Schliemann’s ‘bulldozing’ techniques (digging a trench 70 metres wide and 14 metres deep displacing 249,000 metres of earth as well as destroying valuable if not crucial remains) have been roundly criticised by scholars. But you should remember that archaeology as a discipline or a ‘science’ was in its infancy in the 1870’s. Michael Wood points out that this was one of the first excavations of its kind on such a grand scale and that Schliemann took advice from ‘scholars’.
Schliemann spent four seasons in the period between 1870 and 1882 excavating at Hissarlik and identified 4 (later 9) cities, and 5,000 years of history. He labelled each layer using Roman numerals. Later archaeologists divided them up into the three main Bronze Age phases I-IV = E(arly)BA, V=M(iddle)BA and VI-VII = L(ate)BA. The site he identified as Homer’s Troy, Troy II, was 100 yards by 80 yards, i.e. very small, and contained Stone Age implements and ‘primitive’ pottery. He found nothing until his last season to indicate that the site he was excavating reflected the grandeur of Homer’s Troy. The major discovery of this four-year campaign was the so-called ‘Priam’s Treasure’ found in the closing stages of his final campaign in 1873. Contrary to his published reports, his wife was not present, and his critics suggest he may have salted (planted the gold.) This discovery buoyed him up at least on the public front to suggest he had found Priam’s palace and Homeric Troy. As the video states, in private he knew otherwise, but he received great public acclaim, the like of which was unmatched until Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in the 1920’s.
In 1876, Schliemann having blotted his copy book with the Turkish authorities, moved to Mycenae in the Argolid. This was not a matter of ‘discovering’ a site for the ruins such as the Cyclopaean walls and Lion gate were visible. He was looking for proof of the possibility of the Trojan War, for evidence of power and wealth, and for evidence of contemporary Greek writing. In an area which he called Grave Circle A, he excavated 5 shaft graves. (A shaft grave is a tomb built at the bottom of a long shaft [13 metres here].) There he found much gold, weaponry, jewellery and pottery. The most spectacular discoveries were the gold masks found in two of the shaft graves. One from Grave V looks very different from the others and has raised doubts about Schliemann’s honesty. See the article from the Australian at the end of the assignment for details. After Mycenae, he also excavated down the road, at the Palace of Tiryns and the citadel in central Greece, Orchomenos. Nothing he found at these sites could be directly connected with the Trojan War. Nor could he find a Mycenaean palace at Sparta.
Mask of Agamemnon
Using the Iliad yet again, Schliemann wanted to excavate in Crete at the site of Knossos, the home of the legendary King Idomeneus, but the Ottoman government refused to give him a licence. Contrary to the stories told by Sir Arthur Evans, the site of Knossos was known and briefly excavated by a Greek in the 1870’s. So Schliemann is not the only archaeologist who embroidered his discovery stories.
In 1878-79, Schliemann returned to Troy and discovered two more cities ‘Troy V’ and ‘Troy I’. In 1881, he surveyed the northwest area of Aegean Turkey for other possible sites for Troy and finding none, he returned to Troy in 1883 along with a professional architectural archaeologist, Wilhelm Dörpfeld, who had excavated for the Germans at Olympia. Dörpfeld identified the structures which Schliemann had excavated: two gates, a pre-historic palace and ramparts. He planned another season for 1889-90. It was during this season with Dörpfeld that some connection with Mycenae was found. In Troy VI outside the ramp of Troy II walls, a megaron (a Mycenaean-style building) was found along with distinctive Mycenaean pottery. So just before he died in 1890, he learned that the most recent excavation undermined his theory that Troy II, which he had published in 1880 in Ilios, was the site of the Trojan War.
History, Archaeology & Science 