Schliemann

Schliemann, HEINRICH, the excavator of the sites of Troy and Mycenæ, was a native of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, born at Neubuckow on 6th January 1822. Whilst working in a merchant's office and afterwards trading on his own account in St Petersburg, he acquired a knowledge of the principal languages of modern Europe and of ancient Greek. Having in the meantime become possessed of a large fortune, he began in 1870 to explore and excavate at his own cost the ruins of Hissarlik in the Troas (Asia Minor), and continued the work for twelve years. Schliemann maintained that it was the site of ancient Troy (q.v.). For carrying off, contrary to his agreement with the Turkish government, all the spoils he unearthed, he was compelled, through a judgment of the Greek courts, to pay the Ottoman Porte the sum of £2000. But he retained possession of his collections, and in 1882 presented them to the German nation; they are now preserved in the Ethnological Museum at Berlin. In 1876 Schliemann commenced, in like manner, to excavate the site of ancient Mycenæ in Greece; and there he discovered invaluable treasures (now in the Polytechnic at Athens), and exposed buildings of great antiquity and interest (see MYCENÆ). He also carried on explorations in the island of Ithaca (1869 and 1878), at Orchomenus (1881-82), and at Tiryns (1884-85). The results of his labours are described in the monographs on Mykenæ (1877; Eng. trans. 1877); Ilios, with an autobiography of the author, and notes, &c. by Professors Virchow and Max-Müller (1880; Eng. trans. 1880); Orchomenos (1881); Troja (1883; Eng. trans. 1883); Tiryns (1886; Eng. trans. 1886); and Bericht über die Ausgrabungen im Troja im Jahre 1890 (1891). He wrote also Ithaka, der Peloponnes, und Troja (1869); Trojanische Alterthümer (1874); and Reise in der Troas (1881). Schliemann died at Naples on 27th December 1890, and was buried at Athens. See Dr Schuchardt's Schliemann's Ausgrabungen (1890; Eng. trans. 1891), and his own Selbstbiographie (1891).