Heinrich Schliemann: The Controversial Archaeologist Who Discovered Troy
Heinrich Schliemann, born in 1822 near Rostock, Germany, was a man whose life journey took him from poverty to wealth and ultimately to archaeological fame. His story is one of determination, controversy, and a lifelong obsession with discovering the legendary city of Troy.
Financial struggles marked Schliemann's early life. Born to a poor pastor, he was unable to pursue higher education. Instead, he began his career as an apprentice to a grocer at the age of 14. His ambition led him to work various jobs, including as a cabin boy and an office boy, before becoming a bookkeeper for a trading firm in Amsterdam.
One of Schliemann's most remarkable traits was his aptitude for languages. Within a year of living in the Netherlands, he became fluent in Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. This linguistic talent would serve him well in his future endeavours.
The Dream of Troy
Schliemann's fascination with ancient civilizations, particularly Troy, began early in his life.
Heinrich was so obsessed with the ancient Greek world that he decided he wanted to make Greece his home and marry a “black-haired Greek woman in the Homeric spirit"; the trouble was, he was married to a Russian woman, Ekaterina Lyshina, and had three children with her. So, whilst on a trip to America in 1869, Schliemann was granted U.S. citizenship in New York and a divorce from his Russian wife by the State of Indiana. In September of that same year, he married Athenian-born 17-year-old Sophia Engastromenos, with whom he had two children, Andromache (1871-1962) and Agamemnon (1878-1954). Schliemann then moved to Athens with his new wife and commissioned Ernst Ziller to construct a permanent residence. The house, named the Iliou Melathron in honour of Troy, was finished in 1880, and it is still there today, only now it houses the Numismatic Museum of Greece.
Heinrich had an obsession with the Iliad and Homer, and being a rich man meant he could dedicate the rest of his life to the archaeological accomplishments for which he is now renowned. In 1868, he went on a trip to the Greek island of Ithaka, where he decided to look for the palace of Ulysses. From there, he travelled to the Marmaris Sea to make his way inland and start the quest for Troy, a city that had been a mere legend for thousands of years.
He did not “discover” Troy.
Whilst Heinrich is famed for “discovering Troy”, he was working blind – most of the hard work for locating Troy had been done long before Heinrich. For starters, British archaeologist Frank Calvert had already begun excavations on the Hisarlik hill in the Troas region in the northwest of present-day Turkey because his brother Frederick had bought a farm of over 2,000 acres (8 km²) at Akca Koy in 1847, and this acquisition included part of the mound of Hisarlik.
This was of note because Hisarlik had been identified by Charles Maclaren as a possible site of Homeric Troy in 1822 in his dissertation on the Topography of the Plain of Troy. So, Heinrich was by no means an archaeological genius who randomly came across the site and formulated its location; his arrival on the site was only due to the work of Scottish journalist and geologist Charles Maclaren (something which I find essential to highlight as a Scottish citizen and a lover of Scotland - give credit where credit is due).
Additionally, a number of isolated discoveries had been made before Schliemann began digging in the area. The French geologist Ferdinand Fouqué dug at Santorin in 1862 and found fresco-covered walls of houses and painted pottery beneath 26 feet (8 metres) of pumice, the result of the great eruption that divided the original island into Thera (modern Thíra) and Therasis (modern Thirasía). Geologists at that time dated the Santorin eruption to 2000 BCE, which suggested Fouqué’s finds were exceptionally ancient and were thus indicative of the existence of prehistoric cultures thitherto unknown in the Aegean.
However, Heinrich was essential to the operation for one primary reason: money. Heinrich had financial resources other archaeologists could only dream of having, which meant, that when Heinrich arrived at Hisarlik, Calvert, who met Heinrich in 1968 by sheer coincidence, convinced him to carry on digging where he had left off. However, though Heinrich had the financial means and enthusiasm to carry on the excavation, his amateur status ended up being the second biggest downfall the poor city of Troy ever faced.
Controversial Methods and Discoveries
In 1871, Schliemann began excavations at Hisarlik, Turkey, which he believed to be the site of ancient Troy. His methods, however, were far from what we would consider acceptable archaeological practices today.
In his letters, Schleimann wrote, "We shall begin the excavation from the foot of the mountain and dig until we reach the virgin soil and follow same up. The lowest range of buildings on this virgin soil must, of course, be the most ancient."' Calvert had already impressed him with the importance of digging down to virgin soil.
To Calvert, he wrote: "I am now progressing much faster than before, and hope to accomplish this in 2 months, hence a cut through the whole hillock, on the virgin soil, of 23 metres broad. If I then see any encouragement, I can attack the remainder from three sides at once." Despite Schliemann's deceit and exploitation of his knowledge, Calvert continued to offer assistance to him, counselling him on archaeological methodology. Still, Schliemann was finding stuff by disembowelling the earth without any analytical thought and receiving praise abroad for his finds, so Calvert’s advice and feedback went unheeded. Schleimann was incorrectly dating and interpreting his finds, claiming fragments of buildings that were Doric and Corinthian to be from the Homeric era.
Schliemann's approach was more akin to treasure hunting than scientific excavation. He dug enormous trenches through the site, destroying the upper layers of the mound in his haste to reach what he believed to be the Homeric level of Troy. This approach resulted in the loss of valuable archaeological information and context.
The Discovery of "Priam's Treasure"
In 1873, Schliemann announced the discovery of what he called "Priam's Treasure," a cache of gold and other precious artefacts. He smuggled these artefacts out of Turkey, violating his agreement with the Ottoman government.
Later archaeological analysis revealed that the treasure predated the Trojan War by about 1,250 years, belonging to an entirely different civilization than the one described in Homer's epic.
After paying the Turkish government a sizable amount for their share of Priam’s treasure, Schleimann attempted to get further permission to continue his excavations, but he realised early on that Calvert was needed and that an amendment should be made. He selfishly tried to approach Calvert to repair their relationship, but Calvert told him, very politely, to do one. After failing to secure permission to excavate Troy from the government, Schelimann let to Mycenae, but the drama was not over. In 1878 W.C. Borlase wrote an expose of Schliemann's erroneous account of the excavation of Priam's Treasure and frequently praised Calvert and corrected the errors made by Schelaimann’s false accounts by repositioning Calvert’s credit in the excavations.
Legacy and Controversy
Schelimann was a conman with more confidence than credibility. He manufactured and embellished his accomplishments and even life for his autobiography. Some people believe Schelimann even stole his childhood love of Troy and the dream of discovering its walls from Calvert.
While Schliemann's discoveries brought him fame and rekindled his interest in Homeric archaeology, his methods and claims have been heavily criticized by modern archaeologists. His tendency to embellish or fabricate aspects of his life and work has also tarnished his reputation.
The enormous, 45-foot-deep trench Schleimann had dug was brutal; Schleimann ploughed through layers of soil and everything in them without proper record keeping—no mapping of finds, few descriptions of discoveries, and now, some 150 years later, Turkish archaeologists are still working to address the damage. Some of the 10,000 or so artefacts included in Priam’s Treasure are housed in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. Others ended up in Berlin, only to be seized by the Red Army at the end of World War II and transferred to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow as compensation for the damage inflicted by the Nazis during the war.
Schelimann died in 1890, but Calvert carried on with the excavation, and he lived long enough to see the walls of Troy, unlike Schelimann. Schelimann died just three years before the Late Bronze Age fortification walls of Troy were uncovered and subsequently identified by his architect and assistant, Wilhelm Dorpfeld. Calvert kept a quiet life; he didn’t publish nearly as much as Schelimann, primarily because he was more cautious with his ideas and findings, and he never fought for the spotlight - but he had a more sincere, genuine dream of discovering the walls of Troy. He quietly and humbly accomplished it before dying, aged 80, in 1908.
Conclusion
Heinrich Schliemann's life and work embody both the romance and the pitfalls of early archaeology. His methods were destructive, and his interpretations were flawed. Still, his fascination (and money) were an essential combination for archaeological progression. His story serves as a reminder of the importance of scientific rigour in archaeology and the importance of listening to and crediting experts and academics. Those with money find it very easy to take all the credit and glory, but their fame rests on the shoulders of many unnamed academics, overlooked by history and the public.
