The Treasure of Troy

The Treasure of Troy

“Priam’s Treasure”

According to Heinrich Schliemann’s diary, he was excavating along the lower walls of Troy on 31 May 1873 and suddenly saw, hidden between the stones, some treasure packed in a rectangular mass as if once contained in a wooden chest that had long ago rotted away. He told the workers it was his birthday, gave them a day off and asked his wife to come over and help him. Together, they carried the haul of treasure in her shawl to the small wooden house on the site where they lived, and spread it out on the table. It was an impressive treasure trove indeed, consisting of gold jewelry, bracelets and goblets, a silver vase and silver knife blades, an electron (gold and silver mix) cup, and items of copper large and small.

Finders keepers

Schliemann’s own account of the circumstances under which he found the treasure has since been called into question, but the articles were certainly real. The treasure was too precious to share with the Ottoman government as his digging permit specified so Schliemann smuggled it out of the country in a moonlight operation with the assistance of trustworthy local accomplices – the consuls of Greece, Italy and the USA, no less – to Athens where his wife was photographed wearing the prize item, a diadem made up of 16,000 finely- wrought pieces of gold and a necklace with 8,700 gold beads. He declared it to be the “Treasure of Priam”. This was impossible, since it actually dated from a period a thousand years before King Priam and Homeric Troy, but that was only learned later.

Lost treasure

In order to settle the court case brought against Schliemann by the Ottoman government for his brazen theft of property which rightfully belonged to Turkey, part of the treasure was later exchanged and is now in the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul. He also wanted to maintain a degree of goodwill and obtain permission to continue excavations (and maybe find more treasure).

Schliemann was already rich. Finding the gold was reward in itself. But he wanted the world to know about it, and who discovered it. Part of the treasure was exhibited at South Kensington Museum in London in 1878. He then donated the whole treasure to “the German people” in 1881. From that date it was on permanent display at the Ethnographic Museum in Berlin. During the last days of World War II, the treasure was crated up and stored in a bunker near Berlin Zoo. When the Red Army overran the city, they shipped this and other war booty to Moscow for “safe keeping” where it lay for decades, unknown to the world.

“Priam’s Gold” found

During the Boris Yeltsin era, the Schliemann treasure hoard unexpectedly turned up at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in 1994 and has been on display there since 1996. Exhibitions of the treasure elsewhere consist of well-crafted imitations. Turkey of course would like the treasure back, but it’s not that simple. Legal matters rarely are. First it should be handed over to Germany from where it was removed, but museum directors in Russia are slow-peddling. Even the Calvert heirs have apparently put in a claim (it was found on Calvert property, after all). One day, it will hopefully make its way home to Turkey.

The real treasure of King Priam

Common sense tells us that Troy, a rich city, must have had a treasury and plenty of gold, presumably well-guarded. After the Greeks had managed to enter the city by the trick of the Wooden Horse and dealt with the inhabitants they would then have carried it off to their ships. The missing treasure is therefore buried somewhere else, was lost in a storm at sea and is now in Davy Jones’ Locker, or was robbed by tomb raiders in ancient times. It may still turn up under a farmer’s plough near Troy, but the fact that the real treasure of Priam has not been found strongly suggests that it probably isn’t there any more, if it ever really existed.