Heinrich Schleimen
Heinrich Schliemann
Fascinating stories have been passed down orally from one generation to the next, since Adam and Eve’s existence. Many individuals would share their stories about the powerful gods, ancient cities, romances, and the great warriors that fought to be remembered. However, for Heinrich Schliemann, it was Homer’s inspirational poem about the Trojan War that changed his life forever. Schliemann is notorious for chasing Homer’s description of Troy. It was a childhood dream for him to find the ruins of the marvelous city. During Schliemann’s search for the vast city of Troy, he discovered numerous of cities, jewels, and unearthed tombs that were full of gold. With each one of the objects that he unearthed, Schliemann was able to associate it with a verse from Homer’s Iliad. He knew every line from the Iliad, and used it as a guide to find Troy. Even though his discoveries were absolutely jaw dropping, many believed that they were not authentic artifacts, due to his reputation around the academic world. Schliemann was known for being an uneducated habitual liar with bad ethics, who could not be trusted very often. He looted numerous amounts of his discoveries, lied to get his way, and cheated people out of their shares of the finds. Schliemann’s egotistical personality was damaging towards his investigation, since he was so caught up in becoming the famous scholar, who proved Homer’s poem to be true. Despite the immeasurable amount of damage that he caused with his lying, and impatient digging technique; Schliemann’s discoveries, enthusiasm, and concepts opened the door for the future of modern archaeology.
Heinrich Schliemann was born in 1822. He gained the interest of history mainly from his father, who would tell him the romances of the Iliad as a child. When he was eight years old, “…he received from his father a Christmas present of Jerrer’s Universal History which contained the story of Troy with an engraving of Aeneas escaping from the burning
Fascinating stories have been passed down orally from one generation to the next, since Adam and Eve’s existence. Many individuals would share their stories about the powerful gods, ancient cities, romances, and the great warriors that fought to be remembered. However, for Heinrich Schliemann, it was Homer’s inspirational poem about the Trojan War that changed his life forever. Schliemann is notorious for chasing Homer’s description of Troy. It was a childhood dream for him to find the ruins of the marvelous city. During Schliemann’s search for the vast city of Troy, he discovered numerous of cities, jewels, and unearthed tombs that were full of gold. With each one of the objects that he unearthed, Schliemann was able to associate it with a verse from Homer’s Iliad. He knew every line from the Iliad, and used it as a guide to find Troy. Even though his discoveries were absolutely jaw dropping, many believed that they were not authentic artifacts, due to his reputation around the academic world. Schliemann was known for being an uneducated habitual liar with bad ethics, who could not be trusted very often. He looted numerous amounts of his discoveries, lied to get his way, and cheated people out of their shares of the finds. Schliemann’s egotistical personality was damaging towards his investigation, since he was so caught up in becoming the famous scholar, who proved Homer’s poem to be true. Despite the immeasurable amount of damage that he caused with his lying, and impatient digging technique; Schliemann’s discoveries, enthusiasm, and concepts opened the door for the future of modern archaeology.
Heinrich Schliemann was born in 1822. He gained the interest of history mainly from his father, who would tell him the romances of the Iliad as a child. When he was eight years old, “…he received from his father a Christmas present of Jerrer’s Universal History which contained the story of Troy with an engraving of Aeneas escaping from the burning
Bibliography: 1. Wood, Michael. In Search of the Trojan War. Berkeley: University of California, 1998. Print. 2. Biers, William R. The Archaeology of Greece: an Introduction. Ithaca (N.Y.): Cornell University,1996. Print. 3. Etienne, Roland, and Franc̜oise Etienne. The Search for Ancient Greece. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992. Print. 4. [Adolf Michaelis, Archaeological Discoveries of the Nineteenth Century, 1906]