Person1822 – 1890

Heinrich Schliemann

Also called: Schliemann

German businessman and archaeologist who, believing in Homer’s story, excavated Troy at Hisarlik and then the grave circle at Mycenae

Born into a poor pastor’s family in Mecklenburg, he worked as a shop clerk before joining a trading firm. He made a fortune in St Petersburg trading in indigo and other goods and in deals during the Crimean War, and learned many languages. Leaving business for archaeology, he excavated Hisarlik (Troy) from 1871, Mycenae in 1876, and later Orchomenos and Tiryns. He married a Greek, Sophia, and lived in Athens; he died in Naples and was buried in Athens. He did much to make Homer a subject for archaeology, but is also criticised for his rough methods, exaggerated or embellished reports and removal of finds abroad.

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2 related events

1
1871 – 1873Schliemann Excavates Troykey figure
From 1871 the German businessman Heinrich Schliemann dug into the mound of Hisarlik in the Ottoman Empire and announced that he had found Homer’s Troy. In 1873 he found a hoard of gold he named “Priam’s Treasure”, but it came from a layer more than a thousand years older than the Trojan War.
2
1876Excavation of Mycenae and the “Mask of Agamemnon”key figure
In 1876 Schliemann excavated Grave Circle A in the citadel of Mycenae in Greece and found gold masks and a wealth of gold objects. He believed he had found the tomb of Agamemnon, but the graves date to the 16th century BC, some three hundred years before the Trojan War.

Themes this person appears in

The Trojan War and the Odyssey1200 BC – 1876
From the apple of discord to the Trojan Horse and the homecoming of Odysseus — the Greek myth in story order, alongside the real site of Troy, the making of the epics, the Laocoön group and Schliemann’s excavations