Schliemann 1- 30 Schliemann 30-60 Schliemann 60-90 Schliemann 90-120 Schliemann 120-150 Schliemann 150-180 Schliemann 180 – 210 Schliemann 210 – 240 Schliemann 240 – 270 Schliemann 270 – End
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at a fast rate’ when my most faithful Sophithion and I do the same ?”
At night in the old wooden house, Heinrich and Sophia continued to suffer from the cold. Their new house, built of stone “from the old Trojan buildings,” was temporarily occupied by three foremen who “were not sufficiently provided with clothes and wrappers, and would have perished through the great cold.” The strong, icy wind blew with such violence through openings in the frame walls of the Schliemanns’ house that they were not able to keep their lamps burning. They had a hearth fire, but the temperature of the room hovered around 23 degrees, and water, in containers placed close to the fireplace, froze solid. “During the day we could to some degree bear the cold by working in the excavations, but of an evening we had nothing to keep us warm except our intense enthusiasm for the great work of discovering Troy/’
Sophia, writing to her family about the wind and cold, described how she and Heinrich huddled together at night, not only fully clothed but wrapped in every blanket and shawl in the house. Her fingers tingled with cold when she worked at the digs, although she wore four gloves on each hand. To protect her face, she wrapped her whole head in a woolen scarf in which she had cut eye slits for seeing. She wrote her mother: “My only anguish and concern is that my Henry shall not have suffered in vain.” That winter Heinrich and she both suffered physical agony for an ideal.
After a routine for continuous digging was set up, 11,000 cubic yards of earth were removed in a month. Under the direction of Schliemann, Yannakis, and two of the foremen, Photidos and Georgios Barbar Tsirogiannis, five terraces were carved so that strata could be identified and first-datings preserved. The earth, separated and often sifted, yielded so many objects that it was no longer possible to record each and to give the depth at which it was found The staff artist, Pdychromos Lempessis, was able to draw in India ink only a small percentage of the objects excavated.
Walls of cities came into view. Small temples, paved streets and outlines of houses were laid bare. Workers collected numberless terra cottas, statuettes, vases and miscellaneous artifacts. Beautifully inscribed blocks of marble were released from centuries of
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entombment ; some weighed two tons and their removal was slow and meticulous.
One of the objects that most intrigued Schliemann was a brilliant red hippopotamus of hollow terra cotta, with a ring on the left side. Schliemann concluded that the object must have been a vessel of some sort, and he took time to ruminate about the shape. The notes from his on-the-spot diary were almost literally transcribed as comments on the hippopotamus in his book Troy and Its Remains: “Extremely remarkable, nay, astonishing it is to find this animal ; for this animal, as is well known, is not met with even in Upper Egypt, and occurs only in the rivers in the interior of Africa. It is, however, probable that hippopotami existed in Upper Egypt in ancient times; for, according to the historian Herodotus (II, 71), they were worshiped as sacred animals at the Egyptian town of Papremis. At all events, Troy must have been commercially connected with Egypt; but even so, it is still an enigma how the animal was so well known here as to have been made of clay in a form quite faithful to nature.”
By March 1 there were 158 workers digging, shoveling, chopping, sifting, and cutting at Hissarlik. Working with a crew at a section where hundreds of objects were being excavated, Sophia reached out for one and thoroughly examined it. She took the object to Heinrich, who was excited by her interpretation of the unique find, a piece of stone, hard and black, two and a half inches in diameter. Some ancient sculptor had carved it into what Sophia identified as a primitive idol with head, two arms and two legs, all the same shape. The head was distinguished from the limbs only by horizontal lines that seemed to represent a necklace. Sophia thought the circular indentation in the middle of one side of the stone was intended as a navd, and Heinrich wondered whether the convex arch on the reverse side might not be a shield, symbolic of Ares, the god of war. Research later proved their combined interpretations to be correct.
As the digging continued copper was the only metal found. There were copper sickles, weapons and nails by the hundreds. During previous excavation only a few copper pieces had been unearthed. The Schliemanns, correlating copper objects from the same depth, decided that the metal had been vital to one early civilization.
On small and large objects, ancient Greek inscriptions were carved or incised in capital letters, with no spaces between the words, in the custom of ancient times. Sophia and Heinrich, by lamplight, translated the inscriptions into modern Greek with capital and lower-case letters, proper word-spacing and punctuation, aspirate and pronunciation marks. They recognized famous names and events chronicled by inscription on the objects. Later they checked on names and facts unfamiliar to them.
By mid-March, days were pleasant, with the noon temperature about 72 degrees. Flowers bloomed on the Plain, and the storks returned to the Troad, the region governed by ancient Troy. On nights, still cold, the air was rent by the hideous croaking of thousands of frogs and the screeches of owls again nesting in the excavations.
The work pace slowed as sweating workmen stopped often to quench their thirst and to wipe perspiration from their brows. Heinrich and Sophia, working along with the crews, helped to uncover the ruins of Athena’s Temple and a gate Schliemann called the Skaean, so important to the unfolding of the story of the Iliad. A temple of Apollo appeared. Remains of a theater were outlined in the ground. Schliemann had hundreds of stones removed, considering them to be impediments to the progress of his exploration of the past. He cared little for the importance of the stones, many of which were later recovered by other archaeol ogists, eager to study them in detail Without apology Schliemann wrote: “The many thousands of stones which I bring out of the depths of Ilium have induced the inhabitants of the surrounding villages to erect buildings which might be called grand for the inhabitants of this wilderness. Houses were built. Among others, they are at present building with my Ilian stones a mosque and a minaret in the wretched village of Chiplak, and a church-tower in the Christian village of Yeni Shehr. A number of two-wheeled carts, drawn by oxen, are always standing by the side of my excavations, ready to receive the stones which can be of any use as soon as they have been brought to the surface; but the rd^ious zeal of these good people is not great enough for them to offer to help me in the terrible work of breaking the large, splendidly hewn blocks so as to make them more convenient to remove.” Sophia’s caustic comment about the stone collectors was: ‘Throughout the ages those who have little wish much free from those who have more, being un-willing to work for their own gain. This has been the way of man since the beginning, and probably will be until the end of time/’
Workmen excavated two musical instruments that gave Heinrich pleasure; one was a flat bone with a single hole in one end and three holes in the other. He blew notes from the bone instrument and, as always, relating objects with people long dead, wondered if he was about to find “another civilization of higher culture to which fine music was added.” The second instrument was a flute-shaped piece of ivory, magnificently ornamented. Heinrich blew a note on the flute and then another, fingering the holes cut into the ivory. Smiling workmen seemed about to break into song and dance as the Effendi tootled a series of notes “without doubt the first given forth by this flute for many centuries. Would that we could know by whom it was played, and the tune, and the circumstances, and the meaning!” was the wish of the romantic Heinrich, letting his imagination play with the idea. Sophia wrote of the flute incident: “How pleased I was to see my Henry so happy. Few are given the opportunity to share such moments with him.”
They shortly shared an experience that might have ended in tragedy. A log fire had been burning for six days in the bedroom fireplace, primitively constructed with its stones, joined by cement, resting on floorboards. Flames from the fireplace escaped either through a crack in the boards or through a crevice in the cement. At 3 A.M. Sophia, half-awake, smelled smoke and roused Heinrich. Their bedroom was filled with dense smoke, and flames, which had burned 2 square yards of flooring, were licking up the north wall.
Although alarmed, Sophia and Heinrich both kept their presence of mind. He poured bath water from a storage jar onto the north wall, where small flames were being fanned by a strong north wind whistKng through chinks in the frame siding. Sophia called out to Photidos, who was sleeping in the adjoining room, and he shouted to the foremen living in the stone house opposite. With iron levers and pkfcaxes, they pried up the burning floor boards. There being BO more water at the house, scooped-up earth was thrown on the fire. Lower beams beneath the flooring were burning in several places, so it took a long time to extinguish the flames. Photidos carefully checked to be sure that there was no smoldering beam that might later burst into flame. Sophia and Heinrich, strong characters that they were, went back to bed and slept until dawn “roused us with its call to work in this magnificent spring.”
With the coming of spring, Heinrich resumed his practice of swimming daily in the salt waters of the Hellespont, where he went for “exercise and the curative substances in the water.” Be fore the sky was fully light, he would mount his horse and set out on the 3-mile ride, accompanied by bodyguards to protect him from the Troad brigands. One morning the guards were riding well ahead of Schliemann when his horse shied while crossing a wooden bridge. The rearing horse tumbled into a deep ditch, landing on Schliemann. The guards, concerned when the Effendi did not catch up with them, turned and galloped back along the road. Schliemann, having struggled free from the horse, tongue-lashed the guards; then dusting himself off, he remounted and, preceding them, rode on with dignity toward the shore for his swim.
A rise and fall of land between Hissarlik and the Hellespont corresponded with a conformation of ground described by Homer. He told of Trojan chieftains who saw their men move out from the city and disappear below a sloping summit, only to reappear at a distance along the road. Sophia and others on the Hill could see Schliemann, far off on his white horse, returning from the Hellespont. Always, at a certain place, he disappeared from sight for a few minutes; then, on the last stretch of road leading to Hissarlik, he could again be seen from the Hill. On his morning rides Schliemann often thought of the Trojan forces who had traveled the same road between the Hellespont and ancient Troy. With rare caution, Heinrich slowed down the work of large crews excavating the Temple of Athena and the surrounding houses, walls, buttresses and paved streets. Realizing that a labyrinth of very ancient house walls was being uncovered, he asked for advice on procedure from archaeologists excavating else where. Flexible when the successful outcome of his endeavor was at stake, he accepted the suggestions of experienced excavators. Rooms on top of rooms, rooms beside rooms, were unearthed in the area of the Temple erf Athena. Schliemann personally excavated one room with “tender care, meticulous work and abso lute personal supervision. Aided by my wife, I found a room 10 feet high and 11J4 feet broad. One of the compartments of the uppermost houses, below the Temple of Athena, and belonging to the pre-Hellenistic period, appears to have been used as a wine merchant’s cellar, or as magazine, for in it there were nine enor mous earthen jars (pithoi) of various forms, about 5^4 feet high and 4^4 feet across, their mouths being from 29j^ to 3Sj4 inches broad. Each of these earthen jars has four handles, 3^4 inches broad, and the clay of which they are made has the enormous thickness of 2j4 inches.”
Sophia and Heinrich, digging 6 feet below the surface of the ground, came upon a red clay jar that was 7 feet high. Expecting to measure and study the jar at their leisure, they had it moved up to the Hill and placed in front of their new house. They were highly amused when the mammoth jar without handles became a night-shelter for one of the workmen, and served by day as a rain-shelter for two and sometimes three workmen. Lempessis made a scale drawing of the jar with a Turkish worker standing beside it.
Discovered 26 feet below the section Schliemann called the Palace of Priam was another container of much finer workman ship: a brilliant brown vase. Its mouth was molded with two eyes and a nose, the stem was encircled by a necklace, and two breasts stood out from the bulbous body. Heavy stones were layered in the hard earth above the smooth clay vase, and Heinrich carefully dug with his knife around the object, which he thought represented Athena. To his dismay, when he was gently
removing the vase from the surrounding rubble, the weight of stone above broke the cky into several large pieces. An expert in Athens did a skillful restoration, and Lempessis then sketched the Athena vase, which was 24j inches high with a handle on each side.
The excavation of the first complete skeletons gave conclusive proof of occupation of the Hill by ancient people. Helmets, lances, and other military gear were found beside some skeletons, and one skeletal head intact was adjacent to a collection of shattered bead booes. An unearthed altar, shaped like a large throne, indicated the sacrificial worship of some deity. Sophia and Heinrich worked steadily toward the re-creation of life as it had been many centuries earlier.
When balmy weather settled over the Troad, the workmen
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did not always return home at night but often slept at Hissarlik, tn the open or down in the excavations. That arrangement Schliemann found convenient because he always had the workmen at
hand. “Besides this, the long days are a great advantage, for I can continue to work from a quarter to five in the morning till a quarter past seven in the evening.”
Work was speeding along when Sophia received word that her father was critically ill. Heinrich, leaving Yannakis in charge of the excavations, took Sophia to the Dardanelles and put her aboard a ship sailing for the Piraeus. She was too late : George Engastromenos died before she reached home. Sophia, saddened by the death of her ebullient father, was emotionally torn, and her letters to Heinrich were pitiful. She wanted to be with her mother and with Andromache, growing so fast, but Sophia also yearned to be with Heinrich at Hissarlik. With deep and loving understanding, he wrote to her from Troy:
Troy, May 14, 1873
MY DEADLY BELOVED WIFE:
Comfort yoarsdf, my dear, with the thought that in a short while we too shall follow your splendid father. Comfort yourself for the sake of our dear little daughter who needs her mother, and whose whole happiness in life would be destroyed without her. Comfort yoursdf with the realization that your tears cannot bring your dear father back to life and that he, good and worthy person that he was, now removed from the cares and sufferings of this world enjoys the true blessed joy of the next and is certainly happier than we who mourn him. However, if you cannot overcome your grief for the dearly departed, then come back to me on the next steamship aad I shall find a way to cheer you op. Our excavations have not progressed without yon and all await [your] speedy return with tears of joy. . . .
Heinrich could be as tyrannical and egotistical, as selfish and thoughtless, as any genius driven toward the accomplishment of goals not set by lesser men. Yet he often displayed a rare quality of understanding denied to men without genius. His comforting words drew the pain of her father’s death from Sophia’s heart, gave her solace as mother, and demonstrated that without her Heinrich was lost and his work nothing. Convinced that she must be with Heinrich, Sophia prepared to leave for Asia Minor
FIFTEEN
Heinrich, tense and impatient, waited at the Dardanelles for Sophia to land. Dr&sed for the occasion in the very best suit from his wardrobe at Hissarlik, he wore stark white linens and his travel hat. Face somber, he leaned lightly on a formal walking stick, restlessly tapping one toe. As Sophia, pale but with eyes glowing, stepped ashore Heinrich rushed forward and, uttering an emotional gasp, swept her into his arms. Clinging to her, he “whimpered like a small animal that needs and has found momentary refuge.” Pressing against him, she sighed with the Miss of a woman loved and loving.
Joy attended Sophia’s return, and as she and Heinrich started toward Troy he gave her highlights of activities during her absence. She, in turn, quietly told him of her father’s fatal illness and funeral. Their conversation, as often, was like that of devoted friends, which, in fact, they were. Their letters to each other frequently contained expressions of friendship, interspersed with those of love. “My friend, Henry,” she would write to him, or “Henry … my friend for life,” or, in salutation, “Friend and
dearest husband.” He called her “My own Sophithion, adored wife and everlasting friend.”
As proud father, Heinrich smiled and chuckled when Sophia told him about the new beauty and lively ways of Andromache, their cherished child. Suddenly interrupting Sophia, Heinrich, with the impetuosity of a young lover, ordered outriding guards to halt and, vaulting from his horse, bent down to uproot a poppy plant No sound bat that of the whining wind was heard as he presented to Sophia the bright wfldflower, its red petals sorrotmding a velvety black center. A moment’s silence, en gendered by their unity, followed. “At such times, the heart is so fall, one’s gratitude for what the gods have given is so great, that words wwild only split the air like gunfire, and defik ^he sanctity of the moment.
At the digs foremen, guards and workmen greeted Sophia with cheers, and Yannakis stood mute, tears running down his cheeks, roughened by wind and sun. Helen, his wife, looking deep into Sophia’s eyes, led her into the house, barring the door to Heinrich, who tried to follow. An hour passed before the two young women reappeared. What passed between them indoors was never known.
With his Sophithion again at his side, Heinrich was happy and his energy recharged. Work progressed rapidly through the long days. The Schliemanns were kept busy from the moment when Sophia gave Heinrich a kiss of welcome after his return from the predawn swim, until they settled for the night in the tiny bedroom of the house on the rim of the great trench.
Then in late spring 1873 came the day that justified their January predictions. “Something within me” told Sophia of a time to be “long remembered for its events,” and Heinrich had known with certainty that “our excavations would be memorable.”
Sophia and Heinrich, sweaty of body and dry of mouth, were digging together, but without a crew, on a level flagstone floor between two walls. One was the wall of the house that Heinrich thought was the Palace of Priam; the other, a high fortification wall, Heinrich, standing apart from Sophia, struck metal, a strike that triggered the most sensational archaeological news of the 19th century and sparked archaeological interest not matched until 1922, the year Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter discovered the tomb of the Egyptian boy king Tutankhamen.
The word Sophia was spoken softly but with an urgency that she, sensitive to Heinrich’s tones, immediately interpreted as “Come at once. It is vital. Be silent/’ In a flash she stood beside him, looking at a “big copper object of a most peculiar shape. . . .” Then she too saw the glint of brighter metal. Without speaking, she helped Heinrich dig into the wall, to scrape pebbles and dirt from aroood the copper object. On top of it there was a layer of red and calcined ruins, about five feet thick and hard as stone. The fortification wall rested on that layer.
The copper object was finally freed from the earth, and the Schliemanns stared at the bofe. Gold gleamed from it. With his back to the opening, Hemrich turned to Sophia; soundlessly his lips formed the words: “None must see it None can be trusted,”
In a whisper he told Sophia to scramble up to the foremen and order paidos. She objected that calling for a rest period ahead of the breakfast hour would arouse the workmen’s suspicion. Thinking fast, Heinrich said, “Tell them I forgot that this is my birth day. They must have extra time to rest today in my honor … a long extra time.” Trusting that Sophia, with her charm and wiles, would carry off the deception, Heinrich shooed her away. She climbed the dirt incline, tearing stockings and undergarments in her haste. The crews were working quite far away that morning, and it took her a few minutes to reach them. Her announcement of the Effendfs birthday paidos happily was accepted without question, even by Georgios Sarkis, the overseer representing the Turkish government.
Outwardly calm, Sophia climbed back down to where Heinrich was frantically digging and scraping. She placed a restraining hand on his arm and pointed up to the fortification wall. He nodded to show he understood her pantomime warning that careless digging might cause a cave-in or a perilous landslide. He “cut out the Treasure with a large knife, which it was impossible to do without the greatest exertion and the most fearful risk to my life, for the great fortification-wall, beneath which I had to dig, threatened every moment to fall down upon me. But the sight of so many objects, every one of which was of inestimable value to archaeology, made me foolhardy, and I never thought of any danger.” Without the help of Sophia, as he wrote, it would have been impossible for him to remove the treasure.
Small stones and hard earth, loosened bit by bit, clattered to the flagstones, the sound echoing in the small enclosure. Shud dering at the noise that might attract the attention of the vigilant Sarkis, Sophia held out her voluminous skirt to catch debris, which she deposited 0*1 the floor, noiselessly. A jumble of gold, silver and copper objects began to pile tip, and she gestured to Heinrich that she was going to their house. With many objects bagged in her skirt, she reached the Hill and nonchalantly strolled across it to the stone building, where she quickly pkced the treasure in a pillowcase. She returned with a large square red shawl and laid it on the flagstone at the excavation. As more objects were removed from the earth they were placed on the shawl that was soon heaped with metal pieces of various shapes and weights. Gathering the four corners of the shawl, Sophia again went to the house. She gently spilled the contents of the shawl onto the great worktable, and left, turning the key in the front door, normally left unlocked.
Working against time, the Schliemanns dug into the wall from whkh treasure spilled with each cut. Even as Heinrich worked he imagined that the disorder of objects might be attributed to the speed with which they were stored. “Owing to the fact that I found all … objects packed together in the big wall of the gods, it seems certain that they lay in a wooden trunk like those mentioned in the Iliad (XXIV, 228) as having been in Priam’s Palace. This seems to be still more certain as immediately next
to these objects I have found a big copper key, which bears great similarity to the keys of today’s banks. Apparently someone of Priam’s family carried the treasure in great haste to the trunk, packed it there, but did not have time to take the key out … and had to forsake the trunk.” The key fit an unearthed lock, but the trunk, if wood, had either been destroyed by fire or disintegrated with passing centuries. A helmet buried with the trea sure made Heinrich wonder if “perhaps it belonged to the unfortunate man who was trying to save the treasure.”
By the time the last visible object was removed from the opening in the wall and cuts into the earth released only dirt, Sophia’s shawl was again filled, and she and Heinrich were encircled by mounds of treasure. Concealing objects in her skirt and blouse, in his pockets and under his hat, they started slowly for the Hill, she carrying her shawl weighted with treasure, and he lugging metal bundled in handkerchiefs.
With incredible luck, they reached the house without being seen. When Heinrich had deposited objects stripped from his person, he went outside in search of Yannakis, to whom he explained that Sophia had been taken ill with fever, “a thing to sadden ine on my birthday, but I shall remain with her placing wet cloths on her forehead, after she has taken quinine. See that we are not disturbed so that Madame is allowed to rest.”
Yannakis was properly sympathetic and acquiescent but, being observant and keen-witted, he must have noticed the disheveled condition of the usually neat Dr. Schliemann. His mussed hair glistened with drops of sweat and his dusty clothes were drenched from shoulder to ankle. Whatever Yannakis thought, he gave no sign that anything might be amiss as he turned from Heinrich and walked away.
Inside the house, Heinrich locked the door behind him; then he and Sophia covered the windows with makeshift curtains of shawls and blankets. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they gazed at the morning’s extraordinary discovery, bright as twinkling candles in the gloom of the shaded room. Drained by -their exertion, they were slow to react to the dazzling display.
What the real date of the day was may never be known. Guesses have ranged from late May, shortly after Sophia’s return from Athens, to early June. Heinrich’s diary entry about the treasure of Troy was dated June 17, 1873. The place name beside the date line was changed from Athens to Troy, in his own hand writing when he prepared to publish his findings. Since he gave exact weights of gold objects, the entry must have been written after the treasures were weighed by an Athenian goldsmith. Heinrich had the best of reasons for being devious about the date of discovery. But since there was no reason to falsify the order in which the treasures were examined by him and Sophia, his record of that was straightforward and exact.
Exhaustion nullified by elation, they began to examine the more than 10,000 precious objects they had dug from the earth that morning. Heinrich, with hands as steady as those of a sur geon, picked up the first piece of treasure. It was a copper shield, less than 20 inches in length. An inch-high rim surrounded the oval-shaped shield, which had a light furrow around a simple decoration at the center; the decoration, raised about 2 inches, was a little more than 4 indies in diameter. From years of study, Heinrich knew that the shield originally had been covered with oxhides; but before he could mention that fact, Sophia began to recite lines from Homer. Her face pink with a youthful flush and smudged by dirt, she stood dreamy-eyed, as if in a daze, and softly spoke:
“Ajax approached, before him, as a tower
His mighty shield he bore, seven-fold, brassbound.
The work of Tychius, best artificer
That wrought in leather, he in Hyla dwelt
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Of seven-fold hides the ponderous shield was wrought
Of lusty bulls; the eighth was glittering brass.” The shield of Ajax? No, but one of copper, perhaps like his of rass? Emotion and romance produced the momentary and quickly discarded questions. Three other copper objects were examined next: a cauldron with two horizontal handles, a plate, and a vase. Then Sophia and Heinrich, with their four hands, lifted up a globular vase of pure gold (403 grams) that was 6 inches high and 5 inches in diameter at its roundest swelling. Heinrich, letting Sophia have the vase, reached for a superbly wrought cup of gold (226 grams) ; it was 3> inches high, with a 3-inch opening and a rim-base aesthetically proportioned to the gently curving form.
Controlling hands trembling by then, they picked up a boat-shaped drinking cup, also gold (600 grams). The two-handled cup curved up to a drinking lip, 2j inches wide, at one end, and to a more steeply slanted lip, 1% inches wide, at the other. The object reminded the Schliemanns of other words by Homer: “The guest is ever sacred and shall have the best of the house hold, without questions asked.” They pictured a weary traveler welcomed to Troy by a host who first offered him a bath in a mammoth tub filled with water mixed with perfumed oils. Fair ladies of the household held towels for the guest, who emerged relaxed and rested from the soothing water. Standing in the full glory of his nakedness, he was gently rubbed dry, and then draped with fine raiment. Striding to the central court the proud guest joined his hospitable host, who picked up the golden boat-cup and himself took a few sips of the wine-and-water mixture from the smaller end of the vessel. The wayfarer then accepted the cup and drank deep from its wide mouth. The “best of the household” was for the guest, whether friend or stranger, and only after he had sipped wine were confidences exchanged or questions asked.
From fantasy the Schliernanns returned to reality and looked at a small cup of grid alloy, a natural mixture of silver and gold that the ancients called “efcctnun.” Heiiirich had seen modern electrum made in Germany.
Sophia, the back of her ^ouse damp with perspiration and her skirt frayed by jagged rocks and sharp metal, slowly picked out from the heap on the worktable six silver knife-blades that she lined up in front of her. The blade of each knife was round at one end and V-notched at the other. Heinrich and Sophia puzzled over the probable use of the knives. They could not have been for fighting because the blade lengths were not uniform. Homer, the Schliemanns recalled, commented that women, cauldrons, tripods and knife blades were offered as prizes in sporting contests and as battle trophies. Perhaps the silver knife blades had been such prizes. They fit Homeric descriptions of trophies, but no one could be certain.
Quickening their pace, Heinrich and Sophia picked up three silver vases, delicately fashioned, a silver goblet, a flat silver dish, thirteen copper lances, fourteen copper weapons, seven large double-edged copper daggers and a bronze helmet.
They were so overcome by the beauty of a huge silver vase that they looked for a long time before touching it. “Not even our breathing could be discerned, if truly we breathed at all. Before us the silver shone. Why did we hesitate? Who knows? The extra sense with which the gods of Olympus have endowed us proved to us that here was an object of such magnificence thai, at first, we dared not touch it for fear that it would crumble and disappear forever.”
Sophia tentatively reached toward the vase, but Heinrich touched her hand and a wave of oneness surged through them. He firmly gripped the silver container and, lifting it to eye level, as if making a votive offering to the gods, shook the heavy object. Thuds, clinks and rattles reverberated in the room, startling Heinrich and Sophia. He, frowning, cautiously lowered the vase and placed it on its side.
Sophia, motionless, looked at him with shining eyes. “At the moment, it was my darKng Henry who should touch for the first time in centuries that which was contained in the depth of this vase. His dream, his passion sustained him from childhood, and this should be his reward.” His fingers explored the inside of the neck of the vase, and he gently pdted from it gold so glorious that Sophia involuntarily cried o*rt, then swiftly covered her mouth with her hand to deaden the sound.
Heinrich held two diadems two^^fiot one and both perfect in design, workmanship and state of preservation. His descriptions of them were minute in detail. They were gold; thin goid plate and wire from pure ingots. The first “consists of a fillet, 22 in. long and nearly l / 2 in. broad, from which there hang on either side 7 little chains to cover the temples, each of which consists of 50 double rings, and between every 4 of these rings is suspended an hexagonal leaf having a groove lengthwise; these chains are joined to one another by four little cross chains. At the end of each of the side chains hangs a figure similar in shape to the Trojan idols. . . . Each idol is nearly an inch long ; their breadth at the lower end is about J^ths in. The entire length of each of these chains, with the idols, amounts to 10.4 in. Between these ornaments for the temples there are 50 little pendant chains, each of which consists of 21 double rings, and between every 4 of these rings there is an hexagonal leaf. At the end of each little chain hangs an idol of identical form, %ths in. high ; the length of these short chains with the idols is only 4 in. The number of double rings, of which the 64 chains of this diadem is composed, amounts to 1750, and the number of hexagonal leaves to 354; die number of suspended idols is 64.” The grand total of pieces in the second diadem was 16,353.
As if the two elaborate diadems were not crowning treasure enough, Heinrich drew out a third fillet, 18 inches long and simple in design. Sophia slid her hand into the vase and pulled out four golden earrings. Each measured 3} inches, including the swing ing pendant of the Trojan goddess. The vase then gave up, in succession, six gold bracelets and fifty-nine more earrings of various sizes.
Heinrich, unable to restrain himself, impulsively tilted the silver vase, and thousands of tiny objects tumbled to the table. He and Sophia, sorting littte pieces of gold, made separate piles of similar-looking objects. What seemed like sections of necklaces were collected in one group; single buttons, double buttons, miniature brooches, and pins, in others. When the tiny gold treasures eventually were counted, they numbered 8,700.
Not even a soaring imagination like Heinridi’s could have envisioned such treasure as was spread out in the tiny room. The find was at once of inestimable worth, monetarily, and of in comparable value, archaeolqgica%r When the day of triumph
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came to a close, the Schliemanns, physically exhausted and emotionally spent, forced themselves to the arduous task of storing the treasure out of sight. Before Heinrich wrapped the second of the two large diadems, he beckoned to Sophia, who, darts swirling, glided to him. Raising the diadem, Heinrich placed it on her head and, voice unsteady, said, “Adornment worn by Helen of Troy now graces my own wife, Helen’s descendant, before whose regal presence the world will kneel/’ Neither of the Schliemanns really thought that ‘the jewels had belonged to the Trojan Helen. But later Heinrich, referring to the incident, stated, “. , . in my imagination I saw the Fair Helen and during this moment of overwhelming emotion I conjured tip the picture of a Grecian queen on Trojan soil, bedecked with jewels.”
After the treasure was well concealed, Sophia and Heinrich planned how to sneak it away from Hissarlik, outwitting the watchful Sarkis. They successfully smuggled out the treasure of Troy, but never said by what means. Heinrich far from suffering qualms about taking the treasure, justified his questionable action with several explanations. He declared that pilfering of small gold objects would have reduced the collection before it ever reached the new museum at Constantinople. There he thought that thievery by officials would have further prevented the whole collection from being maintained in trust for public viewing. What ever his rationalization, his own experience with Turkish intrigue had made him wary. Schliemann publicly stated that the Turks had in various ways abrogated their agreements with him, and in consequence he was not bound to their terms. He felt that his boyhood dream, his own energy, his personal fortune, and his unshakable faith had directly led to the discovery of the treasure. Without him, so he held, the treasure would not have been released from its imprisoning walls. In short, Heinrich claimed the treasure as his rightful due.
Although normally, Schliemann was given to putting to paper every fact, trivial and important, he refrained ever from bragging about how the treasure of Troy was spirited from Asia Minor. And Sophia never mentioned the subject, not even when, in her old age, she reminisced about her life with Heinrich to her children and grandchildren.
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GENNABIUS LIBRARY. ATHENS.) (GENNADIUS IIBRASY, ATHENS) (GENNAWUS ZJBRAKY, ATHENS) (FREE UNIVERSITY, WEST BERLIN)
Troy finds included (A) two-necked jar simitar to modern French liqueur decanter; (B) owl-headed vase with eyes, nose, necklace, breasts, and belt running diagonally across body; (C) two-handled drinking cup; (D) lustrous black pitcher with breasts and design.
(FREE UNIVERSITY, WEST BLJN)
Boat-shaped drinking cup at Troy was shared by the with his guest. Each drank from lips at opposite ends oj the cup.
(GENKAMUSUMAEY, ATHENS)
Loolmg north along the trench running through the Ml of His-m%, timing shows wkt Schliewnn thought to k Twer oj Him of kttm, then Skmn Gate, Palace of Prim, and lifter Horn. At ttf of HQI m Schliemnm 1 living porters.
(GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSHIUTE, ATHESS)
M&Ue ks-reliej jound at Troy showing head o\ young mn ml horse. For 14 months mammoth jar , on its side outside Schlieman hut. At night, one workm slept in it; during rain, two three crawled inside it for shter.
(GENNADIUS LIBRARY, ATHENS) (A) (B) (ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS)
Beneath subsurface at Troy, workmen unearthed these giant jars whose size may be gauged by man at left. Wooden and stone huts above served as homes for Heinrich and Sophia and supervisory personnel.
(Q Three of the hundreds of terra-cotta vases dug up at Hissarlik: (Aj red clay vase with owl*s head motif f two upraised anns, and two breasts; (B) black imse with appmrance of out’s head, with arms, breasts, and a large navel; (C) red vase with hmman face, more realistic arms holding libation cup.
(GENNAKUS LIBRARY, ATHEMS) i linn (GEMHAMUS UBRASY, ATHENS) Ftrtf description of &f Sektiem&tns’ discovery oj priceless treasure oj Troy is dated 17 June, 1873 on page 300 oj HewicVs diary. He wrote this in Athens, but crossed out Athens and wrote Troy in its stead when preparing to publish his findings.
(FSEE UMI?EESITY,
On flagstone floor next to workman, f a” marks the spot where the great treasure was found. Sophia and Heinrich, working alone, carried the objects to their hut without being seen t then spirited them out of Turkey to Greece.
ALEX L, MELAS)
Sophia Schliemann wearing an elaborate headdress, a necklace, and tn*o sets of earrings one pair at her throat. This was only a small part of the treasure oj Troy.
LONDOH NEWS)
Some of the Trojan antiquities exhibited at South Kensington Museum: (1-3) gold headdresses; (4-6) gold earrings; (7-13) goM and silver vessels; (14) copper key to wooden box containing treasure; (15) pure stiver pieces; (16-17) gold ornaments.
SIXTEEN
Secluded in his house at Athens, Schliemann studied the entire Trojan collection in the summer of 1873. Large objects were weighed, sketched, and described in detail. Only he and Sophia knew the extent of the collection, and outsiders, like the gold smith who had to see individual pieces but only one at a time were sworn to secrecy. The cataloguing was rapidly completed, and before the announcement of the great find the collection was broken up. In securely wrapped packages, unlabeled, the treasure was sent to Sophia’s numerous relatives throughout the Greek mainland and on Crete. They were instructed to hide the pack ages in houses, bams, and caves on their farms or estates. There was no written list of hiding {daces ; Heinrich and Sophia memo rized the locations and the package contents.
Reaction to the published announcement of the discovery of the treasure of Troy proved the wisdom of the temporary dispersal of the objects. The news unleashed the full fury of the Turkish government, which reviled the Schliemanns, and set into operation persecutions that were to plague them for more than a year.
Turks shadowed Heinrkh, and harassed Sophia and members of her family.
Laymen everywhere, in great cities and at remote outposts of the world, read about the rich discovery with intense interest; some were fascinated by the historical import, some intrigued by the* adventure, and many envious of the two principals who had come into possession of so much gold. Open-minded scholars hailed the discovery as justification tot SchHemann’s assertion that Troy was buried under HissarHk, the objects demonstrating the wealth of a flourishing ancient civilization. Negators of the Troy theory Jong championed by Schliemann were discomforted by his success; carping and scornful, they attempted to debase the premise on which his excavation was based.
Preliminary attacks by disgruntled scholars were made on
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Heinrich alone, but in recognition of Sophia as partner, the trend of criticism shifted to include her too, the word they becoming more common than he. The change of emphasis resulted from Heinrich’s praise of Sophia’s contributions both at the excavation and to the study of the antiquities. He considered her to be an equal partner, sharing his passion for excavation of ancient sites and for interpretation of the civilizations that existed long before the classical age of Greece. She was aware of his acceptance of her as colleague but was self-effacing, answering with ire only those scholars who attacked “my husband who is both lover and friend, a leader others will be forced to follow if inquiry into the past is to go forward.”
The triumphs of Troy behind them, the Schliemanns were eager to go forward with excavations at Mycenae, a famous site in the Peloponnesus, In February and March of 1874 they sank thirty-four exploratory shafts there, but exploration was halted by a lawsuit. With the Greek government’s permission, Schliemann was being sued in Greece by the Turkish authorities, who charged him with illegal removal of the treasures he unearthed at Troy.
Returning to Athens, Heinrich retained outstanding attorneys to argue his case in the Greek court. It was soon patent that the Greek ministers, Eustratiades and Valassopoulos, were engaged in double-dealing, giving full cooperation to Turkish representatives while being obsequious to Schliemann at every encounter.
The two Greek officials apparently thought that whatever the outcome of the suit, they were certain to be winners. A verdict in favor of the Turkish government would rid them of Schliemann for all time; a verdict for Schliemann might encourage him to turn the treasure of Troy over to Greece in gratitude. Like many other adversaries of Schliemann, they underrated him.
With his excavation at Mycenae interrupted and the civil suit dragging on in a court where the long-winded were never curtailed, Schlfemann reacted as always when thwarted by circumstances beyond his control: He involved himself in feverish activity. Heinrich and Sophia began work on a book about their excavations at Troy. He constantly conferred with Dentopoulos, his Athenian banker, and studied daily reports from the New York Stock Exchange, cabling orders to buy and sell. He kept in touch by mail and cable with P. Beaurain, the agent in Paris, who managed Schliemann’s real estate and kept the account books of his other investments on the continent.
The French and Russian governments, using the lawsuit as lever, tried to pry the treasure of Troy from Schliemann. He was so infuriated when the Greek government admitted the civil suit into its courts that he threatened to send the treasure of Troy to the Louvre. The French, certain that the treasure would be theirs, lost it by asking Schliemann to send samples to Paris for inspection. In refusal he answered, “My word and the word of other scholars must suffice to assure the French that the treasure is of more value than any tremendous sum they can raise to pur chase the collection.”
The Russians, coveting the treasure, offered honors to Schliemann, while condemning the Turkish government. In July a letter from Baron Nicolas Casimir Bogoushevsky invited Schliemann to accept honorary membership in the Russian Institute of Archaeology. By authority of Baron de Wrangell, Baron Bogoushevsky sent another letter imploring Schliemann to accept a place on the Institute’s advisory commission, citing famous in ternational figures who served on it. In the second communication the baron wrote: “The proceedings of the Turkish government have excited general indignation. Such proceedings are nothing new, the Turkish government being well known here.”
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