Heinrich Shliemann Trojan War Essay

Heinrich Schliemann contributed to a moderate extent to the historical investigation of the Trojan War. Schliemann’s most significant contribution to the historical investigation of Troy was the funding he provided. Using his vast wealth he was able to hire experts in almost all field of science to assist him where his knowledge fell short. Funding that further attracted experts of Archaeology to the site of Troy and laid the foundation for extensive investigation of the Trojan War in the future. Schliemann can also be credited for the more professional standards he held than was the norm of Archaeologists for the time. Schliemann also kept extensive notes on his work, having hundreds of detailed sketches of his findings created during his dig. Despite this Schliemann was still an amateur of the field and made decisions that have gone

on to hinder further investigations of the site and the work that he himself provided was of little historical use with the majority of useful information coming from his assistant Wilhelm Dörpfeld. Schliemann was more of a benefactor and a director than an Archaeologist himself and whilst his contributions are there they are not as extensive as those of the people he hired to assist him.

Schliemann himself contributed little of significance to the historical investigation. Significant contributions such as the numbering of the different layers of troy or the creation of a chronological order of the different layers of the site can be attributed to his assistant Wilhelm Dörpfeld. A career Archaeologist who through his work at Troy helped pioneer techniques such as Stratigraphic Excavation. It is this work of Dörpfeld that contributed significantly to the historical investigation of the Trojan War. Dörpfeld was also one of the first archaeologists who started to correct mistakes Schliemann had made about the findings made at Troy. The most notable of these corrections was The Treasure of Priam which Schliemann believed was from the Trojan War but Dörpfeld following Schliemann’s death found that the Treasure of Priam was from Troy II meaning it came from before the Trojan War. Dörpfeld’s work can be seen as the real contributions to the investigation of the Trojan War to come out of the Schliemann period of excavations. His work has not only gone on to be relevant to the Trojan War but to Archaeology as a whole, something Schliemann is unable to be directly credited for.

The work of Schliemann at times hindered future investigations into the Trojan War through his aggressive excavation techniques. Hiring a large workforce of excavators Schliemann excavated straight down to the layer that Troy I was on. During this dig he for the most part ignored the upper layers of Troy even going as far as to demolish parts of the site including a 200 yard segment of wall. This destructive nature of excavation makes future investigation by institutions such as the University of Cincinnati’s Centre of Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites. CERHAS has created 3D models of each layer of Troy and whilst the have been for the most part successful in their project their work relies on there being somewhat intact remains at the site of the project. Whilst Schliemann can not have been expected to predict the methods of Archaeology that would be used 140 years in the future his decisions in the excavation of the top layer still have had a negative impact on modern investigation.

Whilst he was destructive in his ways Schliemann must still be credited for the extensive records he kept of what he uncovered. His 1873 journal contains hundreds of sketches of pots, vases, shields and other objects found from various layers of Troy. These sketches however were completed by the painter Polychronis Lembesis. The objects were recorded in a very descriptive manner with may sketches, especially shields, including information such as dimensions and descriptions of various features of the object. Despite the lack of extensive detail the sketches, when they are combined with Schliemann’s notes enough detail is provided to make them a useful for future investigators and have helped preserve a good idea of what many artefacts looked like when they were pulled from the earth.

Possibly the most significant contribution to the historical investigation into the Trojan War that Schliemann provided was not work conducted at the site.

Schliemann wrote extensively about his excavation, both with books and articles that he sent to major news publications such as The Times and The Daily Telegraph. In these writings he detailed his findings and created a new level of fascination and excitement in the city of Troy and the Trojan War. Whilst what he wrote at times was somewhat embellished as was his style the interest he generated helped make the story of the Trojan War and the city of Troy become a more well known story and location. This interest he helped generate around the site along with the findings of his assistant Wilhelm Dörpfeld helped increase public interest at the time in Ancient Greek Mythology. It is by creating this interest in the story of the Trojan War and the city of Troy that Schliemann helped secure an interest in the site well into the future. Whilst this isn’t a direct contribution to the historical investigation of the Trojan War it did open a new interest in Archaeology in the general

public.

Overall Schliemann can not be seen as contribution much to the Historical investigation of the Trojan War himself. Much of the work and significant discoveries were conducted and made by the people he hired around him making Schliemann more of a benefactor of the fist investigation into the Trojan War. When Schliemann did become involved in a more hands on way it often led to some level of confusion or destruction, such as the decision to dig through the initial layers of Troy thus destroying them or the mistakes he made in declaring things to be something they were not, such as the Treasure of Priam being from the Trojan War itself. These mistakes arise from Schliemann being an amateur Archaeologist who, despite having mostly honest intentions, undertook the project as a businessman and made choices and acted in a way that is typical of a businessman, not of a scientist. Despite his shortcomings Schliemann did help bring much attention to the story of the Trojan War and the site of Troy as well as creating a platform where experts such as Wilhelm Dörpfeld could pioneer new techniques such as Stratigraphic Excavation. He also opened up Archaeology to the world and helped create a public interest not only in the treasures found, but in the stories behind out history.