Archaeological discoveries of Heinrich Schliemann. Discovery of Troy: Heinrich Schliemann's childhood dream come true Schliemann's calling crossword puzzle

Once upon a time, on the southern bank of the Hellespont (Dardanelles) stood the ancient city of Troy, the walls of which, according to legend, were erected by the god Poseidon himself. This city, which the Greeks called Ilion (hence the name of Homer’s poem “The Iliad”), lay on the sea trade route from Asia Minor to the Pontus Euxine (Black Sea) and was famous for its power and wealth. The last ruler of Troy was the wise old man Priam.

Around 1225 BC. e. The warlike Greek tribes of the Achaeans united for a large military campaign in Asia Minor. Under the leadership of the Mycenaean king Agamemnon, the Achaeans crossed the Aegean Sea and besieged Troy. Only in the tenth year, after fierce battles, they managed to take possession of the impregnable city and destroy it...

One day there will be a day when sacred Troy will perish,
Priam and the people of the spearman Priam will perish with her.

King Priam of Troy and many townspeople were killed, Queen Hecuba and other Trojan women were sold into slavery along with their children. Only a small detachment of Trojans, led by Priam's youngest son Aeneas, managed to escape from the burning city. Having boarded ships, they sailed somewhere out to sea, and their traces were subsequently found in Carthage, Albania, and Italy. Julius Caesar considered himself a descendant of Aeneas.

No written documents or evidence of the Trojan War have survived - only oral traditions and songs of wandering Aedi singers who sang the exploits of the invulnerable Achilles, the cunning Odysseus, the noble Diomedes, the glorious Ajax and other Greek heroes. Several centuries later, the great blind singer Homer, taking as a basis the plots of songs that had by that time become truly popular, composed a large poem called “The Iliad.” For a long time, the poem was passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. A few centuries later, its text was written down. Having passed through several thousand years, entering the lives of many generations of people, this poem has long ago become part of the world literary classics.

Literary - that's all? Yes. At least until the 19th century, no one ever considered the Iliad as a historical source. In the perception of “serious scientists” and no less serious ordinary people, it was just ancient Greek mythology, an epic. And the first person to believe the “tales of blind Homer” was the German Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890).

As a child, he heard stories from his father about Homer's heroes. When he grew up, he read the Iliad himself. The shadow of the great blind man troubled his soul and took possession of him for the rest of his life. The misfortune of many people is that they do not believe in fairy tales. But young Schliemann believed Homer to the end. And even as a child, Heinrich Schliemann announced to his father: “I don’t believe that nothing remains of Troy. I will find her."

So Ariadne's thread of legends led him into the depths of millennia...

However, there is every reason to believe that the above story, taken from Schliemann’s autobiography, was entirely invented by him, and he became interested in Troy and Homer much later, already in adulthood. This small man (1 m 56 cm) - enthusiastic, childishly inquisitive and at the same time secretive and focused - was constantly tormented by a thirst for knowledge. A successful businessman and millionaire, a polyglot, a self-taught archaeologist and a dreamer obsessed with the idea of ​​finding Homer's Troy - all this is Heinrich Schliemann, whose life path is so rich in adventures and stormy twists of fate that just describing them would take an entire book. His fate is not just amazing - it is unique!

With a volume of Homer in his hands, in the summer of 1868, Schliemann arrived in Greece. He was greatly impressed by the ruins of Mycenae and Tiryns - it was from there that the Achaean army led by King Agamemnon began the campaign against Troy. But if Mycenae and Tiryns are a reality, then why shouldn't Troy be a reality?

The Iliad became a guidebook for Schliemann, which he always kept with him. Arriving in Turkey, on the banks of the ancient Hellespont, he spent a long time looking for the two springs described in the poem - hot and cold:

We reached the springs, flowing beautifully
Two of them spring here, forming the sources of the abyssal Xanthus
The first spring flows hot water. Constantly
It is enveloped in thick steam, as if by fireman's smoke.
As for the second, even in summer its water is similar
Or with water ice, or with cold snow, or with hail.

(Iliad, Canto XXII)

Schliemann found the springs described by Homer at the foot of Bunarbashi Hill. Only it turned out there were not two of them here, but 34. Having carefully examined the hill, Schliemann came to the conclusion that this was not Troy after all. The city of Priam is somewhere nearby, but this is not it!

With a volume of Homer in his hands, Schliemann walked all around Bunarbashi, checking almost every step he took against the Iliad. His search led him to a 40-meter-high hill with the promising name Hisarlik (“fortress”, “castle”), the top of which was a flat square plateau with sides measuring 233 m.

“... We arrived at a huge, high plateau, covered with shards and pieces of processed marble,” Schliemann wrote. - Four marble columns rose lonely above the ground. They are half-grown into the soil, indicating the place where the temple was located in ancient times. The fact that the remains of ancient buildings were visible over a large area left no doubt that we were near the walls of a once flourishing big city.” Inspection of the hill and linking the area to Homer’s instructions left no doubt - the ruins of the legendary Troy are hidden here...

In fairness, it should be noted that Schliemann was not the first who intended to look for Troy on the southern bank of the Dardanelles. Even ancient authors knew that Troy was located somewhere in the vicinity of Hisarlik Hill. Herodotus wrote that King Xerxes, ruler of Persia, stayed here and the local residents told him the story of the siege and capture of Troy. Shocked, Xerxes sacrificed a thousand sheep and ordered the priests to sprinkle the walls of Troy with wine in memory of the great heroes of the past.

Alexander the Great, staying in Troy, performed a ritual ceremony: he doused himself with oil, ran naked around the “tomb of Achilles” and put on an ancient weapon that was kept in the local temple of Athena of Troy.

Julius Caesar found only ruins here - forty years earlier the city was destroyed by the Romans. He erected an altar on the ruins of Troy and burned incense, asking the gods and ancient heroes to help him in the fight against Pompey.

The mad emperor Caracalla, having visited Troy, restored under the name of New Ilion, wished to recreate here the scene of Achilles’ grief over the dead Patroclus. To do this, he ordered his favorite Festus to be poisoned, built a huge funeral pyre, personally killed the sacrificial animals, placed them along with the body of the murdered “friend” on the pyre and set it on fire.

Emperor Constantine, who visited in the 120s AD. e. ruins of Troy, wanted to establish the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire here, but then his choice fell on Byzantium - this is how Constantinople appeared.

Much water has flown under the bridge since that time. Gradually the exact location of Troy was forgotten. In 1785, the Frenchman Choiseul-Gouffier, who undertook several expeditions to northwestern Anatolia, concluded that Troy should be looked for in the Bunarbashi area, ten kilometers from Hisarlik. In 1822, the Scottish journalist MacLaren published an article in which he argued that Troy was the hill of Hisarlik. The same McLaren personally visited the site in 1847, and in 1863 he published his work again, confirming the earlier assumption. The American Frank Calvert, the British consul in the Dardanelles and also a big fan of Homer, who bought half of Hisarlik into his own property, also pointed out Hisarlik to Schliemann. Calvert, back in 1863, tried to convince the director of the Greco-Roman collection of the British Museum in London to equip an expedition to Hisarlik.

The excavations were preceded by an agonizing wait for permission to conduct them. When work finally began in April 1870, it became clear that Schliemann was faced with a very difficult task: in order to get to the ruins of “Homeric” Troy, he had to break through several cultural layers dating back to different times - the Hisarlik Hill, as it turned out to be a real “layer cake”. Many years after Schliemann, it was established that in total there are nine extensive strata on Hisarlik, which absorbed about 50 phases of the existence of settlements from different eras. The earliest of them date back to the 3rd millennium BC. e., and the latest - by 540 AD. e. But, like any obsessive seeker, Schliemann did not have enough patience. If he had carried out excavations gradually, releasing layer by layer, the discovery of “Homeric” Troy would have been postponed for many years. He wanted to get to the city of King Priam immediately, and in this haste he demolished the cultural layers lying above him and greatly destroyed the lower layers - he later regretted this for the rest of his life, and the scientific world was never able to forgive him for this mistake.

Finally, the remains of huge gates and fortress walls, scorched by a severe fire, appeared before Schliemann’s eyes. Undoubtedly, Schliemann decided that these were the remains of Priam's palace, destroyed by the Achaeans. The myth took on flesh: before the archaeologist’s gaze lay the ruins of sacred Troy...

Subsequently, it turned out that Schliemann was mistaken: the city of Priam lay higher than the one that he took for Troy. But the real Troy, although he greatly spoiled it, he still dug up, without knowing it, like Columbus, who did not know that he had discovered America.

As recent research has shown, there were nine different “Troys” on the Hissarlik Hill. The topmost layer destroyed by Schliemann, Troy IX, was the remains of a Roman-era city known as New Ilion, which existed at least until the 4th century AD. e. Below lay Troy VIII - the Greek city of Ilion (Ila), inhabited around 1000 BC. e. and destroyed in 84 BC. e. Roman commander Flavius ​​Fimbria. This city was famous for its temple of Athena Ilia, or Athena of Troy, which was visited by many famous people of antiquity, including Alexander the Great and Xerxes.

Troy VII, which existed for about eight hundred years, was a rather insignificant village. But Troy VI (1800–1240 BC) most likely was the city of King Priam. But Schliemann literally rushed through it, trying to get to the bottom of the next layers, as he was convinced that his goal was much deeper. As a result, he severely damaged Troy VI, but came across the charred ruins of Troy V - a city that existed for about a hundred years and died in a fire around 1800 BC. e. Beneath it lay the layers of Troy IV (2050–1900 BC) and Troy III (2200–2050 BC), relatively poor Bronze Age settlements. But Troy II (2600–2200 BC) was a very significant center. It was here in May 1873 that Schliemann made his most important discovery...

That day, while observing the progress of work on the ruins of the “Palace of Priam,” Schliemann accidentally noticed a certain object. Having instantly gained his bearings, he announced a break, sent the workers to the camp, and he and his wife Sophia remained in the excavation. In the greatest haste, working with only a knife, Schliemann extracted from the ground treasures of unheard-of value - “the treasure of King Priam”!

The treasure consisted of 8833 items, including unique cups made of gold and electrum, vessels, household copper and bronze utensils, two gold tiaras, silver bottles, beads, chains, buttons, clasps, fragments of daggers, and nine battle axes made of copper. These objects were sintered into a neat cube, from which Schliemann concluded that they had once been tightly packed in a wooden chest, which had completely decayed over the past centuries.

Later, after the death of the discoverer, scientists established that these “treasures of Priam” did not belong to this legendary king, but to another, who lived a thousand years before the Homeric character. However, this does not in any way detract from the value of the discovery made by Schliemann - the “treasures of Priam” are a unique complex of Bronze Age jewelry in its completeness and preservation, a real miracle of the Ancient World!

As soon as the scientific world learned about the findings, a huge scandal broke out. None of the “serious” archaeologists even wanted to hear about Schliemann and his treasures. Schliemann's books “Trojan Antiquities” (1874) and “Ilion. City and land of the Trojans. Research and discoveries on the land of Troy" (1881) caused an explosion of indignation in the scientific world. William M. Calder, professor of ancient philology at the University of Colorado (USA), called Schliemann “an impudent dreamer and a liar.” Professor Bernhard Stark from Jena (Germany) said that Schliemann’s discoveries were nothing more than “quackery”...

Indeed, Schliemann was an archaeologist by vocation, but did not have sufficient knowledge, and many scientists still cannot forgive him for his mistakes and delusions. However, be that as it may, it was Schliemann who discovered a new, hitherto unknown world for science, and it was he who laid the foundation for the study of Aegean culture.

Schliemann's research showed that Homer's poems are not just beautiful fairy tales. They are a rich source of knowledge, revealing to anyone who wishes it many reliable details from the life of the ancient Greeks and their time.

It is worth noting that Schliemann’s own attitude towards Homer’s descriptions changed over time. “Homer exaggerated everything with poetic freedom,” he wrote in his diary, when he became convinced that the Troy he had excavated was much smaller than the one mentioned in the Iliad.

In total, Schliemann conducted four major excavation campaigns in Troy (1871–1873, 1879, 1882–1883, 1889–1890). Starting from the third, he began to involve experts in excavations. At the same time, the opinions of specialists and the opinion of Schliemann often differed. Excavations at Troy continued in 1893–1894. - Derpfeld, a trusted collaborator of Schliemann himself, and from 1932 to 1938 - Bledjen.

What was Homeric Troy really like?

It was a major urban center of the Late Bronze Age. At that time, on the crest of the Hissarlik Hill, there stood a powerful fortress with towers, the length of whose walls was 522 meters. The walls of Troy were made of large limestone slabs 4–5 m thick. In one of the towers, which was 9 meters high, there was an underground well carved into the rock at a depth of 8 m. Behind the ring of walls was the palace of the ruler (Priam?) and “ Arsenal" is a large (26x12 m) structure, in the ruins of which 15 clay balls for stone throwers were discovered. Residential buildings in Troy were built of stone and raw brick. About 6 thousand people lived in the city at that time.

Judging by some data, the main cause of the death of the “Troy of King Priam” was not the war, but the earthquake that was common in these places. It is possible that the city, which suffered from a natural disaster, was raided by the Achaeans, who finally destroyed and plundered it. By the way, Homer indirectly speaks about this: the god Poseidon, who built the walls of Troy, was deceived by the Trojans and did not receive the agreed payment for his work. Therefore, Poseidon was the enemy of Priam and the ally of the Achaeans throughout the Trojan War. But Poseidon was not only the god of the sea - he is called the “earth shaker,” that is, causing earthquakes! Once again legends echo history...

Over the past hundred years, the ancient walls of the excavated city, exposed to constant rain and wind, began to crumble and crack. In addition, they were damaged by overgrown bushes and other plants, whose roots, like drills, began to cut into the stone. Only in 1988 was it possible to stop the destructive process of destruction - an international group of archaeologists, led by the German Manfred Korfman, began to work closely on the conservation of the ancient walls. Since 1992, 75 scientists of various professions from 8 countries have united under the banner of the joint project “Troy and Troas. Archeology of the area,” continues research into the Hissarlik hill and its surroundings.

In October 1995, a new discovery took place - writing existed in ancient Troy! Based on the found bronze seal with Hittite hieroglyphs (1100 BC), Manfred Korfman came to the conclusion that Troy is the same city that is mentioned not only in Homer, but also in the ancient Hittite epic. Korfman is confident that the latest finds in the fortifications are indisputable proof of the truth of Homer's Trojan War.

There is another point of view: the German archaeologist Zangger, referring to the famous text of Plato, claims that Troy is Atlantis. As evidence, he cites the presence of a moat surrounding the city, flooded in ancient times and discovered back in 1994. Plato in his writings describes Atlantis, washed by rings of artificial reservoirs. Two transverse channels, recently discovered in the coastal mountains, opening into a large basin, could serve as roadsteads, very convenient for anchoring ships at the entrance to the port of Atlantis.

One way or another, excavations and studies of Troy continue. Ariadne's thread of legends leads a new generation of scientists into the depths of history.

On this day:

Many of the great discoveries in the history of mankind were made not by dedicated scientists, but by self-taught, successful adventurers who did not have academic knowledge, but were ready to go ahead towards their goal.

“A little boy read the Iliad as a child. Homer. Shocked by the work, he decided that he would find Troy no matter what. Decades later Heinrich Schliemann fulfilled his promise."

This beautiful legend about the history of one of the most significant archaeological discoveries has little in common with reality.

The man who opened Troy to the world was sure of something else from an early age: sooner or later he would become rich and famous. Therefore, Heinrich Schliemann was very scrupulous about his biography, carefully erasing dubious episodes from it. The "Autobiography" written by Schliemann has as much to do with his real life as the "Priam's treasure" has to do with Troy as described by Homer.

Ernst Schliemann. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann was born on January 6, 1822 in Neubukov, into a family whose members had been shopkeepers for centuries. Ernst Schliemann, Henry's father, broke out of this series by becoming a pastor. But in his spiritual rank, Schliemann Sr. behaved indecently: after the death of his first wife, who bore him seven children, Ernst began an affair with a maid, which is why he was removed from his duties as a pastor.

Later, Ernst Schliemann completely went downhill, gradually becoming an alcoholic. Henry, who had become rich, did not have warm feelings for his parent, sent him barrels of wine as a gift, which may have accelerated his father’s transition to the best of worlds.

Citizen of the Russian Empire

By that time, Henry had not been to his home for a long time. Ernst Schliemann sent his children to be raised by wealthier relatives. Henry was brought up by Uncle Friedrich and demonstrated a good memory and desire to learn.

But at the age of 14, his studies ended, and Heinrich was sent to work in a shop. He got the most menial work, his working day lasted from 5 am to 11 am, which affected the teenager’s health. However, at the same time, Henry’s character was forged.

Five years later, Heinrich went to Hamburg in search of a better life. In need, he wrote to his uncle asking for a small loan. The uncle sent money, but described Henry to all his relatives as a beggar. The offended young man vowed never to ask his relatives for anything again.

Amsterdam in 1845. Drawing by Gerrit Lamberts. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

In 1841, 19-year-old Schliemann reached Amsterdam, where he found permanent work. In just four years, he went from a delivery boy to a bureau chief with a large salary and a staff of 15 subordinates.

The young businessman was advised to continue his career in Russia, which was then considered a very promising place for business. Representing a Dutch company in Russia, Schliemann amassed a substantial capital in a couple of years by selling goods from Europe. His ability for languages, which manifested itself in early childhood, made Schliemann an ideal partner for Russian merchants.

One of the few surviving photographs of E. P. Lyzhina. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Despite the fact that he managed to warm his hands on the California gold rush, Schliemann settled in Russia, receiving citizenship of the country. And in 1852 Heinrich married daughter of a successful lawyer Ekaterina Lyzhina.

Hobby of "Andrey Aristovich"

The Crimean War, unsuccessful for Russia, turned out to be extremely profitable for Schliemann thanks to military orders.

Henry's name was "Andrei Aristovich", his business was going well, and a son was born into the family.

But Schliemann, having achieved success in business, became bored. In April 1855, he first began studying the Modern Greek language. His first teacher was student of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy Nikolai Pappadakis, who worked with Schliemann in the evenings according to his usual method: the “student” read aloud, the “teacher” listened, corrected pronunciation and explained unfamiliar words.

Along with the study of Greek came an interest in the literature of Ancient Greece, especially in the Iliad. Henry tried to get his wife involved in this, but Catherine had a negative attitude towards such things. She openly told her husband that their relationship was a mistake from the very beginning, because the interests of the spouses were very far from each other. Divorce, according to the laws of the Russian Empire, was an extremely difficult matter.

The first surviving photograph of Schliemann, sent to relatives in Mecklenburg. Circa 1861. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

When problems in business were added to the troubles in the family, Schliemann simply left Russia. This was not a complete break with the country and family: Heinrich returned several more times, and in 1863 he was transferred from the Narva merchants to the St. Petersburg First Guild of Merchants. At the beginning of 1864, Schliemann received hereditary honorary citizenship, but did not want to stay in Russia.

"I'm sure I'll find Pergamon, the citadel of Troy"

In 1866, Schliemann arrived in Paris. The 44-year-old businessman is eager to revolutionize science, but first he considers it necessary to improve his knowledge.

Having enrolled at the University of Paris, he paid for 8 courses of lectures, including on Egyptian philosophy and archeology, Greek philosophy, and Greek literature. Without having listened to the lectures in full, Schliemann went to the USA, where he both dealt with business issues and became acquainted with various scientific works of antiquity.

In 1868, Schliemann, having visited Rome, became interested in excavations on the Palatine Hill. Having looked at these works, he, as they say, “lit up,” deciding that archeology would glorify him throughout the world.

Frank Calvert in 1868. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Having moved to Greece, he landed on the island of Ithaca, where he first began practical excavations, secretly hoping to find the palace of the legendary Odyssey.

Continuing his travels through the historical ruins of Greece, Schliemann reached the territory of Troas, at that moment under Ottoman rule.

Here he met the British diplomat Frank Calvert, who spent several years excavating the Hissarlik Hill. Calvert followed the hypothesis scientist Charles McLaren, who 40 years earlier announced that under the hill of Hisarlik there were the ruins of the Troy described by Homer.

Schliemann not only believed in it, he became “sick” with the new idea. “In April next year I will expose the entire hill of Hisarlik, for I am sure that I will find Pergamon, the citadel of Troy,” he wrote to his family.

New wife and start of excavations

In March 1869, Schliemann came to the United States and applied for American citizenship. Here he actually fabricated a divorce from his Russian wife, presenting false documents to the court.

Wedding photography. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Fascinated by Greece, Schliemann asked his friends to find him a Greek bride. In September 1869, the aspiring archaeologist married Sofia Engastromenu, daughters of the Greek merchant Georgios Engastromenos, who was 30 years younger than the groom. At the time of the wedding, Sofia was only 17 years old, she honestly admitted that she obeyed the will of her parents. The husband tried his best to educate her, took his wife to museums and exhibitions, trying to attract Sofia to her passion for archeology. The young wife became Schliemann’s obedient companion and assistant and bore him a daughter and a son, whom the father, immersed in archeology, named accordingly: Andromache And Agamemnon.

Having finished settling family affairs, Schliemann entered into a lengthy correspondence to obtain permission for excavations from the authorities of the Ottoman Empire. Unable to bear it, he began them without permission in April 1870, but was soon forced to interrupt the work.

Real excavations began only in October 1871. Having recruited about a hundred workers, Schliemann resolutely set to work, but at the end of November he closed the season due to heavy rains.

In the spring of 1872, Schliemann, as he once promised, began to “expose” Hisarlik, but there were no results. It’s not that there were none at all, but Schliemann was interested exclusively in Homer’s Troy, that is, in what he was ready to interpret in that way. The field season ended without results; minor finds were handed over to the Ottoman Museum in Istanbul.

Plain of Troas. View from Hisarlik. According to Schliemann, Agamemnon's camp was located on this site. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Brian Harrington Spier

"Priam's Treasure"

In 1873, Schliemann publicly declared that he had found Troy. He declared the ruins, excavated by May, to be the legendary “Palace of Priam,” which he reported to the press.

View of Schliemann's Trojan excavations. 19th century engraving. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

On May 31, 1873, as Schliemann himself described, he noticed objects made of copper and announced a break for the workers to dig up the treasure himself together with his wife. In fact, Schliemann's wife was not present at this event. From under the ancient wall, Schliemann used one knife to unearth various objects of gold and silver.

In total, over the next three weeks, about 8,000 items were discovered, including jewelry, accessories for performing various rituals, and much more.

If Heinrich Schliemann had been a classical scientist, it is unlikely that his discovery would have become a sensation. But he was an experienced businessman and knew a lot about advertising.

He, violating the excavation agreement, took his finds from the Ottoman Empire to Athens. As Schliemann himself explained, he did this to avoid looting. He put the women's jewelry discovered during excavations on his Greek wife, photographing her in this form. Photographs of Sophia Schliemann wearing these jewelry became a world sensation, as did the find itself.

A photograph of the “Priam’s treasure” in its entirety, taken in 1873. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Schliemann confidently declared: he discovered the very Troy that Homer wrote about. The treasures he found are a treasure hidden by king Priam or one of his associates at the time of the capture of the city. And they believed the self-taught archaeologist! Many people still believe.

Sins and merits

Professional scientists have a lot of complaints about Schliemann. Firstly, as promised, he literally “exposed” the Hissarlik hill. From the point of view of modern archeology, this is real vandalism.

Excavations must be carried out by gradually studying one cultural layer after another. In Schliemann's Troy there are nine such layers. However, the discoverer destroyed many of them in the course of his work, mixing them with others.

Secondly, “Priam’s treasure” absolutely has nothing to do with the Troy described by Homer.

The treasure found by Schliemann belongs to the layer called “Troy II” - this is the period 2600-2300. BC e. The layer belonging to the period of “Homeric Troy” is “Troy VII-A”. Schliemann went through this layer during excavations, practically not paying attention to it. Later he himself admitted this in his diaries.

Photo of Sophia Schliemann wearing jewelry from the “Priam’s treasure.” Circa 1874. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

But, having mentioned the sins of Heinrich Schliemann, it is necessary to say that he did something useful. The sensation into which he turned his discovery gave a powerful impetus to the development of archeology in the world, ensuring an influx of not only new enthusiasts into this science, but, very importantly, financial resources.

In addition, when talking about Troy and the “treasure of Priam”, Schliemann’s other discoveries are often forgotten. Continuing his tenacious belief in the accuracy of the Iliad as a historical source, in 1876 Schliemann began excavations in Mycenae, Greece, in search of the tomb of an ancient Greek hero Agamemnon. Here the archaeologist, who had gained experience, acted much more carefully and discovered the Mycenaean civilization of the 2nd millennium BC, unknown at that time. The discovery of Mycenaean culture was not so spectacular, but from a scientific point of view it was much more important than the finds in Troy.

However, Schliemann was true to himself: having discovered the tomb and the golden funeral mask, he announced that he had found the tomb of Agamemnon. Therefore, the rarity he found is today known as the “mask of Agamemnon.”

Photo of summer excavations in Troy in 1890. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

"The Acropolis and the Parthenon greet him in death"

Schliemann worked until the last days of his life, despite his rapidly deteriorating health. In 1890, ignoring doctors’ orders, after an operation he hurried once again to return to excavations. A new exacerbation of the disease led to him losing consciousness right on the street. Heinrich Schliemann died in Naples on December 26, 1890.

He was buried in Athens, in a specially built mausoleum, designed in the style of buildings in which ancient heroes were buried. “In death he is greeted by the Acropolis and the Parthenon, the columns of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the blue Saronic Gulf and, on the other side of the sea, the fragrant mountains of the Argolid, beyond which lie Mycenae and Tiryns,” wrote the widow Sophia Schliemann.

Heinrich Schliemann dreamed of fame and world fame and achieved his goal, standing next to the heroes of Hellas in the eyes of his descendants.

The beginning of this “war” and even the current “bombings” are often rooted in elementary feelings of envy and hostility towards a successful amateur - after all, archeology is the most complex of sciences, despite its apparent simplicity and accessibility to almost everyone who picks up a pick. All this is both true and false. For a hundred and twenty-five years now, real scientific discussions have not subsided on the topic - which is Troy, Homeric?

Heinrich Schliemann was born in 1822 into the family of a Protestant pastor in the German city of Neubuckow. His father Ernst Schliemann, despite his pious profession, was a violent man and a great ladies' man. Henry's mother, Louise, meekly endured the troubles that befell her. But one day her patience came to an end - when her husband brought a new maid, his mistress, into the house.

Life together did not last long. Louise died of nervous exhaustion, having given her son a gift before her death, which, according to Henry, became an impetus for him, setting him on the road to the mythical Troy. Here's how it happened. Remembering her son’s thirst for knowledge, his mother gave Henry a book by the historian Yerrera, “General History for Children,” for Christmas.

Schliemann would later write in his autobiography that, having seen pictures depicting Troy, the city sung by the blind Homer in the immortal Iliad, he, being seven years old, decided to find this city once and for all.

In reality, everything was completely different: the son composed a story about his mother’s gift - as well as his entire biography. The famous tome is still kept in the family of Schliemann's descendants, but it was purchased in a second-hand bookstore in St. Petersburg many years after the described Christmas evening.

After the death of his mother, Henry was forced to move to live with his uncle, also a pastor. His uncle allocated money for Heinrich’s education at the gymnasium, and after graduation he sent him to a grocery store. He worked in the shop for a long five and a half years from five o'clock in the morning until eleven at night. The grocer paid him virtually nothing.

Seeing no further prospects for himself, Heinrich left the grocery store and enlisted to work in Latin America. But the ship he is sailing on is wrecked. He is rescued by fishermen, and the future archaeologist suddenly finds himself in Holland. Amsterdam, at that time the business center of Europe, fascinates the young Schliemann. Here he finds a job as a messenger, for which, unlike in the grocery store, he is paid well.

But soon the new field begins to irritate him.

“A man who speaks two languages ​​is worth two,” Napoleon once said. Wanting to check the truth of this statement, Heinrich decides to learn foreign languages. Moreover, he starts with his native German, polishing his pronunciation. In the reception room of the port commandant - where they spoke mainly English - he memorizes foreign words and, on the way to the red light area, where he needs to take samples of handkerchiefs, he repeats what he has learned. He has almost no money for a teacher, but he has his own teaching method. You need to read aloud a lot in a foreign language in order to learn not only to pronounce words with the correct intonation, but also to constantly hear them. Translation exercises aimed only at mastering grammatical rules are not necessary at all. Instead of them - free essays on an interesting topic or fictitious dialogues. In the evening, the essay corrected by the tutor is memorized, and the next day it is read from memory to the teacher.

Using this method, Henry learned English in three months, and French in the next three. And he started learning Italian. However, his studies cause surprise and even condemnation from others. The weirdo gets fired from one job after another. But he does not lose heart, but boldly goes to the richest company in Amsterdam, Schroeder & Co., and offers himself as a sales agent to work with foreign partners. “We don’t hire crazy people!” - the manager turns him around from the threshold. Is it conceivable to know three languages ​​at the age of 22? However, Schliemann is so persistent that, just to get rid of it, he is examined and based on the test results, he is hired for the same job.

The company "Schroeder and Co" conducted its trading business almost all over the world. The newly hired worker not only knew languages, but also knew how to trade, that is, he worked for two people, receiving one salary. For Schroeder and Co., he turned out to be a godsend, especially since he did not rest on his laurels, but continued to improve his skills. After a year of hard work, the new employee achieved great success - the director of the company made him his personal assistant.

At that time, the most profitable market for the company was Russia - a huge and unsaturated market. The technical difficulty of mastering it was that representatives of Russian trading companies, as a rule, did not speak any languages ​​other than their native one. It was difficult to negotiate. Schliemann undertakes to correct the situation and begins to learn Russian. Suddenly he is faced with a big problem - there is not a single Russian language teacher in Europe. “What savagery in our enlightened 19th century!” - the novice businessman exclaims bitterly and develops another method of learning the language. He buys Russian books from a second-hand bookseller and begins to memorize them. It is based on the Russian-French phrasebook.

After three months of hard labor, Henry appears before Russian merchants and tries to tell them something. In response, to his amazement, the polyglot hears uncontrollable laughter. The fact is that among the books he bought was an edition of Barkov’s indecent poems, banned in Russia. He learned their poetic vocabulary. But Schliemann’s speech so impressed the representatives of the Russian merchants that they immediately invited him to create a joint venture on shares - their capital and his head. The enterprising German was not used to postponing decisions and the very next day he went to St. Petersburg.

Russia greets Schliemann with unbearable frosts. No matter how far it is from here to sun-kissed Troy, there is no other way there. The path lies through endless snow, which still needs to be turned into gold.

While Russian partners are collecting money for a common enterprise, Heinrich gets to know the country. His restless mind requires new work, and chance provides it. From the windows of the hotel where Schliemann settled, abandoned port buildings are clearly visible. While the St. Petersburg guest is calculating the possible payment for renting warehouses, they are burning out. Immediately, that same night, he rents the burnt-out buildings for next to nothing. And the next day he hires workers and begins to build everything anew, focusing on the plan of the port of Amsterdam.

In order to force Russian workers to work in a European manner, Schliemann is forced to manage the construction himself. This is where Barkov's rote expressions really came in handy!

Spring brought Heinrich Schliemann fabulous profits. Only part of the port was rebuilt by the beginning of navigation and the revival of trade, so the rental of warehouse space was more expensive than ever. The money he earned in the port allowed him to abandon his partners and open his own company. In 1852 Schliemann marries Ekaterina Lyzhina.

Over the next few years, he creates an entire trading empire, specializing in the purchase of European goods in Amsterdam and selling them in Russia. But a well-functioning business is not for the restless Heinrich. He transfers the matter into the hands of his clerks, and he himself goes to America with part of his free capital.

The first person Schliemann goes to visit in this completely unfamiliar country is the country's president, Fillmore (this fact is considered fictitious). And he immediately accepted it. Schliemann easily received a preferential license to open his own company in America to buy gold dust from San Francisco miners and export it.

Business with gold speculation was going well, but the Crimean War of 1854 that began in Russia opened new horizons for the company. Schliemann ensured that his company became the general contractor of the Russian army and began an unprecedented scam. Boots with cardboard soles, uniforms made of low-quality fabric, belts that sagged under the weight of ammunition, flasks that let water through, etc. were developed especially for the army. Of course, all this was presented as a product of the highest quality.

It is difficult to say how much such supply of the Russian army influenced the defeat of Russia, but in any case, its supplier behaved like a criminal. Many years later, he approached the Russian Emperor Alexander II with a request to enter Russia to excavate Scythian burial mounds. On the petition, the emperor wrote briefly: “Let him come, we’ll hang him!”

Schliemann's name still thundered, but now as the name of a swindler. Not only in Russia, but also in any other country, no one wanted to deal with an outright swindler. Not knowing what to do with himself, Heinrich begins to read a lot and, having accidentally stumbled upon the notorious “World History for Children,” decides to take up archeology. He prepares the ground for new glory - he publishes an autobiography, in which he claims that all his previous activities were only preparations for the fulfillment of his cherished childhood dream - to find Troy.

Paradoxically, this hoax was believed until recently, when Schliemann’s original diaries, kept by his heirs, came to light.

In 1868, he traveled through the Peloponnese and Troy to Ithaca. There he began the realization of his cherished dream, he began the search for Troy.

In 1869, Schliemann married a Greek woman, Sophia Engastromenos. Schliemann's second marriage looks very doubtful. According to the laws of the Russian Empire, Schliemann and Ekaterina Petrovna Lyzhina-Schliemann were not divorced; Schliemann did this in Ohio, for which he accepted American citizenship. In fact, the purchase of 17-year-old Sophia Engastromenos was made for 150 thousand francs. Soon she, like her husband, plunged headlong into searching for the country of Homer. Excavations began in April 1870; in 1871, Schliemann devoted two months to them, and in the following two years - four and a half months each.

Schliemann undertook his excavations in order to find Homeric Troy, but in a relatively short period he and his assistants found no less than seven disappeared cities.

The fifteenth of June 1873 was tentatively set as the last day of excavations. And then, Schliemann found something that crowned all his work, something that delighted the whole world... The Treasures of King Priam! And only shortly before his death it was proven that in the heat of passion he made a mistake, that Troy was not in the second or third layer from the bottom, but in the sixth, and that the treasure found by Schliemann belonged to a king who lived a thousand years before Priam.

Having found the “treasure of King Priam,” Schliemann felt that he had reached the pinnacle of life. Schliemann's passion for antiquities is evidenced by the fact that he named his “Greek” children Agamemnon and Andromache.

Yes, the merchant who abandoned his business and took up archeology, to put it mildly, frolicked, albeit at his own expense. However, no one will argue - he, an amateur, was very lucky. After all, he excavated not only Troy, but also the royal tombs in Mycenae. True, he never realized whose graves he had dug up there. He wrote seven books. He knew many languages ​​- English, French... (however, see the map of Europe). In six weeks in 1866 (he was 44), he mastered ancient Greek - so that he could read Greek authors in the original! He really needed this: after all, Heinrich Schliemann set himself the task of following the “poet of poets” Homer literally line by line and finding the legendary Troy. It probably seemed to him that the Trojan Horse was still standing on the ancient streets, and the hinges on its wooden door had not yet rusted. Oh yes! After all, Troy was burned! What a pity: it means the horse was burned in a fire.

Heinrich Schliemann stubbornly dug deeper. Although he found the Trojan Hill back in 1868, stood on it and silently left to write his enthusiastic second book, “Ithaca, Peloponnese and Troy.” In it, he set himself a task, the solution to which he already knew. Another thing is that I didn’t imagine any options.

The archaeologists were angry with him. Especially pedantic Germans: how is it possible to skip through all cultural layers?..

The “dilettante” Schliemann, obsessed with the idea of ​​unearthing Homer’s Troy (and he found it with the text of the Iliad in his hands!), without suspecting it, made another discovery a century earlier: neglecting the upper (late) cultural layers , he dug to the rock - the mainland, as they say in archeology. Now scientists do this consciously, although for reasons different from those of Heinrich Schliemann.

Schliemann defined the Homeric layer in his own way: the lowest one represented the city as somehow wretched and primitive. No, the great poet could not have been inspired by a small village! Troy II turned out to be majestic and with signs of fire, surrounded by a city wall. The wall was massive, with the remains of wide gates (there were two of them) and a small gate of the same shape... Having no idea about stratigraphy, Schliemann decided which layer was most suitable to be called Troy.

The Germans, instead of admiring, laughed in Schliemann's face. And when his book “Trojan Antiquities” was published in 1873. Not only archaeologists, professors and academicians, but also ordinary unknown journalists openly wrote about Heinrich Schliemann as an absurd amateur. And the scientists, who were probably less fortunate in life than he was, suddenly began to behave like merchants from Troyan Square. One respected professor - apparently trying to imitate Schliemann's "unscientific" origins - said that Schliemann made his fortune in Russia (this is true) by smuggling saltpeter! Such an unscientific approach by the “authority” of archeology suddenly seemed quite acceptable to many, and others seriously announced that, apparently, Schliemann had “pre-buried his “treasure of Priam” at the site of the find.”

What is it about?

It was like this (according to Schliemann). Satisfied with his three years of work and having dug up the desired Troy, he decided to complete the work on June 15, 1873 and go home to sit down to describe the results and compile a full report. And just a day before, on June 14, something flashed in a hole in the wall not far from the western gate! Schliemann instantly made a decision and sent away all the workers under an acceptable pretext. Left alone with his wife Sophia, he reached into a hole in the wall and pulled out a lot of things - kilograms of magnificent gold items (a bottle weighing 403 grams, a 200-gram goblet, a 601-gram boat-shaped goblet, gold tiaras, chains, bracelets, rings, buttons , an endless variety of small gold items - a total of 8,700 items made of pure gold), dishes made of silver, copper, various items made of ivory, semi-precious stones.

Yes. Undoubtedly, since the treasure was found not far from the palace (and it, of course, belonged to Priam!), it means that King Priam, seeing that Troy was doomed and there was nothing to do, decided to wall up his treasures in the city wall at the western gate (the cache there had been prepared in advance ).

With great efforts (the story is almost a detective story - later the Bolsheviks would adopt this method of illegal transportation) Schliemann took the “treasures of Priam” outside Turkey in a basket of vegetables.

And he acted like the most ordinary merchant: he began to bargain with the governments of France and England, then Russia, in order to sell the golden treasure of Troy more profitably.

We must pay tribute, neither England, nor France (Schliemann lived in Paris), nor Emperor Alexander II wanted to acquire the priceless “Priam’s treasure.” Meanwhile, the Turkish government, having studied the press and also probably discussing the “amateurism” of the discoverer of Troy, started a trial accusing Schliemann of misappropriating gold mined in Turkish soil and smuggling it outside Turkey. Only after paying Turkey 50 thousand francs did the Turks stop prosecuting the archaeologist.

However, Heinrich Schliemann in Germany had not only opponents, but also wise supporters: the famous Rudolf Virchow, doctor, anthropologist and researcher of antiquity; Emile Louis Burnouf, brilliant philologist, director of the French School in Athens. It was with them that Schliemann returned to Troy in 1879 to continue excavations. And he published his fifth book - “Ilion”. And in the same 1879, the University of Rostock awarded him the title of honorary doctor.

The “dilettante” hesitated for a long time, but finally decided and donated the “treasures of Priam” to the city of Berlin. This happened in 1881, and then grateful Berlin, with the permission of Kaiser Wilhelm I, declared Schliemann an honorary citizen of the city. The treasure entered the Berlin Museum of Prehistoric and Ancient History, and both the scientific world and the world community completely forgot about it. As if there were no trace of “Priam’s treasures”!

In 1882, Schliemann returned to Troy again. The young archaeologist and architect Wilhelm Dörpfeld offered him his services, and Heinrich Schliemann accepted his help.

Schliemann called the seventh book "Troy". It was a word and a deed on which he spent all his fortune. However, the scientific world (even the German one) has already turned its face to the discoverer of the ancient legend: in 1889 the first international conference took place in Troy. In 1890 - the second.

The famous "dilettante", of course, was not the first to decide to follow Homer. Back in the 18th century, the Frenchman Le Chevalier was digging in Troas. In 1864, the Austrian von Hahn founded an exploratory excavation (6 years before Schliemann) exactly in the place where Schliemann later dug - on the Hissarlik hill. But it was Schliemann who dug up Troy!

And after his death, German scientists did not want Schliemann to be considered the discoverer of Troy. When his young colleague dug up Troy VI (one of the layers that Schliemann skipped through without deigning to pay attention), the scientists rejoiced: albeit not a venerable one, albeit a young one, but an archaeologist with a good school!

If we continue to argue from these positions, then until the post-war period, Homer’s Troy was not found at all: Troy VII was dug up by the American S.V. Bledgen. As soon as Germany found out about this, they immediately declared the Troy of Heinrich Schliemann to be Homeric Troy!

Modern science counts XII cultural layers of Troy. Schliemann's Troy II dates back to approximately 2600-2300 BC. Troy I - by 2900-2600 BC. - Early Bronze Age. The last (latest) Troy ceased to exist, quietly dying out in the 500s AD. e. It was no longer called Troy or New Ilion.

The figure of Heinrich Schliemann is not an ordinary phenomenon, but also not too out of the ordinary for his century. Of course, in addition to his great love for history, the rich merchant thirsted for fame. A little strange for his decent age, but, on the other hand, which of us didn’t get more toys in childhood?

Something else is important here.

It has been practically proven that there was no “Priam’s treasure”.

"And the gold?" - you ask.

Yes, there is gold. It was probably drawn from different layers. There was no such layer in Troy II. “Treasure” was completed (and maybe even bought?) by Schliemann for the sake of proof, for the sake of self-affirmation. The heterogeneity of the collection is obvious. In addition, a comparison of Heinrich Schliemann's diaries, his books and press materials suggests that he and his wife were not in Hisarlik at the time of the discovery! Many of the “facts” of Schliemann’s biography were manipulated by him: he did not receive a reception from the American president, and he did not speak in Congress. There are falsifications of facts during the excavation of Mycenae.

On the other hand, as already mentioned, Schliemann is a child of his time. Archaeologists (and famous ones!) of the 19th century often began excavations only when there was hope of enrichment. For example, the Egyptian Antiquities Service entered into a contract on behalf of the government, according to which it allowed one or another scientist to carry out excavations, stipulating a percentage that the scientist would take for himself. Even the English Lord Carnarvon sued and fought with the Egyptian government for this percentage when he unexpectedly came across Tutankhamun’s gold. Only the very rich American Theodore Davis allowed himself to mercifully refuse the required interest. But no one has ever been interested (and will never know) how and with what they influenced him. There is nothing reprehensible in the fact that in 1873 Heinrich Schliemann wanted to sell “Priam’s treasure” to some government. This is what everyone, or almost everyone, who found this gold would do. Turkey had very little to do with him: the land of Troy was not its historical homeland. True, in such cases, when the age of the find is very respectable, and population migration is high and it is difficult to talk about finding the “true owner,” of course, the treasure should be considered a natural deposit and treated accordingly.

But what is the fate of the “treasure of Priam”? Isn't this a fairy tale?

No, not a fairy tale. It is not so difficult to find out the reasons why the “treasure” was kept silent and inaccessible to the viewer for the first 50-60 years. Then, in 1934, it was nevertheless classified according to its value (Hitler, who came to power in 1933, counted all state resources, and a basic inventory was carried out at the Berlin Museum of Prehistoric and Ancient History). With the outbreak of World War II, the exhibits were packed and locked in bank safes (Turkey, after all, was an ally of Germany and could suddenly lend a “hairy paw” to the treasures). Soon, given the Allied bombing of Germany and the sad fate of the Dresden palaces, the “treasures of Priam” were locked in a bomb shelter on the territory of the Berlin Zoo. On May 1, 1945, museum director W. Unferzagg handed over the boxes to the Soviet expert commission. And they disappeared for another 50 years. It seems that if a “treasure” has this distinctive property of disappearing for 50-60 years, it is better not to carry out any more transfers or donations, but still put it on public display.

A Turkish expert, learned lady, professor at Istanbul University Yufuk Yesin, invited by Germany as part of an expert group in October 1994, after examining Schliemann’s collection, stated that “in the 3rd millennium BC, many gold, silver, and bone things were made using a magnifying glass and tweezers."

Another mystery? There may even be a clue: after all, the Paris Museum bought the ancient Saitaphernes tiara made of pure gold for 200 thousand francs, and it was a “genuine antique helmet,” but it turned out, in the end, to be a shameless fake made by an Odessa master. Is this not what Mrs. Yufuk Esin meant when she spoke of “Priam’s treasure”?

The mystery lies elsewhere. Heinrich Schliemann enthusiastically told how Sophia transported the find in a basket with cabbage, and the Berlin Museum handed over three sealed boxes to the Soviet representatives! What kind of physical strength did the slender young Greek woman from Athens have?

Hurrying to his wife in Athens from another voyage, Schliemann died in a Neapolitan hotel. He would definitely have made it if it weren’t for brain inflammation, which is why the archaeologist January 4, 1891 lost consciousness and died a few hours later. The entire elite of the then society came to the hall of his Athens house, where the coffin stood, to pay their last respects: courtiers, ministers, the diplomatic corps, representatives of academies and universities in Europe, of which Schliemann was a member. Many speeches were made. Each of the speakers considered the deceased to belong to his country: the Germans claimed him as a fellow countryman, the British as a doctor of Oxford University, the Americans as a man who embodied the true spirit of the American pioneers, the Greeks as the herald of their ancient history.

He left Sofia and his children a small, but decent inheritance. His son Agamemnon had a son - Paul Schliemann. He took after his grandfather as an adventurer and boasted that he knew the coordinates of Atlantis. Paul died at the beginning of the First World War.

Schliemann's daughter Nadezhda married Nikolai Andrusov, originally from Odessa. He headed the department of geology at Kyiv University, and in 1918 became an academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. In the 1920s, the Andrusovs emigrated to Paris - they had a house there, bought by Schliemann. Nadezhda and Nikolai raised five children: Dmitry (geologist, academician of the Slovak Academy of Sciences), Leonid (biologist), Vadim (sculptor), Vera (studied music), Marianna (studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Sorbonne).

Schliemann was buried in Athens - on the land that he considered sacred, because the legendary (like himself) Homer lived and worked on it. Although it is still not clear whether the blind singer of Ilion and Ithaca existed, was he not a collective “image” of the ancient poet?

Maybe someday they will discuss the same problem - did Heinrich Schliemann live in the world, is he a legend? But Troy will remain.

“The Lord God created Troy, Mr. Schliemann excavated it for humanity,” reads the inscription at the entrance to the Troy Museum. In these words, despite the external pathos, there is also sad irony. Any archaeological excavations are accompanied by partial destruction of the monument, and those carried out by Schliemann, a complete amateur in archeology, were complete destruction. But the fact that one of the richest businessmen in America and Europe, the self-taught archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann destroyed the real Troy, became known only many years later.

Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) - son of a German pastor. At the age of seven, having read Homer’s Iliad, he vowed to find Troy and the treasures of King Priam. By the age of 46, he had made a fortune from trade deals with Russia and began the search for Troy. Few historians believed in its real existence. Among them are the Frenchman Le Chevalier, who in the 18th century unsuccessfully searched for the state of Troas in the Mediterranean, and the Scotsman Charles MacLaren, who was sure that Troy was located in Turkey, on Bunarbashi Hill. The hill, around which two streams flow, was similar to the one described in the Iliad. In 1864, the Austrian von Hahn began to dig up Troy on the nearby Hisarlik hill, but for some reason he was disappointed by the fragments of the walls he found. Schliemann decided that von Hahn had simply not dug enough and decided to dig deeper.

Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890).

How did Schliemann figure out Troy?

Homer clarifies that the two springs near the hill are different, hot and cold: “The first spring flows with hot water... As for the second, even in summer its water is similar to water ice.” Schliemann measured the water in all the springs on Bunarbashi with a thermometer. It was the same everywhere - 17.5 degrees. He did not find a hot spring there. On Hissarlik he found only one, also cold. But then, taking soil samples, I became convinced that there used to be another one here - a hot one. Schliemann calculated that there are 34 springs on Bunarbashi Hill. Schliemann's guide claimed that he was mistaken and there were more sources - 40. This is evidenced by the second, popular name of the hill: Kyrk-Gyoz, that is, “forty eyes”. In the Iliad, only two are described. According to Schliemann, Homer could not ignore 40 sources.

Troy on the map of Turkey.

During the decisive battle, Achilles fled from the “terrible warrior” Hector, and within a certain time they “circled the Priamian fortress three times.” Schliemann ran around Hisarlik with a stopwatch. He could not get around Bunarbashi for two reasons: first, there was a river on one side of the hill, and second, the slopes were cut into depressions, which interfered with movement. From the text of the Iliad it follows that the Greeks, storming Troy, easily ran down the slopes of the hill three times. Bunarbashi has very steep slopes. Schliemann could only crawl down them on all fours. Hissarlik has gentler slopes; you can move freely along them and conduct combat operations on them.

Reconstruction of Troy.

Homer describes the city of Troy as a huge shopping center with 62 buildings and huge walls and gates. According to Schliemann, such a city could not be located on the Bunarbashi hill, since the area of ​​this hill is too small - only 500 sq.m. The area of ​​Hisarlik is about 2.5 sq. km.

Schliemann read in the Iliad that the Greek soldiers who besieged Troy went swimming in the sea. It is also clear from the text that the water came close to the city at high tide. This means that the hill on which the city was located should be as close to the water as possible. Bunarbashi Hill is 13 km from the sea, and Hisarlik is near the coast.

Where is the treasure of the ruler of Troy Priam?

The treasure of the ruler of Troy Priam, found by Schliemann 143 years ago, consists of 8,700 gold items. Schliemann took the treasure from Turkey in baskets under heads of cabbage. He offered to buy it to the governments of France, England, and then Russia. But they refused, fearing complications in relations with Turkey. Turkey accused Schliemann of smuggling, and he paid compensation - 50 thousand francs. Having failed to sell the treasures, Schliemann donated the Trojan treasure to Berlin in 1881, for which he was awarded the title of honorary citizen of the city. In 1945, before the fall of Berlin, the Germans hid the treasure on the territory of the Berlin Zoo, from where it disappeared. In 1989, the widow of the director of the Berlin Museum, W. Unferzagg, published her husband’s diaries, from which it followed that on May 1, 1945, he handed over boxes of Schiemann gold to the Soviet expert commission.

Who among us in childhood, having heard enough children's fairy tales and legends about treasures, did not dream of finding a treasure? A little German boy, born in 1822 into a poor family of a shopkeeper from the city of Lubeck, had such a dream. This boy's name was Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann.

A long way to the dream of fabulous Troy

Even as a child, his father gave little Henry “World History for Children” for Christmas, where the 7-year-old boy was interested in the story about Troy. There was a picture that depicted a burning city, and when, in response to his question about Troy, his father said that it had burned down without a trace, he confidently replied that he would find it.

Then the immortal works of Homer fell into his hands, and the impressionable boy fell in love with the ancient heroes like a child, and further strengthened his dream of finding the mysterious Troy.

The path to the dream, full of victories and disappointments, incredible adventures, sometimes bordering on madness, took 40 long years. Having become a successful businessman, at the age of 46, Schliemann, already a millionaire, gives up business and commerce and begins to travel around the world, while studying the history and mythology of Ancient Greece, attends archeology courses at the Sorbonne, and learns the Greek language. And all this for the sake of the dream of finding Troy.

With age, Henry began to perceive Homer’s text about the Trojan War in a completely different way, and when he met the British consul Frank Calvert on a trip to Greece, he talked with him for hours about Homer and Troy. They turned out to be like-minded people, and probably the only eccentrics at that time who took the ancient text of the ancient author literally.

For Schliemann and Calvert, this is not just a highly artistic literary work, but a kind of rebus in which events of the distant past are encrypted. Heinrich Schliemann understood that time was passing, and in 1868 he went to Turkey to solve this puzzle with a stopwatch and a thermometer.

At the place indicated by his British friend, Schliemann runs through the hills, counting his steps with a stopwatch, and also measures the temperature of the water in the springs gushing nearby, because Homer indicated that two springs flowed near the walls of Troy, one with warm, the other with cold water .

Local residents watched with suspicion a strange man in a black top hat and a thermometer in his hands, but gladly hired him as diggers when in 1870 Schliemann began excavating Hissarlik Hill.

In the first year of excavations, with the support of the authorities of the Ottoman Empire, Schliemann’s workers cut through Hisarlik with a 15-meter ditch. The excavation reveals fragments of ceramics, remains of stone walls, and traces of large fires. The self-taught archaeologist understands perfectly well that layer after layer the remains of not one, but several settlements are preserved here, but he strives lower and lower in search of the treasured Troy.

He saw and understood a lot at the excavation site. But the only thing that Schliemann never learned until the end of his life was that he simply flew past Troy, digging to the more ancient layers. This is what professional archaeologists later blamed him for. And also the fact that no records were kept of the research, where, what was found, in what layers.

But with the passion of a true treasure hunter, the devoted history buff continued his work. Like a child, Schliemann rejoiced at every discovery, and once he discovered a snake and a toad deep in the excavation, in the excitement of the seeker, he believed that they had been here since those ancient times, and were witnesses to the drama that played out at the walls of ancient Ilion.

Dream come true

Success came in the third year of work, when on June 14, 1873, jewelry made of gold, ivory, silver vases and cups began to appear from the ground. A total of 8,833 items were found. Schliemann's dream came true, he found Troy, and the proof of this was the so-called found “Treasure of Priam”. On that hot summer day, Schliemann stood at the pinnacle of his dream, and at that moment was the happiest man on earth.

He happened to be born at a time when adventurers and treasure seekers at the sites of ancient monuments were becoming a thing of the past, and professional archaeologists came to replace them. Schliemann not only revealed Troy to the world, he became the link between adventurism and the new archeology that was only becoming infected with science.

One of the elements of Schliemann’s adventurism was manifested in the fact that he secretly took the found objects outside Turkey, and the whole world saw his Greek wife Sophia wearing jewelry from the times of Andromache and Helen the Beautiful.

Later, during subsequent work on the Hissarlik hill, scientists analyzed the archaeological research of the German dreamer and made disappointing conclusions. Schliemann's diggers cut through the cultural layers of nine chronological eras. According to the account, Troy was the seventh, and “Priam’s Treasure” was a kind of connecting thread of all times of the city’s existence, because it included things from different chronological periods.

Of course, from the point of view of archaeological science, Heinrich Schliemann was an amateur. But without such people passionate about their dream, the world would not have learned about Troy, Nineveh, or revealed the secrets of Egyptian tombs and majestic buildings and Incas.

Only at the beginning of the twentieth century did professional excavations begin (for example,). Farmakovsky began systematic research, and Schliemann’s compatriots Walter Andre and Ernst Herzfeld, who explored the cities of Ancient Mesopotamia and launched the phrase “there is nothing more durable than a pit” into the world, were already real professionals.

Yes, Heinrich Schliemann was an amateur, but his childhood dream, embodied in reality, brought archeology to a new level of development, and, in fact, he became the founder of this fascinating and romantic science.