Editing Heinrich Schliemann

{{Short description|German businessman and archaeologist (1822–1890)}}
{{redirect|Schliemann||Schliemann (disambiguation)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Heinrich Schliemann
| image             = Heinrich Schliemann (HeidICON 28763) (cropped).jpg
| image_size        =
| caption           = 
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1822|01|06|df=yes}}
| birth_place       = [[Neubukow]], [[Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin|Mecklenburg-Schwerin]], [[German Confederation]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1890|12|26|1822|01|06|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Naples]], [[Kingdom of Italy]]
| residence         = 
| citizenship       = 
| nationality       = [[Germany|German]]
| ethnicity         = 
| field             = [[Archaeology]]
| work_institutions = 
| alma_mater        = 
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| doctoral_students = 
| known_for         = 
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| spouse            = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Ekaterina Petrovna Lyschin|12 October 1852|July 1869|end=divorce}}
* {{marriage|[[Sophia Schliemann]]|23 September 1869}}
}}
| children          = 5 (3 w/ Lyschin, 2 w/ Schliemann, incl. [[Agamemnon Schliemann|Agamemnon]])
| prizes            = 
| religion          = 
| resting_place = [[First Cemetery of Athens]]
| footnotes         = 
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}}
'''Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann''' ({{IPA|de|ˈʃliːman|lang}}; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and an influential amateur archaeologist. He was an advocate of the [[historicity]] of places mentioned in the works of [[Homer]] and an archaeological excavator of [[Hisarlık]], now presumed to be the site of [[Troy]], along with the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] sites [[Mycenae]] and [[Tiryns]]. His work lent weight to the idea that Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' reflects [[Historicity of the Iliad|historical events]]. Schliemann's excavation of nine layers of archaeological remains has been criticized as destructive of significant historical artefacts, including the layer that is believed to be the Homeric Troy.<ref name="Stefan Lovgren">{{Cite web |last=Lovgren |first=Stefan |date=2004-05-14 |title=Did Troy really exist? |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0514_040514_troy.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040515123339/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0514_040514_troy.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 15, 2004 |access-date=2012-12-18 |website=National Geographic News |publisher=National Geographic Society}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Schliemann was born 6 January 1822, in [[Neubukow]], [[Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin|Mecklenburg-Schwerin]] (part of the [[German Confederation]]) to Luise Therese Sophie Schliemann and Ernst Schliemann, a Lutheran [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]]. He was the fifth of nine children. The family moved to [[Ankershagen]] in summer 1823. Their second home houses the [[Heinrich Schliemann Museum]] today.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cornelia Maué |date=n.d. |title=website of schliemann-museum Ankershagen |url=http://www.schliemann-museum.de/hsm/anliegen.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180427230405/https://www.schliemann-museum.de/hsm/anliegen.html |archive-date=27 April 2018 |publisher=Schliemann-museum.de |language=de}}</ref>

Heinrich's father was a poor pastor. His mother died in 1831, when Heinrich was nine years old, and his father sent Heinrich to live with his uncle Friedrich Schliemann, also a pastor. When he was eleven years old, his father paid for his enrollment in the [[Gymnasium (school)|Gymnasium]] (grammar school) at [[Neustrelitz]], but he had to leave it after three months. Heinrich's interest in history was initially encouraged by his father, who had schooled him in the tales of the [[Iliad]] and the [[Odyssey]] and had given him a copy of Ludwig Jerrer's ''Illustrated History of the World'' for Christmas in 1829. Schliemann claimed that at the age of 7 he had declared he would one day excavate the city of [[Troy]].<ref name="Ilios">{{cite book |last = Schliemann |first = Heinrich |title = Ilios: The City and Country of the Trojans: the Results of Researches and Discoveries on the Site of Troy and Through the Troad in the Years 1871-72-73-78-79; Including an Autobiography of the Author|url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924028248593 | publisher= [[Harper (publisher)#Harper & Brothers (1833–1962)|Harper & Brothers]] |year = 1881| page= 3}}</ref><ref name="Cottrell">{{cite book |last= Cottrell |first= Leonard |author-link= Leonard Cottrell| title= The Bull of Minos: The discoveries of Schliemann and Evans| publisher= [[George Bell & Sons#History|Bell & Hyman Ltd]] |year = 1984| isbn= 978-0-7135-2432-1| page= 36}}</ref>

Heinrich had to transfer to the [[Realschule]] (vocational school) after his father was accused of embezzling church funds<ref name="payne">{{Cite book |last=Payne |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G1TPdd9JCr8C&q=embezzled |title=The Gold of Troy: The Story of Heinrich Schliemann and the Buried Cities of Ancient Greece |publisher=Dorset Press |year=1959 |isbn=978-0-88029-531-4 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|15}} and made his exams in 1836. His family's poverty made a university education impossible. In his archaeological career, there was often a division between Schliemann and the educated professionals.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=William M Calder; David A Traill |title=Myth, scandal, and history: the Heinrich Schliemann controversy and a first edition of the Mycenaean diary |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0814317952 |location=Detroit}}</ref>

At age 14, after leaving Realschule, Heinrich became an apprentice at Herr Holtz's grocery in [[Fürstenberg/Havel|Fürstenberg]]. He later said that his passion for Homer was born when he heard a drunken miller reciting it at the grocer's.<ref name="payne" />{{rp|70}} He laboured for five years until he was forced to leave because he hurt his chest, lifting a heavy barrel and coughing up blood.<ref>"Schliemann, Heinrich" in [[Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie]], [http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Schliemann,_Heinrich at de.wikisource]. {{in lang|de}}</ref> In 1841, Schliemann moved to [[Hamburg]] and became a [[cabin boy]] on the ''Dorothea,'' a [[brig]] bound for [[Venezuela]]. After twelve days at sea, the ship foundered in a gale. The survivors washed up on the shores of the [[Netherlands]].<ref name="payne" />{{rp|25}} Schliemann became a messenger, office attendant, and later, a bookkeeper in [[Amsterdam]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dr. Naveen Vashishta |title=PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF ARCHAEOLOGY |pages=38 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340608060}}</ref>

==Career==
[[File:Шлиман в 38 лет.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Schliemann as a young man]]

On 1 March 1844, 22-year-old Schliemann took a position with B. H. Schröder & Co., an import/export firm. In 1846, the firm sent him as a [[General Agent]] to [[St. Petersburg]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

In time, Schliemann represented a number of companies. He learned Russian and Greek, employing a system that he used his entire life to learn languages; Schliemann claimed that it took him six weeks to learn a language<ref name="payne" />{{rp|30}} and wrote his diary in the language of whatever country he happened to be in. By the end of his life, he could converse in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Swedish, Polish, Greek, Latin, and Arabic, besides his native German.<ref name=cw/>{{rp|28–30}}

Schliemann's ability with languages was an important part of his career as a businessman in the importing trade. In 1850, he learned of the death of his brother, Ludwig, who had become wealthy as a speculator in the California gold fields.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Constable |first1=Giles |last2=Rohrbough |first2=Malcolm J. |date=2015 |title=THE ROTHSCHILDS AND THE GOLD RUSH: Benjamin Davidson and Heinrich Schliemann in California, 1851-52 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44650947 |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |volume=105 |issue=4 |pages=i–115 |jstor=44650947 |issn=0065-9746}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Heinrich Schliemann; William M Calder; David A Traill |title=Myth, scandal, and history : the Heinrich Schliemann controversy and a first edition of the Mycenaean diary |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1986 |isbn=0814317952 |location=Detroit}}</ref>

Schliemann went to California in early 1851 and started a bank in [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] buying and reselling over a million dollars' worth of gold dust in just six months. When the local Rothschild agent complained about short-weight consignments, he left California, pretending it was because of illness.<ref name=Allen/> While he was there, California became the 31st state in September 1850, and Schliemann acquired [[United States citizenship]]. Schliemann propounded this story in his autobiography of 1881, though he clearly was in St Petersburg that day, and "in actual fact, ...obtained his American citizenship only in 1869."<ref>Christo Thanos and Wout Arentzen,''Schliemann and The California Gold Rush,''Leiden, Sidestone Press, 2014, {{ISBN|978-90-8890-255-0}}, pp. 46–47</ref>

According to his memoirs, before arriving in California he dined in [[Washington, D.C.]], with President [[Millard Fillmore]] and his family,<ref>Leo Deuel, ''Memoirs of Heinrich Schliemann: A Documentary Portrait Drawn from his Autobiographical Writings, Letters, and Excavation Reports'', New York: Harper, 1977, {{ISBN|0-06-011106-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0DNoAAAAMAAJ&q=President p. 67]; he also mentions meeting President [[Andrew Johnson]], p. 126.</ref> but W. Calder III says that Schliemann didn't attend but simply read about a similar gathering in the papers.<ref>W. Calder III, "Schliemann on Schliemann: A Study in the Use of Sources," GRBS 13 (1972) 335-353.</ref>

Schliemann also published what he said was an eyewitness account of the [[San Francisco Fire of 1851]], which he said was in June although it took place in May. At the time he was in Sacramento and used the report of the fire in the ''[[Sacramento Daily Journal]]'' to write his report.<ref>Traill, David A. "Schliemann's Mendacity: Fire and Fever in California." The Classical Journal 74, no. 4 (1979): 348-55. Accessed 23 April 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/3297144.</ref>

On 7 April 1852, he sold his business and returned to Russia. There he attempted to live the life of a gentleman, which brought him into contact with Ekaterina Petrovna Lyschin (1826–1896), the niece of one of his wealthy friends, whom he married on 12 October 1852.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} Schliemann next made a good profit trading in [[indigo dye]].<ref name=Allen>{{cite book|last=Allen |first=Susan Heuck |title=Finding the walls of Troy: Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlık |year=1999 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-20868-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rV8vyYn-qMgC&q=Schliemann+gold+dust&pg=PA112 |page=112}}</ref>

By 1858, Schliemann was 36 years old and wealthy enough to retire. In his memoirs, he claimed that he wished to dedicate himself to the pursuit of Troy.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

==Amateur archaeologist==
[[Image:MaskeAgamemnon.JPG|thumb|The '[[Mask of Agamemnon]]', discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 at [[Mycenae]] now exhibited at the [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens]].]]

Heinrich Schliemann was an amateur archaeologist. He was obsessed with the stories of Homer and ancient Mediterranean civilizations. He dedicated the second part of his life to unveiling the actual physical remains of the cities of Homer's epic tales. Many refer to him as the "father of pre-Hellenistic archaeology".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Golden Treasures of Troy: The Dream of Heinrich Schliemann|last=Duchêne|first=Hervé|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=1996}}</ref>

In 1868, Schliemann visited sites in the Greek world, and published his second book ''Ithaka, der Peloponnesus und Troja'' in which he described ancient sites in Greece and the Ottoman Empire and asserted that Hissarlik was the site of Troy. He submitted this book as a dissertation to the [[University of Rostock]]. In 1869, he was awarded a PhD ''in absentia''<ref>Bernard, Wolfgang. {{cite web|url=http://www.uni-rostock.de/presse/31/Schliemann.html |title=Homer-Forschung zu Schliemanns Zeit und heute |access-date=2008-09-24 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609140754/http://www.uni-rostock.de/presse/31/Schliemann.html |archive-date=June 9, 2007 }} (in German).</ref> from the university for that submission.<ref name=Allen/> David Traill wrote that the examiners gave him his PhD on the basis of his topographical analyses of [[Homer's Ithaca|Ithaca]], which were in part simply translations of another author's work or drawn from poetic descriptions by the same author.{{sfn|Allen|1999|p=312}} Other researchers who worked with documents from the university archives clearly contradict Traill's statements.<ref>Wilfried Bölke: Promotion an der Rostocker Universität. In: Bölke 1996, S. 160–168 Richter 1980a: W. Richter, „Ithaque, le Péloponnèse et Troie“ und das Promotionsverfahren Heinrich Schliemanns. In: Ethnogr. Archäol. Zeitschrift 21, 1980, S. 667-678. Richter 1980b: W. Richter, Die „altgriechisch geschriebene Dissertation“ Heinrich Schliemanns und die Darstellung seiner Promotion im biographischen Schrifttum. In: Antikerezeption, Antikeverhältnis, Antikebegegnung in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Schriften der Winckelmann-Gesellschaft, Bd. 6, S. 671-691.</ref>

Schliemann was an honorary member of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London]] and elected a member of the [[American Antiquarian Society]] in 1880.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlists|title=MemberListS}}</ref>

===Troy and Mycenae===
[[Image:Sophia Schliemann wearing gold jewelry (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|[[Sophia Schliemann]] (''née'' Engastromenos) wearing finds recovered at [[Hisarlık]]]]

Schliemann's first interest of a classical nature seems to have been the location of Troy. At the time he began excavating in Turkey, the site commonly believed to be Troy was at [[Pınarbaşı Köyü|Pınarbaşı]], a hilltop at the south end of the Trojan Plain.<ref name="Easton 1998 339">{{cite journal |last=Easton |first=D.F. |title=Heinrich Schliemann: Hero or Fraud?|journal=The Classical World |volume=91 |date=May–June 1998|doi=10.2307/4352102 |issue=5|pages=335–343 |jstor=4352102 }}</ref> The site had been previously excavated by English amateur archaeologist and local expert [[Frank Calvert]]. Schliemann performed soundings at Pınarbaşı but was disappointed by his findings.<ref name="Easton 1998 339"/> It was Calvert who identified [[Hissarlik]] as Troy and suggested Schliemann dig there on land owned by Calvert's family.{{sfn|Allen|1999|p=3}}

Schliemann was at first sceptical about the identification of Hissarlik with Troy but was persuaded by Calvert.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|title=The Trojans and their neighbours|year=2005|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-34959-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZelJgdu9mkC&q=Schliemann+credit+Calvert&pg=PA37|page=37}}</ref> In 1870, Schliemann began [[Schliemann's Trench|digging a trench]] at Hissarlik, and by 1873 had discovered nine buried cities.

Schliemann found pure copper and metal molds as well as a lot of other metal tools, cutlery, shields, and vases which were found at around 28 to {{frac|29|1|2}} feet deep at the site.<ref name="Schliemann 1875">{{Cite book |last1=Schliemann |first1=Heinrich |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000611783 |title=Troy and its remains: a narrative of researches and discoveries made on the site of Ilium, and in the Trojan Plain |last2=Schmitz |first2=L. Lora |last3=Smith |first3=Philip |last4=Schmitz |first4=L. Dora |date=1875 |publisher=J. Murray |series=Trojanische Alterthümer.English |location=London}}</ref>

The day before digging was to stop on 15 June 1873, which was the day he discovered gold, which he took to be [[Priam's Treasure]] trove.<ref name=cw/>{{rp|36–39}}<ref name=leo/>{{rp|131,153,163–213}} Recent research has confirmed several settlements on the site spanning 3,600 years.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-01-13|title=Review – Troy: myth and reality|url=https://archaeology.co.uk/articles/reviews/review-troy-myth-and-reality.htm|access-date=2021-10-15|website=Current Archaeology|language=en-US}}</ref> The layer that Schliemann referred to as "the Burnt City"<ref>{{Citation|title=THE THIRD, THE BURNT CITY, page 305 to 385|date=2010|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ilios/third-the-burnt-city-page-305-to-385/E21F7AF23A0D99388A20C078C3404D4C|work=Ilios: The City and Country of the Trojans|pages=305–385|editor-last=Schliemann|editor-first=Heinrich|series=Cambridge Library Collection - Archaeology|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/CBO9781139197908.010|isbn=978-1-139-19790-8|access-date=2021-10-15}}</ref> and believed to be Troy is now thought to be from 3,000 to 2,000 BCE,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kessler|first=P. L.|title=Kingdoms of Anatolia - Troy / llium (Wilusa?)|url=https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsMiddEast/AnatoliaTroy.htm|access-date=2021-10-15|website=www.historyfiles.co.uk|language=en}}</ref> too early to be the location of the Trojan War as Homer describes it.

He later wrote that he had seen the gold glinting in the dirt and dismissed the workmen so that he and Sophia could excavate it themselves; they removed it in her shawl. However, Schliemann's oft-repeated story of the treasure being carried by Sophia in her shawl was untrue. Schliemann later admitted fabricating it; at the time of the discovery, Sophia was in fact with her family in Athens, following the death of her father.<ref>Moorehead, Caroline, The Lost Treasures of Troy (1994) p. 133, {{ISBN|0-297-81500-8}}</ref>

Schliemann smuggled the treasure out of the Ottoman Empire into Greece. The Ottoman Empire sued Schliemann in a Greek court, and Schliemann was forced to pay a 10,000 gold [[franc]] [[indemnity]]. Schliemann ended up sending 50,000 gold francs to the [[Constantinople]] Imperial Museum, and got permission for further excavations at Hissarlik.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} In 1874 Schliemann published ''Troy and Its Remains''. Schliemann at first offered his collections, which included Priam's Gold, to the Greek government, then the French, and finally the Russians. In 1881, his collections ended up in Berlin, housed first in the Ethnographic Museum, and then the Museum for Pre- and Early History, until the start of [[WWII]]. In 1939, all exhibits were packed and stored in the museum basement, then moved to the Prussian State Bank vault in January 1941. In 1941, the treasure was moved to the [[Flakturm]]  located at the [[Berlin Zoological Garden]], called the [[Zoo Tower]]. Dr. [[Wilhelm Unverzagt]] protected the three crates containing the Trojan gold when the [[Battle of Berlin]] commenced, right up until [[SMERSH]] forces took control of the tower on 1 May. On 26 May 1945, Soviet forces, led by Lt. Gen. Nikolai Antipenko, Andre Konstantinov, deputy head of the Arts Committee, [[Viktor Lazarev]], and Serafim Druzhinin, took the three crates away on trucks. The crates were then flown to Moscow on 30 June 1945, and taken to the [[Pushkin Museum]] ten days later. In 1994, the museum admitted the collection was in their possession.<ref name=cw>{{cite book |last1=Ceram |first1=C.W. |title=Gods, Graves & Scholars |date=1994 |publisher=Wingd Books |location=New York |isbn=9780517119815 |pages=39, 54–55}}</ref><ref name="leo">{{cite book |last1=Deuel |first1=Leo |title=Memoirs of Heinrich Schliemann |date=1977 |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |isbn=9780060111069 |pages=212–219, 385}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Akinsha |first1=Konstantin |last2=Kozlov |first2=Grigorii |title=Beautiful Loot |date=1995 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=9780679443896 |pages=6–11,20,41,60–63,78,223,255}}</ref>

In 1876, he began digging at [[Mycenae]], under the supervision of [[Panagiotis Stamatakis]], a Greek archaeologist attached to the excavation as a condition of Schliemann's permit.<ref>
{{cite book|last=Vasilikou|first=Dora|year=2011|title=Το χρονικό της ανασκαφής των Μυκηνών, 1870–1878|place=Athens|url=https://www.archetai.gr/images/pdfs/bae/BAE_274.pdf|page=79}}</ref> There, he discovered the [[Grave Circle A, Mycenae|Shaft Graves]], with their skeletons and more regal gold, including the so-called [[Mask of Agamemnon]]. These findings were published in ''Mycenae'' in 1878.<ref name=cw/>{{rp|57–58}}<ref name=leo/>{{rp|226–252,385}}

Although he had received permission in 1876 to continue excavation, Schliemann did not reopen the dig site at Troy until 1878–1879, after another excavation in Ithaca designed to locate a site mentioned in the ''[[Odyssey]]''. [[Emile Burnouf]] and [[Rudolf Virchow]] joined him there in 1879.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Heinrich-Schliemann|title=Heinrich Schliemann {{!}} Biography, Excavations, & Facts|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-01-16}}</ref>

In 1880 Schliemann began excavation of the [[Treasury of Minyas]] at [[Orchomenus (Boeotia)]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The scientific work|url=https://www.mthv.gr/en/the-museum/the-scientific-work/|publisher=[[Archaeological Museum of Thebes]]|access-date=2017-11-23}}</ref>

From 1882 to 1883 Schliemann made a sixth excavation at Troy, in 1884 an excavation of [[Tiryns]] with [[Wilhelm Dörpfeld]], and from 1889 to 1890 a seventh and eighth excavation at Troy, also with Dörpfeld.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SWICDATt3wQC&q=%22Schliemann%22+%22D%C3%B6rpfeld%22+%221888%22&pg=PA56|title=Troy|last=Kerns|first=Ann|date=2008|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books|isbn=9780822575825|language=en}}</ref>

==Personal life==
After learning that his childhood sweetheart Minna had married, Schliemann married Ekaterina Petrovna Lyschin (1826–1896) on October 12, 1852. She was the niece of one of his wealthy friends in St Petersburg and they had three children; a son, Sergey (1855–1941), and two daughters, Natalya (1859–1869) and Nadezhda (1861–1935).<ref name=Allen/> As a consequence of his many travels, Schliemann was often separated from his wife and children. He spent a month studying at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] in 1866 while moving his assets from St. Petersburg to Paris to invest in real estate. He asked his wife to join him, but she refused.{{sfn|Allen|1999|p=114}}

Schliemann threatened to divorce Ekaterina twice before doing so. In 1869, he bought property and settled in [[Indianapolis]] for about three months to take advantage of [[Indiana]]'s liberal divorce laws, although he obtained the divorce by lying about his residency in the U.S. and his intention to remain in the state. He moved to Athens as soon as an Indiana court granted him the divorce and married again two months later.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Taylor |first1=Stephen J. |title="So She Went": Heinrich Schliemann Came to Marion County for a "Copper Bottom Divorce" |url=https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/so-she-went-heinrich-schliemann-came-to-marion-county-for-a-copper-bottom-divorce/ |website=Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana's Digital Newspaper Program |access-date=8 June 2019 |date=11 March 2015}}</ref>

A former teacher and Athenian friend, Theokletos Vimpos, the Archbishop of Mantineia and Kynouria, helped Schliemann find someone "enthusiastic about Homer and about a rebirth of my beloved Greece...with a Greek name and a soul impassioned for learning." The archbishop suggested the 17-year-old [[Sophia Schliemann|Sophia Engastromenos]], daughter of his cousin. They were married by the archbishop on 23 September 1869. They later had two children, Andromache and [[Agamemnon Schliemann]].<ref name=leo/>{{rp|90–91,159–163}}

==Death==
[[Image:Schliemann grave.jpg|thumb|Schliemann's grave in the [[First Cemetery of Athens]]]]

On 1 August 1890, Schliemann returned reluctantly to [[Athens]], and in November travelled to [[Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle]], where his chronic ear infection was operated upon, on 13 November. The doctors deemed the operation a success, but his inner ear became painfully inflamed. Ignoring his doctors' advice, he left the hospital and travelled to [[Leipzig]], [[Berlin]] and [[Paris]]. From the last, he planned to return to [[Athens]] in time for Christmas, but his ear condition became even worse. Too sick to make the boat ride from [[Naples]] to [[Greece]], Schliemann remained in Naples but managed to make a journey to the ruins of [[Pompeii]]. On [[Christmas Day]] 1890, he collapsed into a coma; he died in a Naples hotel room the following day; the cause of death was [[cholesteatoma]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

His corpse was then transported by friends to the [[First Cemetery of Athens|First Cemetery]] in Athens. It was interred in a [[mausoleum]] shaped like a temple erected in ancient Greek style, designed by [[Ernst Ziller]] in the form of an [[amphiprostyle]] temple on top of a tall base. The [[frieze]] circling the outside of the mausoleum shows Schliemann conducting the excavations at Mycenae and other sites.

==Legacy and criticism==
[[File:Schliemann mansion 1900.png|thumb|The Schliemann mansion in [[Athens]], ca. 1910, now housing the [[Numismatic Museum of Athens]]]]

Schliemann's magnificent residence in the city centre of Athens, the ''Iliou Melathron'' (Ιλίου Μέλαθρον, "Palace of [[Troy|Ilium]]"), today houses the [[Numismatic Museum of Athens]].

Along with [[Arthur Evans|Sir Arthur Evans]], Schliemann was a pioneer in the study of the [[Aegean civilization]] in the [[Bronze Age]]. The two men knew of each other, Evans having visited Schliemann's sites. Schliemann had planned to excavate at [[Knossos]] but died before fulfilling that dream. Evans bought the site and stepped in to take charge of the project, which was then still in its infancy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arthur John Evans |url=http://hubbardplus.co.uk/evans/Arthur_John_Evans_Sir/arthur_john_evans.html |access-date=2023-06-11 |website=hubbardplus.co.uk}}</ref>

Further excavation of the [[Troy]] site by others indicated that the level Schliemann named the Troy of the ''[[Iliad]]'' was inaccurate, although they retain the names given by Schliemann. In a 1998 article for ''[[Classical World (journal)|The Classical World]],'' D.F. Easton wrote that Schliemann "was not very good at separating fact from interpretation"<ref name="Easton 1998 341">{{cite journal|last=Easton |first=D.F. |title=Heinrich Schliemann: Hero or Fraud?|journal=The Classical World |volume=91 |date=May–June 1998|doi=10.2307/4352102|issue=5|pages=335–343 |jstor=4352102 }}</ref> and claimed that, "Even in 1872 Frank Calvert could see from the pottery that Troy II had to be hundreds of years too early to be the Troy of the Trojan War, a point finally proven by the discovery of Mycenaean pottery in Troy VI in 1890."<ref name="Easton 1998 341"/> "King Priam's Treasure" was found in the Troy II level, that of the Early Bronze Age, long before Priam's city of Troy VI or Troy VIIa in the prosperous and elaborate Mycenaean Age. Moreover, the finds were unique. The elaborate gold artefacts do not appear to belong to the Early Bronze Age.

His excavations were condemned by later archaeologists as having destroyed the main layers of the real Troy. [[Kenneth W. Harl]], in the Teaching Company's ''Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor'' lecture series, sarcastically claimed that Schliemann's excavations were carried out with such rough methods that he did to Troy what the Greeks could not do in their times, destroying and levelling down the entire city walls to the ground.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=363| title=Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor| first=Kenneth W. | last=Harl | access-date=November 23, 2012}}</ref>

In 1972, Professor William Calder of the [[University of Colorado]], speaking at a commemoration of Schliemann's birthday, claimed that he had uncovered several possible problems in Schliemann's work. Other investigators followed, such as Professor David Traill of the University of California.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JcE8BAAAQBAJ&q=schliemann+David+Traill+of+the+University+of+California&pg=PA73|title=The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction|last=Cline|first=Eric H.|date=2013-04-12|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-933365-3|language=en}}</ref>

A 2004 article of the [[National Geographic Society]] called into question Schliemann's qualifications, his motives, and his methods:
{{blockquote|In northwestern Turkey, Heinrich Schliemann excavated the site believed to be Troy in 1870. Schliemann was a German adventurer and [[con-man]] who took sole credit for the discovery, even though he was digging at the site, called Hisarlık, at the behest of British archaeologist Frank Calvert. [...] Eager to find the legendary treasures of Troy, Schliemann blasted his way down to the second city, where he found what he believed were the jewels that once belonged to Helen. As it turns out, the jewels were a thousand years older than the time described in Homer's epic.<ref name="Stefan Lovgren" />}}

A 2005 article presented similar criticisms when reporting on a speech by University of Pennsylvania scholar C. Brian Rose:
{{blockquote|German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann was the first to explore the Mound of Troy in the 1870s. Unfortunately, he had had no formal education in archaeology, and dug an enormous trench "which we still call the Schliemann Trench," according to Rose, because in the process Schliemann "destroyed a phenomenal amount of material." [...] Only much later in his career would he accept the fact that the treasure had been found at a layer one thousand years removed from the battle between the Greeks and Trojans, and thus that it could not have been the treasure of King Priam. Schliemann may not have discovered the truth, but the publicity stunt worked, making Schliemann and the site famous and igniting the field of Homeric studies in the late 19th century. During this period he was criticized and ridiculed of claims to fathering an offspring with a local Assyrian Girl sparking infidelity and adultery which Schliemann did not confirm or deny. '<ref>{{cite web|first=Lauren |last=Stokes |url=https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2005/11/23/trojan-wars-and-tourism-a-lecture-by-c-brian-rose/ |title=Trojan wars and tourism: a lecture by C. Brian Rose |publisher=Swarthmore The Phoenix|access-date=2024-11-07|date=2005-11-23 }}</ref>}}

Schliemann's methods have been described as "savage and brutal. He ploughed through layers of soil and everything in them without proper record keeping—no mapping of finds, few descriptions of discoveries."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rubalcaba|first1=Jill|last2=Cline|first2=Eric|author-link2=Eric H. Cline|title=Digging for Troy|publisher=Charlesworth|isbn=978-1-58089-326-8|pages=30, 41|year=2011}}</ref> His rough excavation, conclusory interpretation and appropriation of artifacts were criticised by contemporary antiquarians, among them Spyridon Comnos and [[Stephen Salisbury III]].<ref>{{cite conference|last=Salisbury|first=Stephen|title=Report of the Council|conference=Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society at the Semi-Annual Meeting, Held in Boston|date=April 28, 1875}}</ref> The fame of his discoveries overshadowed such criticism through most of the twentieth century, such that [[Carl Blegen]] excused his recklessness: "Although there were some regrettable blunders, those criticisms are largely colored by a comparison with modern techniques of digging; but it is only fair to remember that before 1876 very few persons, if anyone, yet really knew how excavations should properly be conducted. There was no science of archaeological investigation, and there was probably no other digger who was better than Schliemann in actual field work."<ref>{{cite book|last=Blegen|first=Carl W.|title=Troy and the Trojans|year=1995}}</ref>

In 1874, Schliemann also initiated and sponsored the removal of medieval edifices from the [[Acropolis of Athens]], including the great [[Frankish Tower (Acropolis of Athens)|Frankish Tower]]. Despite considerable opposition, including from [[George I of Greece|King George I of the Hellenes]], Schliemann saw the project through.{{sfn|Baelen|1959|pp=242–243}} The eminent historian of [[Frankokratia|Frankish Greece]], [[William Miller (historian)|William Miller]], later denounced this as "an act of vandalism unworthy of any people imbued with a sense of the continuity of history",{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=401}} and "pedantic barbarism".{{sfn|Baelen|1959|p=242}}

In his excavations at Troy, Schliemann found many [[swastika]]s adorned on pottery<ref name="Schliemann 1875"/> and consulted with Aryan nationalist [[Émile-Louis Burnouf]] to identify the symbol. Claiming that the symbol was connected with the Aryans, Burnouf adopted and popularised the swastika as a symbol of Aryan nationalism.<ref name="Swastika: The Power of a Symbol">{{Cite web |title=Swastika: The Power of a Symbol |url=https://humanjourney.us/the-evolution-of-language-section/external-symbols/swastika-the-hidden-power-of-a-symbol/ |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=The Human Journey |language=en-US |archive-date=2022-12-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206233237/https://humanjourney.us/the-evolution-of-language-section/external-symbols/swastika-the-hidden-power-of-a-symbol/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Publications==
[[File:Bust of Heinrich Schliemann in Neues Museum, Berlin.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Bust of Schliemann in [[Neues Museum]], Berlin]]
* ''La Chine et le Japon au temps présent'' (1867)
* ''Ithaka, der Peloponnesus und Troja'' (1868) (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01682-7}})
* ''Trojanische Altertümer: Bericht über die Ausgrabungen in Troja'' (1874) (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01703-9}})
* ''Troja und seine Ruinen'' (1875). Translated into English as ''Troy and its Remains'' (1875) (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01717-6}})
* ''Mykena'' (1878). Translated into English as ''Mycenae: A Narrative of Researches and Discoveries at Mycenae and Tiryns'' (1878) (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01692-6}})
* ''Ilios, City and Country of the Trojans'' (1880) (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01679-7}})
* ''Orchomenos: Bericht über meine Ausgrabungen in Böotischen Orchomenos'' (1881) (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01718-3}})
* ''Tiryns: Der prähistorische Palast der Könige von Tiryns'' (1885) (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01720-6}}). Translated into English ''Tiryns: The Prehistoric Palace of the Kings of Tiryns'' (1885)
* ''Bericht über de Ausgrabungen in Troja im Jahre 1890'' (1891) (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01719-0}}).
* Heinrich Schliemann; Sophia Schliemann (ed.): ''Heinrich Schliemann's Autobiography''. Leipzig, 1892. ([http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/schliemann1892 Online version in German])

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[List of archaeologists]]
* [[List of polyglots]]
* [[Ernst Boetticher]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
* {{cite journal | last = Baelen | first = Jean | title = L'Acropole pendant la guerre d'Indépendance [II. Le drame de la Tour Franque] | journal =  Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé | year = 1959 | volume = 1 | issue = 2 | pages = 240–298 | doi = 10.3406/bude.1959.3856 | language = fr }}
* {{cite book | first = William | last = Miller | author-link = William Miller (historian)| title = The Latins in the Levant, a History of Frankish Greece (1204–1566) | publisher = E.P. Dutton and Company | location = New York | year = 1908 | url = https://archive.org/details/latinsinlevanta00millgoog}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|last= Boorstin|first=Daniel|title=The Discoverers|url= https://archive.org/details/discoverers00boor|url-access= registration|year=1983|isbn=978-0-394-40229-1|publisher=[[Random House]]}}
* {{cite book|last= Durant|first=Will|title=The Life of Greece: Being a history of Greek civilization from the beginnings, and of civilization in the Near East from the death of Alexander, to the Roman conquest|url= https://archive.org/details/lifeofgreece00dura|url-access= registration|year=1939|oclc=355696346|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]}}
* {{cite journal|last=Easton |first=D.F. |title=Heinrich Schliemann: Hero or Fraud?|journal=The Classical World |volume=91 |date=May–June 1998|doi=10.2307/4352102|issue=5|pages=335–343|jstor=4352102 }}
* {{cite book|last= Poole|first=Lynn|author2=Poole, Gray  |title=One Passion, Two Loves|year=1966|oclc=284890|publisher=[[Thomas Y. Crowell Co.|Crowell]]}}.
* {{cite book|last= Silberman|first=Neil Asher|title=Between Past and Present: Archaeology, Ideology, and Nationalism in the Modern Middle East|publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]|location=New York|year=1990|isbn=978-0-385-41610-8}}
* {{cite book |title=The Gold of Troy. Searching for Homer's Fabled City |last=Tolstikov |first=Vladimir |author2=Treister, Mikhail  |publisher=[[Abrams Books|Harry N. Abrams]] |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-8109-3394-1}}
* {{cite book|last= Traill|first=David A.|title=Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|location=New York|year=1995|isbn=978-0-312-14042-7}}
* {{cite book|last= Wood|first= Michael|title=In Search of the Trojan War|url= https://archive.org/details/insearchoftrojan00wood|url-access= registration|publisher=[[New American Library]]|year=1987 |isbn=978-0-452-25960-7}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal|author=Turner, David|title=Schliemann's Diary: Greece and the Troad, 1868 |journal=[[The Annual of the British School at Athens]]|publisher=[[British School at Athens]]|volume=102|year=2007|pages=345–391|jstor=30245254 |doi=10.1017/S0068245400021511|s2cid=162902456 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikisource author}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=43142 | name=Heinrich Schliemann}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Heinrich Schliemann}}
* [[American School of Classical Studies at Athens]]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071005213805/http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/archives/Gennadius/Schliemann/SchScope.htm |date=October 5, 2007 |title=Heinrich Schliemann and Family Papers }}.
* {{Cite EB1911|author=Hogarth, David George|author-link=David George Hogarth|wstitle=Schliemann, Heinrich|volume=24|page=341}}
* Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte exhibition on [https://www.smb.museum/en/exhibitions/detail/the-worlds-of-schliemann/ The Worlds of Schliemann: His Life. His Discoveries. His Legacy] (13.05.2022 to 08.01.2023).
* {{Cite Americana|short=1|wstitle=Schliemann, Heinrich|year=1920}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoLY21L_JMk Schliemann's porky pies (lies) about excavating Troy - Curator's Corner S5 Ep11 from the British Museum]
* [http://mbc.cyfrowemazowsze.pl/publication/69457 ''Original Skizzen Heinrich Schliemann's zu dessen Werk Ilios''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180525210410/http://mbc.cyfrowemazowsze.pl/publication/69457 |date=2018-05-25 }} – photographic and drawing documentation of Schliemann's excavations prepared most probably for his publication ''Atlas trojanischer Alterthümer'' (1874)
* {{cite web|title=How to pronounce Schliemann (Germany/German) - PronounceNames.com|website=YouTube|date=April 26, 2018|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uo76U2QMtk| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/5uo76U2QMtk| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Archaeological site of Mycenae}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schliemann, Heinrich}}
[[Category:Heinrich Schliemann| ]]
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