Who was Schliemann

Who was Schliemann?

From rags to riches

From the son of a defrocked priest in the small German town of Mecklenburg to a tycoon with houses in Paris, Berlin and Athens, the life of Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) is quite some story. It leads from a brief education in Mecklenburg to a job in an import-export business in Amsterdam, where his aptitude for languages got him noticed, to a posting in St. Petersburg where he made a fortune on the indigo market, then as a military contractor during the Crimean War (1854-56) supplying saltpeter, to the gold fields of California during the Gold Rush (1848–1855), and dealing in cotton during the American Civil War. He travelled the world and made a lot of money. He was also top of the class when it came to learning foreign languages - he mastered 15 or so in all.

Would-be archaeologist

Schliemann retired on his earnings in 1863, travelled some more, then set his sights on rediscovering ancient classical Greek sites, now lost and hidden under two thousands years of accumulated earth and ruins. The locations were only vaguely known and the science of archaeology was still in its infancy. There was little or no precedent for what he wanted to do, but he had the time and financial resources to cover the cost and learn on the job. He rose to the challenge and received a PhD in 1869 from the University of Rostock, Germany (near his home town) to bolster his credentials. Now he is “Dr. Heinrich Schliemann”.

Great archaeological discovery

Schliemann’s excavation at Troy in the 1870s was one of the first great archaeological discoveries. It was made long before the discovery of the Palace of Knossos (1900), the Tomb of Tutankhamen (1922), the Lascaux cave paintings (1940), the Dead Sea Scrolls (1947), and the Army of Terracotta Warriors in China (1974). The world sat up and took notice. Schliemann’s finds were displayed in London and he was feted at the courts of Europe. He lapped up the glory and delighted in the honors bestowed. He worked assiduously, learning on the job, at the same time defending his work against scholarly criticism. It is true that he was way off on some of his dating – as we now know – but in those days there was no accurate chronology of the ancient world (and still isn’t, in fact) to which he could refer and compare his finds.

As documented under “Excavations of Troy”, Schliemann was not always digging at Troy between 1870 and 1890. What was he up to meanwhile? The “man with the golden touch”, always a populist at heart, was hunting for treasure at other classical sites in Greece. In 1868 he was looking for the Palace of Odysseus in Ithaca, in 1876 he found the amazing “Mask of Agamemnon” in Mycenae, he was at Orchomenos in 1880 where he discovered the so-called “Treasury of Minyas”, and in 1884-85 he was at Tiryns excavating the palace from Mycenaean times.

Schliemann was also a prodigious author, publishing a total of seven books in several languages (German and French, later English), each profusely illustrated. The list of Schliemann’s books includes his travels in China and Japan (1867), Ithaca, Peloponnese and Troy (1869), Trojan Antiquities (1874), Mycenae (1877), Ilios: City and Country of the Trojans, (1880), Orchomenos (1881) and Tiryns (1887).

Death in Naples

Even after all these discoveries, Schliemann showed no signs of slowing down and was still fond of bathing in the sea, summer or winter. Declining health and old age eventually caught up with him. After an ear operation in November 1890 he disregarded doctor’s advice and travelled to Leipzig, Berlin and Paris then to Naples to see the ruins of Pompeii. It was in Naples that he collapsed in a coma on Christmas Day and died on 26 December 1890.

Heinrich Schliemann was and still is a controversial character. If he had had an academic background, he wouldn’t have had the money or audacity to do what he did. Did the destruction he wrought at Troy rob us of valuable knowledge, or did his pioneering (some say blundering) yet unscientific methods help launch the science of archaeology into the limelight and pave the way for more scholarly excavations to follow?

In answer, we can perhaps point to the first excavations at Assos, just down the coast from Troy, conducted by a well-trained American team (Joseph T. Clarke, Francis H. Bacon) in 1881-1883. These excavations unearthed a lot of buildings but left the site intact for future digs. No criticism has yet been leveled at Clarke and Bacon.