History of Ancient Greece Institute for the Study of Western Civilization
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History of Ancient Greece Institute for the Study of Western Civilization Week 4: Troy October 22, 2018 Troy Troy and Trojan Horse, Pompeii: Roman Wall Painting, Museo Nazionale, Naples “Troye” in 15th c. Art Domestication of Horses Pontic-Caspian Steppes Indo- Euro Lang MINOS TROY MYCENAE and TROY 1550 THERA VOLCANO MYCENAE and 1550 THERA VOLCANO TROY 1184 BC EXODUS MYCENAE and TROY 1184 BC EXODUS BRONZE AGE COLLAPSE HOMER Tiepolo, Procession of the Trojan Horse Into Troy, 1760, National Gallery London Troy and its Geopolitical Importance Troy and its Geopolitical Importance Troy and its Geopolitical Importance Nine Phases of Troy’s history TROY “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships…?” Marlowe Lacedaemonian Vix amphora 6th c. BC 1,000 Greek Ships sailing to Troy Reconstruction of Troy’s Ilium acropolis citadel circa 1200 BC Heinrich Schliemann (1822 – 1890) was a German businessman and a pioneer in the field of archaeology. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeological excavator of Hisarlik, now presumed to be the site of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns. His work lent weight to the idea that Homer's Iliad reflects historical events. Along with Arthur Evans, Schliemann was a pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The two men knew of each other, Evans having visited Schliemann's sites. Schliemann had planned to excavate at Knossos but died before fulfilling that dream. Evans bought the site and stepped in to take charge of the project, which was then still in its infancy. Born 1822 in Northern Germany near Hamburg Born 1822 in Northern Germany near Hamburg Near Hamburg is the Heinrich Schliemann Museum Born 1822 in Northern Germany near Hamburg Near Hamberg is the Heinrich Schliemann Museum Heinrich's later interest in history was initially encouraged by his father, who had schooled him in the tales of the Iliad and the Odyssey and had given him a copy of Ludwig Jerrer's Illustrated History of the World for Christmas in 1829. Schliemann later claimed that at the age of 7 he had declared he would one day find the city of Troy. Heinrich's father was a poor Lutheran Pastor. His mother, Luise Therese Sophie Schliemann, died in 1831, when Heinrich was nine years old. After his mother's death, his father sent Heinrich to live with his uncle. When he was eleven years old, his father paid for him to enroll in the Gymnasium (grammar school At age 14, after leaving Realschule, Heinrich became an apprentice at Herr Holtz's grocery in Fürstenberg. He later told that his passion for Homer was born when he heard a drunkard reciting it in Greek at the grocer’s. He laboured for five years, until he was forced to leave because he burst a blood vessel lifting a heavy barrel.In 1841, 1841 Schliemann moved to Hamburg and became a cabin boy on the Dorothea, a steamer bound for Venezuela. After twelve days at sea, the ship foundered in a gale. The survivors washed up on the shores of the Netherlands. Schliemann became a messenger, office attendant, and later, a bookkeeper in Amsterdam. On March 1, 1844, 22-year-old Schliemann took a position with B. H. Schröder & Co., an import/export firm. In 1846, the firm sent him as a General Agent to St. Petersburg. In time, Schliemann represented a number of companies. He learned Russian and Greek, employing a system that he used his entire life to learn languages; Schliemann claimed that it took him six weeks to learn a language and wrote his diary in the language of whatever country he happened to be in. By the end of his life, he could converse in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Polish, Italian, Greek, Latin, Russian, Arabic, and Turkish as well as German. California Gold Rush 1849 !! “…There’s gold in them thar’ hills…” California Gold Rush Gold Fever 1850 1851 “California, Here I come…” Schliemann went to California in early 1851 and started a bank in Sacramento buying and reselling over a million dollars' worth of gold dust in just six months. 1851 “California, Here I come…” Schliemann got rich buying and reselling gold dust …. he came back to Russia a millionaire. SCHLIEMANN RETURNED TO MOSCOW A MILLIONAIRE HE WANTED TO GO TO GREECE TO FIND TROY HIS RUSSIAN WIFE REFUSED TO LEAVE RUSSIA SO HE GOT A DIVORCE AND WENT TO ATHENS 1869 SCHLIEMANN ARRIVES IN ATHENS Schliemann needed an assistant who was knowledgeable in matters pertaining to Greek culture. As he had divorced Ekaterina in 1869, he advertised for a wife in a newspaper in Athens. A friend, the Archbishop of Athens, suggested a relative of his, 17-year- old Sophia Engastromenos (1852– 1932). Schliemann, age 47, married her in October 1869, despite the 30 year difference in age they were very happy together. They later had two children, Andromache and Agamemnon Schliemann; he reluctantly allowed them to be baptized, but solemnized the ceremony in his own way by placing a copy of the Iliad on the children's heads and reciting 100 hexameters. In 1868, Schliemann visited sites in the Greek world, published Ithaka, der Peloponnesus und Troja in which he asserted that Hissarlik was the site of Troy, and submitted a dissertation in Ancient Greek proposing the same thesis to the University of Rostock. In 1869, he was awarded a PhD in from the university of Rostock for that submission. Schliemann began excavating the site of Hisarlik and after identifying a level known as ‘Troy II’ as the Troy of the Iliad, his next objective was to uncover the ‘Treasure of Priam’. As Priam was the ruler of Troy, Schliemann reasoned that he must have hidden his treasure somewhere in the city to prevent it from being captured by the Greeks should the city fall. On the 31 st of May 1873, Schliemann found the precious treasure he was seeking. In fact, Schliemann stumbled by chance upon the ‘Treasure of Priam’, as he is said to have had a glimpse of gold in the trench-face whilst straightening the side of a trench on the south-western side of the site. Schliemann’s published Ilion stratigraphy notes Troy Treasure “Discovery” dated “17 May, 1873” ? Schliemann’s Troy Notebooks Schliemann’s “Treasure of Priam” THE TREASURE OF PRIAM Schliemann began excavating the site of Hisarlik and after identifying a level known as ‘Troy II’ as the Troy of the Iliad, his next objective was to uncover the ‘Treasure of Priam’. As Priam was the ruler of Troy, Schliemann reasoned that he must have hidden his treasure somewhere in the city to prevent it from being captured by the Greeks should the city fall. On the 31 st of May 1873, Schliemann found the precious treasure he was seeking. In fact, Schliemann stumbled by chance upon the ‘Treasure of Priam’, as he is said to have had a glimpse of gold in the trench-face whilst straightening the side of a trench on the south-western side of the site. Schliemann’s “Treasure of Priam” How to get the Treasure out of Turkey? SCHLIEMANN HOME IN ATHENS, NOW A MUSEUM Sophia Schliemann Schliemann published Troja und seine Ruinen (Troy and Its Ruins) in 1875 1877, VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM LONDON BERLIN BERLIN, MAY 1945, Capt. Alexei Petrovich Komarov NKVD Internal Security THE TREASURE OF PRIAM DISAPPEARED 1945-1995 SOVIETS INSIST THEY DO NOT KNOW WHERE TREASURE IS NOW TREASURE OF PRIAM IS DISPLAYED IN THE PUSHKIN MUSEUM MOSCOW Growth of Troy citadel in 2200 BC End of Early Bronze Age Plan of Late Bronze Age Troy - Wilusa - Ilion Scamander R. Simois R. Troy VI Universiteit Tübingen TROY STRATIGRAPHY Recent excavations by Korfmann with Late Bronze Age wall Manfred Korfmann (1942 in Cologne – August 11, 2005) Prof. Manfred Korfmann, 1984, German archaeological team from Univ of Tubingen found Mycenaean graves beneath the sand on a beach few miles west of Troy on the beach of Besike Bay most likely harbor for Troy thus proving the basic theme of Iliad/Mycenaeans at Troy 1100s Late Bronze Age Weapons found in burnt context CRITICISM OF SCHLIEMANN Schliemann’s Great Trench C. Bryan Rose: “German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann was the first to explore the Mound of Troy in the 1870s. Unfortunately, he had had no formal education in archaeology, and dug an enormous trench “which we still call the Schliemann Trench,” according to Rose, because in the process Schliemann “destroyed a phenomenal amount of material.” ... Only much later in his career would he accept the fact that the treasure had been found at a layer one thousand years removed from the battle between the Greeks and Trojans, and thus that it could not have been the treasure of King Priam. Schliemann may not have discovered the truth, but the publicity worked, making Schliemann and the site famous and igniting the field of Homeric studies in the late 19th century Carl Blegen forgave his recklessness, saying "Although there were some regrettable blunders, those criticisms are largely colored by a comparison with modern techniques of digging; but it is only fair to remember that before 1876 very few persons, if anyone, yet really knew how excavations should properly be conducted. There was no science of archaeological investigation, and there was probably no other digger who was better than Schliemann in actual field work. .