene; there they saw extensive ruins,
impressive enough for Clarke to recommend the site for further
exploration. Under the leadership of its president Charles Eliot Norton,
Professor of Classics at Harvard University, the Archaeological
Institute of America soon collected the necessary funds to send a team
to Assos. Clarke was asked to head the excavation, and he chose Bacon to
be his second in command. The excavation lasted three seasons, and it
was to complete the huge task which he and Clarke had begun in 1881.
Bacon's work in Assos, in fact, stretched over a lifetime; at his
personal expense he undertook the completion of the full five volumes of
the Investigations at Assos after Clarke had abandoned the
project under the pressures of family life. Not until 1927 did
Bacon finish the task of publication, or as he said, "kiss it
Goodbye." Bacon kept journals while the excavation proceeded, and it is from his "Assos Days" that the following excerpts are taken. The journals were not intended for publication; indeed, Bacon whimsically subtitled it " the Personal Letters and Journals of Francis H. Bacon. Transcribed for the benefit of Family and Friends. But interesting chiefly to Himself." The document is a personal and exuberant account of a young man's romantic adventure ind the old and ancient world. It not only records the progressof the excavation, but it evokes a bygone era of elegant manners and privileged leisure - Queen Victoria's Europe, in whose several glittering capitals Bacon spent his winters, partying, attending court and meeting ols friends. An immensely curious traveler, he describes with gusto and humor his horseback odisseys to various sites in Asia Minor, his friendship with Greeks and Turks, the exasperations of sea travel and the team's Byzantine conflicts with the government in Istanbul. Bacon compiled his letters and journals in 1927 and gave one copy of the material to his close friend and protégé, Albert Seylaz, a Swiss professor of French who taught in Turkey for many years and who himself became an expert on the Ionian region. Seylaz, like Bakon, remained an amateur in the best senses, amassing his knowlrdge of the classical world from firsthand visits to the sites and acting as host to various classicists and archeaologists passing through the area. In Turkey, around 19333, Dr. Seylaz became close friends with Dr. and Mrs. J. Calvin Keene. Shortly before his death in 1967, Dr. Seylaz made a gift of his copy of "Assos Days" to their daughter Lenore O. Keene Congdon, who has selected the following excerpts. 
Note of introduction . . . I stayed in Albany till July, 1878, when my friend J. T. Clarke, and myself sailed for England on our way to Turkey and Greece! C. was to write a history of Doric Architecture and I was to make sketches and drawings of all the temples and sites. . . . amongst the sites we visited was that of Assos in the southern Troad opposite Mitylene [nowadays usually spelt Mytilene], where there were the remains of a large Greek city and a very early Doric temple. Clarke wrote quite a report on this temple and site to Prof. Charles Eliot Norton of Cambridge, who was so interested that he got a group of men together and formed the Archaeological Institute of America with the idea of exploring this or some other Greek site. [sic] . . . Clarke returned to the U.S. The Archaeological Institute prospered and decided to raise money and excavate the site of Assos. C. was appointed to head the expedition and he wished me to join him. . . . The advance party consisted of Clarke and myself with Maxwell Wrigley, a young architect and great friend of mine. . . . Charles W. Bradley, C. Howard Walker, W. C. Lawton, Edward Robinson and J. H. Haynes were to join us later. In January, 1881, Clarke, Wrigley and I sailed to England on our way to Asia Minor. We were to stay a short while in London getting our outfit. Then I was to go to Paris to make careful drawings of the sculptures from the Assos temple which were in the Louvre Museum; then to Smyrna and Assos. On the 23rd the wind lightened, we [Wrigley and Bacon] bought some provisions and started for Assos. The wind was still rather fresh and we bowled along for about ten miles when it blew harder and became squally to windward. . . . To cap the climax a furious rain and thunder storm came up, which at least did us good by washing the salt out of our clothes still hanging in the rigging! We . . . ran for a little cove on the north end of Mitylene, called Pailos. There were a number of boats in the cove that had taken shelter from the storm. . . . The next day the wind blew cold right down from the snow of Mt. Ida, and as our clothes were not dry, we stayed on board wrapped in our quilts. . . . The next day the wind was light, and finally, about sunset, we ran into the little port of Assos! Hurrah! March 26th we spent in going over the ruins, which seemed of vast extent, and I saw many things I had overlooked in my previous visit in 1879. . . . The next day we returned to Mitylene!
. . .Reached Mitylene about one o'clock and found Eliot Norton just arrived and very glad to see us. He had left Clarke in Smyrna looking after our cases of goods, and brought word that I was to come at once to Smyrna to help. . . . . . . Finally, on April 19th, with a light S.E. wind, we [Clarke, Wrigley, Norton and Bacon] managed to reach the little port of Assos! We all slept in the boat that night, and next day hired a small room in one of the magazines for $1.60 a month, and transported our surveying instruments and things ashore. C. and I went up to the Acropolis to look things over and were more than ever impressed with the great extent of the ancient city. We have undertaken an immense work and I only hope we can carry it out. We are here in a room about eight feet square, Clarke, Wrigley, Eliot Norton and myself, all trying to write, with one candle gummed on the transit box in the centre, and the open door and our one window filled with wild looking Turks peering in and who are very curious as to what we are about. . . . . . . April 21st . . . I found the cross hairs of the transit were broken, so I went mousing about for a spider web to repair them with. It was quite a delicate operation but I succeeded very well! Assos – April 22nd, 1881 This morning Eliot and I arose with the lark and had a refreshing dip in the sea. After breakfasting on condensed milk, olives and bread, we took a lovely walk up the coast towards Mt. Ida – the country seeming very fertile and the land much refreshed after the recent rain. The ground was covered with flowers and the air full of perfume! Assos – Monday, May 2nd, 1881 Began the survey yesterday. Went up with a pillow case full of stakes and measured two base lines for beginning our triangulations, one in the river valley and one on the terrace of the street of tombs! . . . Wrigley and I spent several days walking about the ruins projecting our survey. The country is very uneven, rocky and covered with clumps of impenetrable bushes and the line A-B in the To[u]zla valley was the only level place for an accurate base line, and we measured 500 metres with steel tape, locating it with steel and tack every 20 metres. We next established stations on the Acropolis and at prominent points completing our triangles. In a short time we shall have sufficient data to prepare a large scale plan of the ancient city! On this we will locate whatever of interest is found during the excavations! Assos – May 4th, 1881Good day[‘]s work on the survey. Settled stations at various points. A lovely still day, air perfumed with flowers, voices of people at work in the fields, and now and then a bird. We could hear each other distinctly as we shouted across the country from point to point! Lunched in the shade of the mosque. Funny little owl blinked at us from a cranny in the wall. Assos – May 12th, 1881 The late comers of this expedition can never know the hardships we pioneers have been through – wrecked on voyages over here – sleeping out in the rain – going hungry, etc. etc., - all of which may be punishment for my sins, so I don’t complain! The port is a lively little village of just four buildings and not a woman in the place, miserable outcasts that we are! The Turkish village is very near the top of the acropolis on the northern slope. It consists of about fifty houses of one story with flat earthen roofs – all of very poor construction. . . . The distance by the road down to the port is about three-quarters of an hour. . . . I expect Mr. Haynes to arrive soon and there will be nothing for him to do until we will begin excavating, and that cannot be until we receive the firman. It is unfortunate that this is not granted yet as it will take some time to get the necessary men and implements together and I am unwilling to begin about this until we are sure of the firman. Assos - May 16, 1881 Drew on plan; made tracing of mosque door with inscription. In the evening, after finishing our frugal meal, a string of horses led by two Zaptiehs with long guns were seen coming down the Acropolis, followed by an old fellow in a white helmet. I went up and spoke to him; found it was Dr. [Heinrich] Schliemann making a tour of the Troad and trying to locate the cities of Homer! Eliot took him to our bathing place and afterwards he spent the evening with us. He wouldn't talk about anything but prehistoric remains and cared nothing for our work here. He had a stunning coin of Assos of which I made a sketch. . . . He is a knowing old chap, but I think a bit cracked! He seems much older then when I met him at Hissarlik in 1879. He thinks this must be ancient "Chrysa" [i.e., Chryse]! Assos
– June 6th, 1881This past week we have been busy surveying and planning future work. The place grows on us daily. It is something enormous! The south slope of the Acropolis must have been a wonderfully picturesque place! A large terrace just above the theatre, with a portico at the back 300 feet long, flanked at each end by temples or other secular buildings. What a place it must have been for youth and beauty to promenade in the cool stone porch before the performance in the theatre below! The portico and terrace lined with sculpture and works of art! ‘Tis high up over the sea, and the blue hills of Mitylene opposite! Then there are the hundreds of sarcophagi and monuments at the street if tombs, and the imposing fortification walls around, crowned on top by the old temple, and when one thinks of the fertile valley and the cool river flowing through it right down from Mt. Ida, everything goes together! The clean cut Greeks and their surroundings of Temples, Tombs and Porticos! Long live the memory of the bright and merry Greeks! . . . Some time ago while mousing about the Acropolis I discovered two fragments of the temple reliefs built into a [M]ediaeval wall. So last night Haynes, Lawton and I went up to tear down this wall and get at the treasures! It was a beautiful evening “When all the winds were laid,” but the Genoese mortar was like iron. We worked nearly two hours trying to get off an enormous block that [was] laid on top. . . . At last, just as the sun sank, it moved, and a little well directed prying soon tumbled it over the edge and it went crashing and smoking down the side of the Acropolis. We mopped our brows and gazed off over the scenery! Mt. Ida’s tip was touched by the last rays of the sun and faded off into purple. The valley of the Touzla below us was already in shadow, the river showing like a silver thread, and a clear moon over our shoulders didn’t exactly know whether to shine or not until the sun’s influence was fairly gone. We turned from the beautiful view to our pecking and soon pulled out a stunning fragment of the [temple] frieze, a perfectly preserved Sphinx’s head sculptured on it. Better than any of those in the Louvre! It had the same insolent, self-satisfied smile so characteristic of Archaic Greek heads, and wasn’t at all abashed at having been in durance vile for over three hundred years under a [M]ediaeval [sic] wall! We gave three cheers for our find and went down the Acropolis singing – arm in arm! Assos – Sept. 6th, 1881. . . We have been busy surveying, measuring and prospecting. We have had a gang of twenty to thirty men at work since Aug. 6th, and it is no small job to superintendent these, decide where to dig and keep in our heads the arrangement of the different buildings. We began excavating on the Acropolis, and the first pit struck the stylobate of the temple, which we soon cleared off, as there was only from one to four foot of debris. Not a single drum was in position as the whole floor had been cleared and built on in Mediaeval times. In the centre a bit of the black and white mosaic pavement remained. The floor of the temple was swept and washed and there came to light traces of the columns and the scratches made to guide their placing. [Charles F. M.] Texier never saw the stylobate for his restoration of the plan is wrong. There was no epinaos, but otherwise the temple is very like in plan and nearly the same size as the Theseum of Athens. Underneath the mosaic we found a well preserved coin of Gargara of about 400 B.C., showing that the temple floor had probably been repaired after that date. We also found a well preserved terra cotta antefix which certainly indicates a very early date for the temple. At the theatre we uncovered some of the bottom rows of seats, with the railing of the orchestra. There is not enough left of the scena to make a restoration! It makes one[‘]s blood boil to think how this grand old city has been devastated during the last fifty years! The Turkish government has been carting away cut stones, and every little village in the neighborhood comes here for building material. Many a stone that might be the key for our present problems has probably been carried off in this manner. . . . Assos – Sept. 21st, 1881 (Letter to Prof. W. R. Ware) . . . Tomorrow we shall have company. Mr. [Edward] Robinson and his wife, with Mr. Fottion, the [American] consul . . . are coming up on a small steamer to see Assos! . . . The mosaic pavements are all swept clean and I have some jars of water all ready to pour over them! This brings out the delicate colors and will delight the ladies! Assos – October 4th, 1881 . . . We have just finished dragging down the sculptured temple blocks and have them all securely housed in our magazine. . . . last week Demetri . . . was set at work to make a road from the top of the Acropolis to the port, clearing away stones and bushes, and building up where necessary. We took advantage of the road used in former times when the Turks were transporting stones to Constantinople. In getting the blocks below we used a heavy wooden drag or sledge shod with iron made in Pergamon! This was carried to the Acropolis on the back of a poor, suffering horse! The stones were tied securely on the drag, and with ten men before and ten men behind with ropes, they made short work of it, running down the steep places, and yelling all the time! They had to pull rather hard over the few level spaces, and it takes so much engineering to drag a miserable little fragment down hill, it makes one admire the ancients who carried such enormous blocks up there! Assos – Nov. 15, 1881. . . Ugh! It’s cold tonight! We have a brazier of charcoal in the room but it only takes the edge off! Lamp chimney’s busted and I’ve got three candles gummed to the edge of the table! C. is playing the guitar! [Arthur] Diller [a geologist who joined the party in July] is writing! Wind is howling, and so is our dog! There, you have my scena! Assos – Dec. 3rd, 1881 On the night of Nov. 28th when the North Star passed the meridian we set up the transit on the Temple stylobate and established a true N. and S. line! The main axis of the Temple was about 15 degrees South of East, and the peak of Lepethymnos was due South from the stylobate. Naples [at end of first season] – Feb. 15th, 1882 (Letter to Prof. W. R. Ware) . . . I think when I get back to New York I will . . . draw out for you what ideas I have on Greek polychromy, etc. I have thought considerably about it, and I feel sure the Greek colors were not the raw, tasteless ones that [Jacques I.] Hittorf, [Gottfried] Semper and others have been imposing on us! There is so little data left that it is hard to determine the question absolutely. We are only reasonably sure that a blue was in such and such a place, a red, a gold, etc. [,] in others. It seems natural that a tradition at least of the old Greek polychromy, as regards tones, should be preserved in Byzantine work! The soft colors of a Byzantine mosaic are beautiful to me, but the vivid colors of most modern restorers of Greek work are ugly. [Christian F.] Hansen has done some very good work in Vienna and in the new Academy in Athens, but even his colors are too lively for me! End
of Assos Journals A visit to
Assos in 1904
(Letter to Prof. Norton) |
