Heinrich Schliemann

This paper was written for the UC Davis Art History graduate seminar "Cosmopolitanism and the Avant-Garde."

Outside of archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Troy and Mycenae, little attention has been paid to his role in the shaping of 19th-century Athens into the capital of the new Greek nation-state. As one of many German elites who immigrated to Athens in the wake of the Greek War of Independence, Schliemann actively sought a cityscape of myth, one which matched his antiquarian fantasies but ignored the 19th-century Greek vernacular and its medieval and modern history. Nothing is more evident of this self-appointed quest than Iliou Melathron ("The Palace of Troy"), Schliemann's opulent family home in the political center of Athens. This essay analyzes the mansion's eccentric architecture as an expression of Schliemann's personal myth-making. Further, it explores the nationalistic attitudes of Schliemann and his fellow Germans as they manifested their own Greek imagined community: one informed entirely by myth yet enacted on the streets of "New Athens."

Über Heinrich Schliemanns Ausgrabungen in Troia seit 1870 wurde bereits viel geschrieben. Zwei Hauptrichtungen lassen sich erkennen: Über Schliemanns Arbeit wird von außen in Kommentaren oder Erinnerungen berichtet. Zudem gibt eine nahezu unüberblickbare Masse von Aufzeichnungen Schliemanns in Form von Publikationen, Tagebüchern und Briefen. Die Dokumente Schliemanns vermitteln ein einseitiges Bild der damaligen osmanischen Zustände und Begebenheiten. Bis heute sind nur sehr wenige osmanische Dokumente veröffentlicht oder bekannt geworden, die dieses Bild korrigieren und ergänzen könnten. Was haben eigentlich die osmanischen Behörden über die Vorgänge in Troia gewußt und wie gingen sie mit diesem Wissen um? Erst kürzlich wurden in den Archiven wichtige Dokumente zu diesen Fragen entdeckt und sollen hier erstmals vorgestellt werden. Abstract Much has already been written about Heinrich Schliemann's excavations in Troia since 1870. Two main themes are

Heinrich Schliemann es una de las personalidades más fascinantes de la historia de la arqueología. Y no sólo por ser uno de los pioneros de la arqueología griega -más concretamente de la arqueología de la Edad del Bronce en el Egeo-, sino por su vida, digna de la de cualquier aventurero; y por su carácter, una mezcla de tesón y ambición sin límites, capaz de llevarle mucho más allá de lo que las circunstancias en principio parecían presagiar. Sin embargo, como toda figura, tiene sus claroscuros, y los de Schliemann son, hay que reconocerlo, en ocasiones, muy oscuros. Si en vida contó con pocos amigos por su carácter brusco, poco conciliador y propenso a la disputa verbal, que le granjeó no pocas enemistades y conflictos que llegaron a los tribunales, tras su muerte la historiografía se ha acercado a él desde dos perspectivas diametralmente opuestas, casi sin término medio.

Schliemann's Smuggling Treasures of Troy According to Ottoman Sources
Schliemann's discovery of Troy in 1873 was an important milestone in the history of archaeology and not surprisingly created a sensation. The story of his excavation has almost always been based on Schliemann's reports and Western sources. In our paper we study Schliemann's work in Troy from the Ottoman perspective based on Ottoman archives. The documents reveal how the Ottoman officers were irritated by Schliemann's unorthodox work and his smuggling of the so-called Priam's Treasures.

ECHOES OF AEMILIAN TERRAMARE IN THE RESEARCHES OF HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN AT TROY. In 1868 H. Schliemann,
before starting the exploration at Hissarlik/Troia, was a rich businessman who visited Italy for reasons related to his job. When he
lived in Bologna for some days, the German entrepreneur has met the nobleman G. Gozzadini, who introduced Schliemann into the
world of Pre-Roman archaeology. This paper aims at reconstructing an unknown aspect of the long-time relationship between Schliemann
and Italy, focusing on the influences played by the Prehistory of Terremare on the defining the Anatolian Bronze Age in the
late of XIXth century. In the main Schliemann’s books on Troia, a lot of references and parallels with Bronze Age pottery from some
terramare around Modena depicts a picture of relevant importance in terms of interpretation of the earliest Anatolian culture and its
inter-mediterranean connection.

Wir schreiben das Jahr 4022 nach (!) Christus: Der Selfmade-Archäologe Howard Carson spürt auf dem nordamerikanischen Kontinent rätselhafte Relikte der Yankee-Kultur auf, die durch die Katastrophe des Jahres 2019 urplötzlich zugrunde gegangen war. An einer breiten Prozessionsstraße legt Carson einen Gebäudekomplex frei, der von den Yankees als »Motel« bezeichnet wurde. Der Archäologe ist sich sicher: Es muss sich um eine bedeutende Kult- und Grabstätte handeln. Carson kann sein Glück kaum fassen, als er auf ein ungestörtes Grab stößt, das noch mit einem »Do not disturb«-Siegel verschlossen ist. Schritt für Schritt entschlüsselt Howard Carson die Rätsel des »Motels der Mysterien«. +++ Die gleichnamige Grafik-Novelle des preisgekrönten Autors und Grafikers David Macaulay (Vermont/USA) bildete die Initialzündung für die Sonderausstellung »Irrtümer & Fälschungen der Archäologie« in Herne und Hildesheim im Jahr 2018/2019. Gemeinsam mit Macaulay konzipierte das Team des LWL-Museums für Archäologie einen humoristischen Prolog zur Ausstellung, bei der großformatige Zeichnungen aus dem 1979 erschienenen »Motel der Mysterien« den inszenatorischen Rahmen bildeten, die Funde dagegen als (künstlich gealterte) 3D-Objekte zu bewundern waren – Carsons Fehldeutungen inklusive. Für einen Annex zur Ausstellung stellte Macaulay zudem originale Tuschezeichnungen, Entwurfsskizzen und Fotostudien zur Verfügung. +++ Im Frühling 2019 war David Macaulay dann zu einer Vortragsreise in Deutschland unterwegs. Neben Stationen in Niedersachsen und Nordrhein-Westfalen stand auch ein Besuch in Bayern an: Am 27. März 2019 hielt Macaulay einen Vortrag über das »Motel der Mysterien« im kelten römer museum manching. Dabei erfuhr das Auditorium, was es mit einem Anatomieskelett in Macaulays VW auf sich hatte, wie seine Verwandten und er selbst als Modelle herhalten mussten und dass es mit der Ausstellung »Great Moments in Architecture« 1977 schon einen nicht minder grotesken Vorgänger gab. Außerdem gab Macaulay in Maching einen Zeichenkurs für das Schyren-Gymnasium Pfaffenhofen, aus dem die Studioausstellung »Die Kunst des Zeichnens« resultierte.

Über Schliemanns Ausgrabungen in Hisarlık wurde sowohl während seiner Lebenszeit als auch nach seinen plötzlichen Tod im Jahre 1890 im Neapel viel geschrieben und diskutiert. Besonders über den ›Schatz des Priamos‹ folgte nach Schliemanns erstem Bericht am 5. August 1873 in der ›Augsburger Allgemeinen Zeitung‹ eine rege Auseinandersetzung. Hauptsächlich konzentrierte sich die Diskussion dabei auf folgende Themen: Wann, wie und wo fand Schliemann den Schatz? Und wie
schmuggelte er ihn später außer Landes? Handelte es sich um einen Hortfund oder wurde er aus verschiedenen Fundgruppen von Schliemann nachträglich zusammengestellt? Um diese Fragen zu beantworten, wurde bislang vor allem das Schliemann-Archiv in Athen konsultiert. Mit Hilfe bislang unbekannt gebliebener osmanischer Dokumente soll hier die ›Fundgeschichte‹des ›Priamos-Schatzes‹ aus neuer Perspektive betrachtet werden.

La légende du philhellénisme, sentiment né à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, mais qui s'épanouit véritablement à partir de la guerre d'Indépendance grecque (1821-1827), a occulté les manifestations hostiles à la Grèce moderne dès lors que la réalité politique s'est substituée à une patrie mentale. Ce livre, issu de la thèse de doctorat, s'attache, en rationalisant le débat, à étudier sous l'angle de l'histoire, les raisons, les manifestations et les principales étapes d'un phénomène de l'histoire culturelle, le « mishellénisme », qu'on a longtemps considéré comme témoignage d'aberrations individuelles, alors qu'il s'agit de l'expression d'un imaginaire collectif, ou même d'un contre-imaginaire. Les dates qui encadrent cette étude correspondent à deux charnières dans les relations France-Grèce : en 1846 est fondée à Athènes, sur une idée de Sainte-Beuve et sur le modèle de l'Académie de France à Rome, l'École française d'Athènes, première institution scientifique étrangère sur le sol grec ; cent ans plus tard, en 1946, année marquant le début d'une terrible guerre civile, le rêve hellénique des Français semble s'être libéré de la nécessaire référence à l'héritage grec, peut-être tout simplement parce que le XXe siècle a douloureusement appris que les civilisations sont mortelles. À côté de l'histoire littéraire, une attention constante a été portée à l'histoire contemporaine : l'intelligentsia française a longtemps eu tendance à dépasser son malaise face à la Grèce moderne en la situant dans un passé irréel ou dans un futur hypothétique,sans considération autre qu’ironique pour le présent. La mise en question de la Grèce implique la force prégnante d'un territoire chimérique, entretenue, dans un évident malentendu, par les esthétiques parnassienne et symboliste. Derrière le mishellénisme de bon ton et les railleries des touristes, des diplomates et des archéologues, surtout attentifs à ce qui n'est conforme ni au mythe ni aux convenances européennes, se dissimule une perception ambiguë de l'hellénisme, qui paie le fait d'être une cause à la fois « morale », c'est-à-dire emblématique, et politique. Cet ouvrage s'attache, en confrontant un maximum de documents, à reconstituer l'ensemble des manifestations suscitées par la Grèce dans la littérature au sens le plus large : ouvrages d'écrivains reconnus, mais également de diplomates, de journalistes et de touristes.

The issue of smuggling ancient treasures from Turkey and their restoration has been subject to intense discussion for the last 150 years. Since the middle of the 19th century western archaeologists and antiquarians have worked in places like Troy, Ephesus, Pergamum and Hattuşa and have taken archaeological artifacts they unearthed, either legally (as their rights or  gifts) or illegally. The Ottoman authorities attempted to take measures to stop the pillaging antiquities throughout the state. The first political and legal attempt to bring back the ancient treasures smuggled from Turkey is the famous trial of Schliemann who in the words of Ottoman authorities- stole the so-called “treasures of Priam” from Troy in 1873. The Ottoman representatives and lawyers, however, failed to restore the treasures to Turkey largely because first, the unwillingness of Greek authorities who decided the matter and second Schliemann’s influence in Greece.  Finally the Ottoman authorities were forced to accept Schliemann’s fifty thousand franc offer and  withdrew the lawsuit.

This paper aims at reconstructing the relationships between Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) and Italy, focusing on some private and public archives stored in Italy and still unpublished. The author explores the troubled history of the German archaeologist, who visited Italy in many times and staying for long period in some main cities, as Rome, Naples and Florence. Until the last decade, the biography of Schliemann has been reconstructed thanks to the personal archive stored in the Gennadius Library at Athens. However, the discovering of new archive sources in Padua and in Rome has deeply changed the traditional picture, facilitating new research on Schliemann’s life and career in their historical context

Ce travail vise à reconstruire les relations entre Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) et l'Italie, en se concentrant sur certaines archives privées et publiques, qui son conservés en Italie et encore inédites. L'auteur explore l'histoire troublée de l'archéologue allemand, qui a visité l'Italie à plusieurs reprises et séjourné pendant une longue période dans certaines villes principales, comme Rome, Naples et Florence. Jusqu'à la dernière décennie, la biographie de Schliemann a été reconstituée grâce aux archives personnelles conservées à la Bibliothèque Gennadius d'Athènes. Cependant, la découverte de nouvelles sources d’archives à Padoue et à Rome a profondément changé l’image traditionnel, facilitant de nouvelles recherches sur la vie et la carrière de Schliemann dans leur contexte historique.

Gerardo BIANCO, Presentazione. – ATTI e MEMORIE: Angelo BOTTINI, Martine DENOYELLE, Francesca SILVESTRELLI, Un cratere a figure rosse da Irsina: proposte di lettura; Bianca FERRARA, Noto antica: la ripresa delle indagini archeologiche (con Appendice di Riccardo Santalucia); Giorgia GARGANO, Il ripostiglio monetale di Casa Gazzera da Monasterace Marina (RC); Raimon GRAELLS i FABREGAT, Las armas de los Guerreros de Riace; Giovanna GRECO, Rituali di cremazione nell’insediamento indigeno di Roscigno (con Appendice di Maria Luisa Tardugno); Pietro Giovanni GUZZO, I primi Achei sul versante ionico d’Italia e i loro corrispondenti locali; Ghislaine NOYÉ, Les thermes de Copia Thurii dans l’histoire de la ville; Giuliana SOPPELSA, Modalità insediative in area nord-lucana tra la metà del IV e la fine del III
sec. a.C.; Armando TALIANO GRASSO, Damiano PISARRA, I pendagli a coppia antropomorfa; Fabrizio VISTOLI, «Gioco una carta. Se sia buona nol so; lo deciderà l’avvenire». Il giovane Paolo Orsi tra Roma, Firenze e Siracusa nella corrispondenza con Carlo Fiorilli (1885-1892); Paola VIVACQUA, I kadoi del Bruttium: nuove evidenze archeologiche e archeometriche (con Appendice di Guido Biscontin, Francesca Caterina Izzo e Angela Bernardi). – RECENSIONI: Vincenzo BELLELLI, Enrico BENELLI, Gli Etruschi. La scrittura, la lingua, la società (Marie-Laurence Haack); Arthur EVANS, Sicily 1889. Appunti di viaggio tra archeologia e storia (Federica Cordano); Mégara Hyblaea 7. La ville classique, hellénistique et romaine (Roberto Spadea); Beni culturali e conflitti armati, catastrofi naturali e disastri ambientali. Le sfide e i progetti tra guerra, terrorismo, genocidi, criminalità organizzata (Fabrizio Vistoli); Massimo CULTRARO, L’ultimo sogno dello scopritore di Troia. Heinrich Schliemann e l’Italia: 1858-1890 (Fabrizio Vistoli).

“(…) be in good health.
Heinrich Schliemann”. THE DISCOVERY OF THE MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION AND THE RISE OF THE 'MYCENAEAN MUSEUM' THROUGH THE DOCUMENTS OF THE PROTAGONISTS.

Heinrich and Sophia Schliemann excavated Mycenae in November 1876, bringing to light an enormous number of precious objects that were unparalleled to any known collection items of their time. This expedition led to the expansion of the Greek Antiquity under study, together with the need to create a decent exhibition for the newly-found treasures. In 1878 the precious finds from Mycenae were presented - together with the ones from the tombs at Spata - at the Athens Technical School, in a perfectly organized exhibition which thus became the first Prehistoric Collection of the Greek Bronze Age, open to the public. Soon after the publication of the first archaeological guide in 1881 by Milchhöfer on the Athenian museums, which included the Technical School, Schliemann proceeded with plans for a detailed catalogue of what he called the Mycenaen Museum. This paper presents for the first time an unpublished letter of the excavator sent to the then Prime Minister, Alexandros Koumoundouros, asking for permission to publish and distribute a guide-book on the Mycenaean treasures of the new museum. This manuscript, now kept in the Historical Archive of the National Archaeological Museum, reveals aspects of Schliemann’s social mobility and means to achieve his goals. It also encompasses both Schliemann’s portrait and that of a whole era, when much of what we consider as granted were newly born.

(The full text in English)

Unraveling the secrets of Shaft Grave V at Mycenae

Heinrich Schliemann’s pioneering excavation of Grave Circle A (Graves I–V) at Mycenae in 1876 was conducted under the auspices of the Archaeological Society at Athens and the supervision of the Greek Ephor of Antiquities Panayotis Stamatakis, who later excavated Grave VI. The controversy between the two men — the charismatic, flamboyant and ambitious Schliemann and the underrated, modest Stamatakis — has become a part of the Shaft Grave legacy. Stamatakis, by providing important insights, as a thorough and meticulous eyewitness, in his reports, along with the recent study of the physical remains of those buried in the graves, emended and enriched Schliemann's account.

Grave Circles A and B at Mycenae were the burial ground of the first rulers at Mycenae, part of an extended extra muros early Mycenaean cemetery. The shaft graves are simple constructions, comprising a main shaft cut into the bedrock with a larger pit above that was covered with earth after the burial was sealed. The rich grave offerings startled Schliemann's contemporaries and impressed them with a picture of the ruling class’s accumulated wealth, which confirmed Homer’s legendary saying "Mycenae rich in gold". Death was considered a socially acceptable venue in which to manifest power and status during Mycenaean society’s formative years (late 17th-16th century BC). This extravagant display of wealth during funerary rites was meant to honour the dead but also to enhance the prestige of the living.

The newly risen elites at Mycenae had developed relations with Crete’s highly sophisticated Minoan civilization, then at the peak of its power. Imported luxury goods arrived at the Mainland from Crete and the Cyclades, along with itinerant artists, new technical skills, and notions of social organization, including the use of the script. Contacts with the settlement at Akrotiri in Thera had also been established before a volcanic eruption buried its multi-storey buildings, decorated with wall paintings, beneath ash and pumice. Prestige goods coming from the land of the Hittites in Asia Minor and amber from the remote area of the Baltic Sea indicate the full extent of the numerous connections of this emerging power.

The graves in Grave Circle A had been used for multiple burials of men, women and, occasionally, children, presumably all part of an extended family. The study of the physical remains of those buried beneath the gold masks in Graves IV and V has only partly verified the assumption that men only wore them; it has not definitely ruled out that women could not have done too as in the case of two of the gold masks in grave IV. In both graves we find an array of long (Type A) or shorter and sturdier (Type B) bronze swords with ornate blades and handles, and precious inlaid daggers depicting elaborate scenes: all betray the deceased’s’ martial spirit. Fighting and hunting were of paramount importance to the Mycenaean ruling class. The chariot, for riding both to battle and to hunt from, is the principal motif on the sculptured stone stelai that were set up over the graves. Gold and silver ornate tableware, fit for the table of a king, stone vessels from Crete and ostrich eggs from Egypt, modified in Crete to be used as rhyta, are valuable prestige goods.An array of hammered bronze vessels, such as cauldrons, jugs and tripods, many showing signs of wear and repair, reveal the importance of drinking rituals and communal feasting in early Mycenaean society.

In Grave V Schliemann and Stamatakis, in his reports, written some time after the excavation, give an account of three primary burials, found in situ furnished with precious funerary gifts. Recent research revealed that before the final interments they were other individuals buried in the same grave, two adults, a minor and a child. 

The so called ''mask of Agamemnon'' in Grave V (NAM 624), which depicts an imposing bearded male, covered the face of a warrior in his prime, about 25years of age, who lived 400 years before the Trojan War. He had a robust body that had seen action in his day and a height of approximately 1.80 m: surely a figure of authority that would have made a lasting impression on his contemporaries. In the rough draft, provided by P. Stamatakis in his report, this is individual T associated, with the ‘’ the most beautiful mask ever found depicting a bearded man’’.
He is placed on the south side and with a north/south orientation. He wore a necklace of ten gold pendants depicting antithetic eagles or ravens, a real insignium dignitatis. A gold breastplate decorated with spirals covered his chest. Bronze weapons, swords and daggers, one with inlaid decoration of lilies (NAM 764), a gold cup (NAM 727), part of the wooden pyxis covered with ornate gold plates (NAM 808-811) and numerous gold minor artefacts were by his side. In the middle of the grave, individual Y is a male about 30 to 35 years of age, deposited in an east/west orientation with no notable grave furnishings.

The main attraction for Schliemann was the body of individual Φ, placed in the north side of the grave. According to him the bodywas ‘’wonderfully preserved’’ and its ‘’color resembled very much that of an Egyptian mummy’. Stamatakis didn’t share Schliemann’ enthusiasm and provided no comments on the condition of the bones. In his usual professional manner he described the grave furnishings, the gold mask (NAM 623) and the plain breast plate (NAM 626). This was by far the richest burial, certainly of a person of authority, associated with bronze long swords, three gold Vapheio-type cups (Nam 628-630) and a gold goblet (NAM 656), two silver cups (NAM 755-756), a large jug (NAM 855), two alabaster vases (NAM 854, 869) and numerous other gold or silver artefacts. In the northwest corner of the grave an impressive assemblage of large and small bronze vessels were deposited. In the same area were found a wooden pyxis (NAM 812), two ostrich eggs turned into rhyta, one decorated with dolphins (NAM 828) and clay vessels (NAM 856, 858)

The remains of the so called ‘’mummy’’ were detached from the grave, along with the soil on which they rested, framed with plaster and transferred to Athens. They became a part of the permanent exhibition first in the Polytechneion and then in the Mycenaean Gallery in the National Archaeological Museum, well until the Second World War. The truth is that neither Schliemann in his short guide to the Treasures of Mycenae nor the other eyewitnesses, including the directors of the National Museum and Schliemann’s successor in the excavation of Mycenae Christos Tsountas, ever speak of a ‘’mummy’’ but of simple skeletal remains. Schliemman’s Albums, now in the possession of Sinclair Hood, has provided us with the original oil painting of the ‘’mummy’’ commissioned by Schliemman at Mycenae.

What it shows is not certainly a mummified body. J. L. Angel, the anthropologist first to study the bones of Grave circle A and B in 1937 remained also entirely silent about it and his results were published only in 1973. The plaster casing of the ‘’mummy’’ survived in the storerooms of the Prehistoric Collection of the National Museum but the bones had already been removed. To our present knowledge these bones have not yet been identified with certainty, so despite the impressive amount of scholarship surrounding the Shaft Graves, they have not yet revealed all their secrets.

Grave Circle A and those buried within it were considered the ancestors who founded the might of Mycenae. They held an important place in the collective memory and they were venerated already in Mycenaean times. The Cult Centre of Mycenae was erected in their vicinity and around the middle of the 13th century BC the extension of the Western Wall led to the enclosure of the area, marked now by a double ring of poros limestone, within the Citadel. Grave Circle A remained virtually clear of later reoccupation in Classical and Hellenistic times and by then it has already entered the realm of legends.


General bibliography

O. Dickinson, L. Papazoglou-Manioudaki, A. Nafplioti, J. Prag, ‘Mycenae Revisited Part 4: Assessing the New Data’, BSA 106 (2012), 161-188.

G. Karo, Die Schachtgräber von Mykenai, Munich 1930-33.

Ι. Kilian-Dirlmeier, Beobachtungenzu den Schachtgräber von Mykenai und zu den SchmuckbeigabenmykenischerMannergräber, JbRGZM 33 (1986), 159-198.

G. Mylonas, Ο Ταφικός Κύκλος Β των Μυκηνών, Athens 1973

L. Papazoglou-Manioudaki, A. Nafplioti, J.H. Musgrave, R. Neave. D. Smith. A.J.N.W. Prag, ‘Mycenae Revisited Part 1. The human remains from Grave Circle A: Stamatakis, Schliemann and Two New Faces from Shaft Grave VI’, BSA 104 (2009), 233-277.

L. Papazoglou-Manioudaki, A. Nafplioti, J.H. Musgrave, A.J.N.W. Prag, ‘Mycenae Revisited: The human remains from Grave Circle A at Mycenae. Part 3. Behind the masks: A study of the bones of Shaft Graves I-V’, BSA 105 (2010), 157-224.

K. Paschalidis, (…) έρρωσο. Ερρίκος Σχλιέμανν. Η ανακάλυψη του Μυκηναϊκού Πολιτισμού και η δημιουργία του Μυκηναίου Μουσείου μέσα από τις αναφορές των πρωταγωνιστών της,in P. Kalogerakou & E. Kountouri (eds), Festschrift for Professor G. Korres (forthcoming).

Schliemann H., Mycenae; a narrative of researches and discoveries at Mycenae and Tiryns, New York 1880.

J.C. Wright, ‘A Survey of Evidence for Feasting in Mycenaean Society’, in J.C. Wright (ed), The Mycenaean Feast, Hesperia 73 (2004) special issue, 133-178.

D. Vasilikou, Το χρονικό της ανασκαφής των Μυκηνών 1870-1878, Athens 2011.

K.A. Wardle, Reshaping the past: Where was the ‘Cult Centre’ at Mycenae? in A.J. Schallin&I. Tournavitou, Mycenaean’s up to date. The archaeology of the northeastern Peloponnese-current concepts and new directions, Stockholm 2015, 577-596.

«In order to unearth the world of Homer». Gaetano
Chierici and Heinrich Schliemann
The close relationship between Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) and the wider Italian scientific comunity is still scarcely investigated, despite the rapid popularity gained after the discovery of Troy. The recent reassessment of the Schliemann Archive, stored in the Gennadius
Library in Athens, including thousands of letters, travel/excavation diaries, and personal notebooks, allows new researches on Schliemann’s life and career in his historical context.
A selective group of letters written by important Italian archaeologists represents the archivial sources to reconstruct Schliemann’s personality and the influence that some scholars had on his early career as archaeologist. Among them Gaetano Chierici (1819-1886) is one of the most distinctive and significant personality in the field of the new discipline of Prehistory.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the long-time relationship between the two scholars, focusing on the long period which starts with the first travel of the German rich businessman to Emilia Romagna in 1868, before the beginning of the exploration at Hisarlık/Troy,
until the last phase of his career.
An unpublished Chierici’s paper, housed in the Panizzi Library at Reggio Emilia, reveals the interest of the Italian scholar for the first exploration carried out by Schliemann at Troy. The manuscript, considered to be
proof of the existence of a paper never published, shows that the scholar’s attention was mainly focused on the stratigraphic questions raised in Troy rather than on the identification of the Homeric city. Chierici focused on the importance of relationship between the archaeological record and its context, in terms of sequence of layers and
deposits. In the second part of the paper, the Italian scholar
investigates possible connections between some Anatolian
finds and the typological repertoire of Terramare culture in North Italy. The analysis considered the pottery assemblage and the collections of bronze items from the earliest phases of Troy, furthermore it is highligthed the evidence of a level containing copper items suggests to
introduce a new horizon, i.e. Calcholithic or Copper Age, between the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age phases.
The last documentation includes a letter by Chierici to Schliemann dated June 1883, when the Italian scholar was gifted a group of Trojan objects for the Museum in Reggio Emilia.

This paper tells the extraordinary story of the ‘Schliemann collection’, an unpublished collection of 177 artefacts excavated in Troy in the nineteenth century and bequeathed in 1893 to the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, DC. Specifically, it explores through archival research the role of Heinrich Schliemann, the entrepreneur and archaeologist, and how his approach to archaeology encapsulated universal aspects of Western modernity, including the connection with capital and maintaining a high public profile. The renowned American journalist Kate Field is another key figure, as she lobbied for Schliemann and publicized his archaeological activity in England and the United States. This coincided with Schliemann’s wish to be appointed as a US Consul to Greece; in return, he planned to donate the entire Trojan Collection to the Smithsonian Institution. Although this did not come to pass during his lifetime, Sophia Schliemann selected 177 Trojan artefacts for donation to the Smithsonian after Schliemann’s death. The gift made the archaeology of the distant Troas — at that point a part of the Ottoman Empire — a subject of public interest for the Americans. The paper concludes with reflections on the mobility of the Trojan artefacts after their excavation, and on the layers of meanings with which the Smithsonian’s ‘Schliemann Collection’ was ultimately imbued.