As I have explained in the preceding pages, I ascertained by the twenty shafts sunk on the site of Novum Ilium, which are accurately indicated on the Plan of the Hellenic Ilium, that the ruins of none of the pre-historic cities, which succeeded each other here in the course of ages, exceeded the precincts of the hill of Hissarlik, which forms its north-west corner, and served as its Acropolis. This Acropolis, like the Acropolis of old Troy, was called Pergamum. Here were the temples of the gods, among which the sanctuary of Athené, the tutelary deity of the city, was of great celebrity. The Ilians, who firmly believed in the ancient tradition that their town occupied the very site of ancient Troy, were proud to show in their Pergamum the house of Priam as well as the altar of Zeus Herkeios, where that unhappy old man had been slain, and the identical stone on which Palamedes had taught the Greeks to play at dice. They were so totally ignorant of archæology, that they took it as an undoubted fact, that the Trojans had walked on the very same surface of the soil as themselves, and that the buildings they showed were all that remained of the ancient city. It never occurred to their minds that ruins could exist except on the surface.