Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit

by David A. Traill

Recounts the personal and professional life of the archeologist and exposes an unscrupulous individual who distorted facts and made false claims about some of his discoveries

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Germany, Ancient History

384 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 1995

About the author

David A. Traill is Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of California, Davis.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

As a child I loved picture books of Greece and Troy showing the civilisation that emerged thanks to Schliemann. His dedication to his childhood dream of proving that Homer was not pure invention, that Troy was a real place and his industry in uncovering the Mycenaean civilisation seemed exemplary.

What David Traill's book makes clear is that this was no accident. Schliemann had refashioned himself and attempted to manage his media presence. If he was an exemplar it was of a real life Mr Bounderby.

At best he was an overbearing husband and an indifferent father, at worst he confessed to the marital rape of his Russian first wife in a letter to a friend, wasn't safe to leave alone with female servants and hounded his second wife to gain weight. He was a habitual liar to the point that even his own diaries can't be taken at face value but need to verified against other sources for accuracy, cheated people who helped him and could be venomous towards people who were critical of his archaeological work. Notably he obtained US citizenship using false residency evidence which enabled him then, along with some perjury, to divorce his first wife in Indiana - as it turned out the whole procedure was in vain since American divorces were not recognised under Russian law, but fortunately, after several years of bigamy, his first wife eventually divorced him (by which time he had long since liquefied his assets and moved them abroad).

As an archaeologist his work was characterised by haste. On occasions he had over a hundred people digging for him with barely any supervision. Sometimes find sites were not always recorded. The rich and extravagant finds, typically occurring towards the end of a digging season, appear to have been falsified either with the wrong find location given, or built up from scattered finds throughout the season, or added to with items bought from locals that had been uncovered elsewhere. In the case of Mycenae some of the gold items found may have been forged replicas the next richest grave from Mycenaean Greece has only a tenth of the amount of gold found in any of the three rich tombs that Schliemann had dug out. At the very least the treasure troves discovered at Troy and Mycenae almost certainly were assembled from multiple burials and passed off as unitary treasure hordes. Which reduces the scientific value of many spectacular finds since their correct context is unknown.

In addition the finds were in many cases illegally removed from the countries they were discovered in. This however was no innovation on Schliemann's part, the American Consul in Istanbul had advised him to smuggle out anything he found even before a shovel was sunk on his behalf in the territory of the Ottoman Empire, while over the years Consuls of various nations would assist Schliemann in removing antiquities under diplomatic seal both from major archaeological digs and even when Schliemann was on holiday in Egypt. As a result even though the Ottoman Empire had laws designed to keep antiquities in the country Schliemann left little behind him.

Schliemann in that sense is an exemplar of the European archaeologist as Indiana Jones, seizing what he wanted and carrying it off although he managed to avoid being pursued by rolling rocks. In keeping with the spirit of those times there may well have a national or even racial element to his actions since he didn't seek to expatriate the find from Mycenae or Tiryns. This was not a reflection of the disorder of the countryside, the Peloponnese was awash with bandits even within a day's journey from Athens when Schliemann worked there in the 1880s ,while Asia Minor was mostly peaceful (the only occasion that guards were hired while working in the Ottoman Empire was after the end of the Russo-Turkish war).

However he did uncover a civilisation that was entirely unknown at that time and despite being an amateur stuck to his insistence that this was a prehistoric civilisation and not as critics held the remnants of classical or Byzantine buildings or the work of a wondering northern tribe well known for their tendency to randomly build and abandon cities. One can see a falsification like the creation of Priam's Treasure, probably put together from a few different burials, as a successful attempt to impress the general and academic public. Priam's treasure then went on to have a strange afterlife. It was displayed for a few years in London, until Schliemann was actually asked to remove this incredible collection of objects to make way for a different set of exhibits, then it was gifted to Germany, grabbed by the Soviets in 1945 but apparently was kept boxed up until the 1990s - the standard story was that the treasure had been destroyed in the war - in theory Russia has reached agreement to return the items to Germany, but in practise they are still being held potentially pending compensation or restitution for treasures lost or looted from the Soviet Union during WWII. The Ottoman Empire waived its claim in the 1870s and at least as far as I've heard Turkey hasn't argued for a return of the items to Istanbul.

He was also keen to learn and adopt current archaeological practise, recording find depths, using stratigraphy and material context as dating tools, spotting similar pottery styles, using photography to illustrate books and as a recording tool. All of which sits alongside paying experts for favourable reviews of his books or writing responses to critics in his defence.

Born in 1822, a clergyman's son in northern Germany, he had a difficult childhood. His mother died when Schliemann was nine. Schliemann's father was then driven out of his parish the traditional way - by the parishioners turning up outside the family house on Sundays banging pots and pans - because he had immediately moved his mistress in. Lack of money meant that young Schliemann moved from Grammar School to standard school and then was removed from school altogether to work for a Grocer. From there on Schliemann made himself, studying bookkeeping, shipwrecked on his way to the New World he worked as a office runner in Holland. He then devoted himself to learning languages. Eventually learning Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Latin and Russian among others. He set himself up trading in indigo in Russia, moving much of his money out of the country after the Crimean War, then investing in Parisian property and railway shares. He was in his late 40s when, fairly casually he happened into archaeology.

It is fascinating to see a clearly capable and accomplished person whose need for recognition, success and status led him to lie and to cheat. Traill's book shows both how he dramatically advanced yet now has also held back and restricted our understanding of the prehistoric past of the Aegean region.

[Madeleine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid, measured biography that slowly unpacks how half of what Schliemann ever said was a lie. Schliemann comes out as a man who was self-centred and a maker of self-aggrandising myths about himself - excavating Troy was not a passionate childhood dream of his, but mostly an accident. He fell into archaeology and was always a businessman first, faking details in his diaries, smuggling out artefacts to keep for himself, and often labouring towards the specific delusion he came in with rather than interpreting what he found. On the other hand, he did a Lot, and rapidly accelerated the archaeological scene and particularly Mycenaean scholarship - and just kept going and going and going, so you can't fault the determination.

(You can fault pretty much everything else about him though. He was not a likeable man.)

If Schliemann comes out of this biography as an accomplished man but also a huge piece of work, then the real hero of Troy hiding underneath all this is definitely all around good guy Frank Calvert, who gave Schliemann the idea to excavate, but would have done it so much more carefully and patiently and honestly if he had only gotten to do it himself. Sorry Frank. We should talk about you more, because Schliemann did you so dirty.

[Dave Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this and a few others after visiting Troy recently… of course I should have read them before I went … but let’s skip over that bit 😂

Donald Trump is the grandson of a German immigrant, deported for running brothels and who re-enters America illegally so it’s quite possible that he may be related to Heinrich Schliemann, a German by birth.

Why make this odd point? Because the more I read this excellently researched book, full of contemporary letters, diary entries and the records of both societies and newspapers, I couldn’t shift the impression that Schliemann was a 1800’s Trump with a spade.

His legacy is one of claiming credit for others discoveries and work, whilst stealing, mislabelling and destroying much of what he was exploring, and whilst his name will forever stand with the rediscovery of Troy, the details, finds and treasures he uncovered during those excavations, both at Hisaralik and other sites across Ancient Greece, the reality is far more convoluted and all the more fascinating a story for it.

Well worth the 4 🌟 IMHO

[Bernie4444 · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now” - Joni Mitchell

All our best know people in history do a tad of exaggerating when it comes to biographies.

Countering their claims to fame there is always someone that just does not buy the party line and must disprove that person at any cost; this may include a few exaggerations from the naysayer himself/herself.

The only way to get at any kind of truth is to read both sides of the story and extrapolate your truth.

I must say that David A. Traill is a compelling writer and the book has a huge O/K. a very huge set of appendices. And a hand full of monochrome pictures.

“It’s Schliemann’s illusion I recall.”
“I don’t know Schliemann at all.”

[J. Bryce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't remember much about the book except that Schliemann was a kind of a scoundrel!

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a child and teenager I was very interested in archeology and read much about the pioneers in the fields - and one of the men who was always mentioned was Heinrich Schliemann - one of my favorite acquisitions when I was about 14 was a book by Robert Payne called 'The Gold of Troy' which was all about Schliemann's life and the discovery of Troy.

It is amazing how long the 'legends' (or lies if one is being blunt) that Schliemann wove about his life were allowed to remain uncritically on record. Even the foundation of his 'myth' the young child presented with a copy of Homer and arguing that the illustrated walls could not all have bee3n destroyed and vowing to find them. All tosh, like his stories of surviving fire in San Francisco, meeting the American president and so much more. The problem is that being a persistent liar is a problem when it comes to judging the reliability of his archeological record. The 'treasure of Priam' was neither discovered in the company of his wife or in the place he claimed. While the objects are most likely genuine, as are those he found at Mycenae, there are doubts as to whether he found them were he said he did. Schliemann great discoveries are revealed as having a unfortunate habit of occurring when he was alone, just before the digging season ended.

This is a great book and although it comprehensively debunks the Schliemann myth - he does it well and without any distortions or journalistic distortions. If you are interested in archeology, the discoveries at Troy or Mycenae or in the old fraud himself you will enjoy this book.

[Ryan Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Traill seems to have made his case that there is something a bit fishy about all of Schliemann's major finds, especially at Troy and Mycenae, and that his desperation to be successful and accepted by the scholarly community led him to commit several unscrupulous acts. There are some points, however, where Traill asserts a little too strongly for the evidence, and perhaps even reads a little more into the available source than he should.

If you want to read the biography of a very flavorful yet flawed character and learn something about the development of archaeology in the late nineteenth century, then this might be the book for you.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Traill (University of California, Davis) is the reigning expert in the English speaking world on Heinrich Schliemann (1892). The English Wikipedia article on Schliemann cites academic papers by Traill in numerous places. "Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit" is then the fruit of years of research by an eminently qualified academic. The problem with Traill's biography of Heinrich Schliemann is that it is so focused on unmasking Schliemann's sins that it fails to place Schliemann's excavations in their proper historical context and offers no coherent judgement on their value. Traill chooses to close his book with the enigmatic comment: "Heinrich Schliemann thanks to his astonishing success is likely to remain the emblematic archaeologist of all time."
Schliemann was a very wealthy "self-made man" who suddenly decided in his late 40's to become an archaeologist or in his own words a "Homeric archaeologist"; that is to say he developed a passion for excavating sites that he felt could be linked to the writings of Homer. In 1870 Schliemann began digging at Hissarlik in northwestern Turkey at the suggestion of Frank Calvert who believed that it was the site of Homer's Troy. Schliemann became an international celebrity due to a spectacular find of gold objects known as Priam's Treasure in 1873 that seemed to confirm the theory. The proper academic proof in fact required another 20 years of excavation at the site.
In 1876 Schliemann began to dig at Mycennae where two years later he would find Agamemnon's mask. In the view of Traill, the excavation of Mycennae constituted Schliemann's greatest accomplishment as it demonstrated that Greek civilization was 1000 years older than previously believed.
Schliemann's great sin according to Traill was that he salted his sites in various ways. First he would purchase visually striking objects from antique dealers and other sources that he would then claim came from the sites that he was excavating. He would also move objects from one place at one of his sites to another to reinforce the case that a particular dwelling was the abode of someone from the Homeric cycle. Finally, Schliemann seems to have contemplated commissioning goldsmiths to fabricate objects to be planted at his excavations. (Evidence is lacking to demonstrate that Schliemann actually ever did this.)
Traill spends most of his book trying to show that Schliemann was a perpetual liar. He meticulously reviews Schliemann's diaries in order to show that the accounts in Schliemann's diaries diverged from those in the accounts that he later published. In other cases Schliemann finds cases where the diaries contain outrageous lies.
Schliemann was also a thief. He smuggled "Priam's Treasury" out of Turkey to prevent the Turkish government from seizing it. He cheated his long-time collaborator Frank Calvert paying him less than the true value for certain objects that belonged to him.
In his personal life Schliemann was a complete wretch. By his own admission he regularly raped his first wife. According this first wife, he sexually harassed his female servants.
Traill may be right on most of criticisms that he makes of Schliemann but his biography is intensely unpleasant to read. Traill never really explains how Schliemann's excavations advanced the understanding of the history of pre-classical Greek history either for his contemporaries or for those of us living in the 21st century. His biography of Schliemann simply becomes a directionless list of lies and misdemeanors.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't normally read a children's book but did know the Schliemann name and wanted a quick view of his life. I found the stories of how he followed what he wanted to do and how he went ahead with explorations without knowing the proper was to make a dig to be interesting. On the one hand he broke ground in believing in himself. On the other hand, he ruined some digs for future finds.

What surprised me in my effort to find a fast read was to miss a fully flushed out description giving the atmosphere of settings and his accomplishments. Missed knowing who he talked to; what was said. I got no personality of anyone. I was told of his lies and that he was a liar without being given enough text to draw that conclusions myself.

[Fred Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Traill offers an interesting story, but, seems largely focused on convicting his subject of lying and general dishonesty. He clearly demonstrates that Schliemann was dishonest and self-aggrandizing. If Traill were writing today rather than in 1995, he might draw parallels with the "self-presentation" and "personal branding" of Internet influencers, reality television personalities, and corrupt politicians. At least Schliemann made major contributions to our knowledge of the Aegean Bronze Age.

[Samantha Rooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first biography I’ve read that actually intelligible as both a story on the person being written about and the history that surrounded them. Highly recommended

[Recensioni in tre parole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Analitico. Meticoloso. Eloquente.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review title: Making history, taking history, faking history

When other kids wanted to grow up to become firemen or cowboys, I wanted to grow up to become an archeologist. It was a wish I never pursued when I did grow up, went to college, and started my career, but I have still enjoyed reading about those who did live the dream of becoming archeologists. Heinrich Schliemann was one of the very first to become a celebrity like Indiana Jones, uncovering ancient cities and artifacts that he identified as the remains of Homer's Troy. But in this biography, we learn that Schliemann didn't just make history, he also took history and may have faked some of it.

But long before that, Schliemann was just a young German boy of modest background and little education, apprenticed to a shopkeeper and then a bookkeeper,, and struggling to make a living starting at the groundfloor in business. Only years later after making his fortune did he turn to his first love. Born in 1822, Schliemann was one of those polymaths that seemed to dominate the 19th century and find their unique place in history, not unlike John Brown, whose biography I just read. Like Brown, Schliemann was mostly self-taught, often failed in the early years of his career, intensely focused on his life goals (learning to read and write 12 languages to support his business and archeology careers), and blunt in his communications with his personal, business and scientific relationships.

And as John Brown was one of the first to define abolitionism as an action and not just a political position, Schliemann was one of the first to turn archeology into a career endeavor with professional standards instead of a gentleman's armchair pursuit. Much of what we recognize as early archeological practice was defined by his approach to field work. Those standards were not as rigorous as they have become since, so author Traill takes care not to judge him by modern standards. In a letter describing the artifacts he found and ascribed to ancient Troy of Homer fame, Schliemann writes: 'It is of unique and immense value for the whole of Troy is brought to light and ransacked by me.' (p. 202) "Ransacked" is not a verb used to describe modern archeology.

Traill mines Schliemann's journals, letters, and publications to write the story, and often the stories don't match. While Traill gives him full credit for his pioneering work in the field, he finds evidence (some direct, some circumstantial) for three big ethical gaps in his career:

Making history: Traill points to a trend throughout Schliemann's field work career that the biggest finds would be uncovered in the last days of a dig. Traill cites historical evidence that such finds at the end of a dig are extremely rare, and points to circumstantial evidence from comparisons of the journals written on the site and publications written later that show that Schliemann would report artifacts found on different days at different sites in the dig as coming from the same findspot to enhance their historical value.

Taking history: While political and legal rules strictly governing archeological digs and disposition of their finds were still in the future when Schliemann was working, he was still not above acting furtively to violate the ad hoc agreements with his sponsors to sneak artifacts out of dig sites. Some he sold for personal financial reward, others he donated to museums (like the British Museum) in countries far from the dig site. Traill cites direct evidence from the letters and reports from coworkers and contemporaries who knew or suspected Schliemann was taking history.

Faking history: Traill is quick to say that he can only speculate on circumstantial evidence on this charge, with only a couple of citations from Schliemann's letters where he suggested to a jeweler or metalworker that some finds might be reproducible. The only evidence that suggests that such may have actually happened (and been passed off as genuine) was in a find where there were several dozens of small objects that seemed identical.

So (again much like John Brown) Schliemann was a flawed 19th century hero. He almost singlehandedly created professional archeological field work, but at times misused his position to benefit financially and professionally. Traill's biography is well-researched but sometimes pedestrianly written and too focused on details that aren't likely to interest most readers. But readers who dreamed of growing up to become the next Heinrich Schliemann will want to read this book to learn which traits to imitate and which flaws to eliminate.

[Robert Clancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far, Schliemann was driven, very smart but greedy, unscrupulous, a liar and cheat, too.

[Velvetink]

Just picked up the Penguin '96 edition - Different cover. 50c