Most Interesting Of Schliemann's Discoveries example essay topic

Was Heinrich Schliemann a good archeologist? In this essay my aim is to separate the truth from the prejudice and find out whether Heinrich Schliemann was a greedy, a talented archeologist or just someone who stumbled upon a great discovery. Heinrich Schliemann was born on January 6, 1822 in the small village of Neu Bucko w, Germany. His interest in Homeric Troy started when his father, a protestant minister, gave him a book or Christmas in 1829 by Ludwig Jeerer entitled Illustrated History of the World.

Though he was realizing his dream of becoming rich, Schliemann remained a tortured spirit. He learned that Minna, his childhood sweetheart, had married someone else. This threw him into a state of depression, and he vowed that someday he would be rich enough to marry any woman he wanted. Wealth became the elusive idol he strove for he imagined it was a panacea that would cure all his personal shortcomings. When his beloved cousin Sophie died, Schliemann nearly went mad with grief. Her death forced him to ask himself questions he had been avoiding - what was the meaning of life?

What was he really living for? He turned to Homer's Odyssey and found comfort in the idea of the hero, Odysseus, returning home. He decided to follow Odysseus' example, and resolved to return to Ithaca, the island that Odysseus ruled. Schliemann set out to find Troy. At that time, Bunarbashi was believed to be the site of Troy, but Schliemann thought that the nearby hill Hissarlik was a more likely area.

Frank Calvert, an Englishman who owned the eastern half of the hill, agreed with Schliemann, and had discovered the ruins of a palace or temple made out of large blocks of hewn stone. After marrying for the second time Schliemann returned to Hissarlik in 1870, convinced that the most important discoveries would be found on the western side of the hill, which was owned by two Turks. They agreed to let Schliemann continue digging on their property if Schliemann would let them have the stones of the building foundation he had uncovered for a bridge they were building. Schliemann reluctantly agreed, and his excavation progressed until April, when the Turks decided they had enough stone and ordered him to stop his excavation. From this date until October of 1871, Schliemann went through a frustrating series of negotiations with the Turkish government. Finally on October 11, he returned to Troy determined to uncover the palace.

On June 18, 1872, Schliemann uncovered a relief of the sun god Apollo riding the four horses of the sun. The work was most likely from much later than the supposed time of the Trojan War. Though Schliemann had promised to give the Turkish government half of the treasure he found, he and Calvert smuggled the relief out of the country, and it ended up in Schliemann's garden for many years. Shortly after that find came one of the most interesting of Schliemann's discoveries. Schliemann himself found a golden treasure near the Sca ean Gates, and hoping to keep his find secret, let the crew have the rest of the day off. He and Sophie quietly excavated the hoard themselves, certain that they had found the treasure of King Priam.

Among their findings were a copper shield, a copper cauldron, a silver vase, a copper vase, a gold bottle, 2 gold cups, a small electrum cup, a silver goblet, 3 silver vases, 7 double-edged copper daggers, 6 silver knife blades, 13 copper lance-heads, 2 gold diadems, a fillet, 4 gold ear-drops, 56 gold earrings, and 8,750 gold rings and buttons. Though he never wrote down the exact date of the discovery, it is known that he did smuggle it off the site and to Frank Calvert on May 30, 1873. On May 31, certain that the treasure was safe with his friend, Schliemann wrote his first journal account of the find. He later split the artifacts up, and hid them with friends all over Greece with the treasure spread out, he knew neither the Greek nor the Turkish government could claim ownership of it. The Turkish government eventually discovered Schliemann's treachery, however, and demanded the treasure back. Schliemann refused, and attempted to offer the find to the Greek government, if they would let him excavate at Mycenae and Mount Olympus.

They refused his offer, and Schliemann was left in constant conflict between the two governments until Greek officials agreed to let him excavate at Mycenae, with the agreement that officials from the Greek Archaeological Society would work with him. In July of 1878, Schliemann left Mycenae and excavated at Ithaca. He identified a site he thought was the palace of Odysseus the effort was a failure by his standards, however, for he found neither the palace nor treasure. He did uncover the ruins of 190 houses, a discovery modern archaeologists would be pleased with. Convinced he would find nothing of 'value,' he abandoned Ithaca and decided to concentrate his efforts once again upon Hissarlik.

In September of 1878, Schliemann arrived at Hissarlik, and on October 21, 1878 he found a small cache consisting of 20 gold earrings, some gold spiral rings, 2 electrum bracelets, 11 silver earrings, 158 silver rings, and many gold beads. This time Schliemann was able to kept only one-third of his findings the Imperial Museum at Constantinople claimed the rest. Heinrich Schliemann found his last treasure in April of 1879 with two small areas of treasure, consisting of gold disks, chains, earrings, and bracelets. His years of luck had run out he would continue attempts at excavation for the rest of his life, but never again would he experience the success of his earlier years.

In conclusion I think that Heinrich Schliemann was an extremely bad archeologist, the importance of his finds cannot be denied but the way he excavated in such an offhand manner destroyed many precious artifacts. The way he stole much of the treasure he found makes him even lower in my opinion. In my view Schliemann was just a treasure hunter obsessed with money, what somehow stumbled upon- and destroyed generations of history.