1 On the beginnings of field archaeology (or “spade research”) - the first regular excavations at Hisarlik: 1871-1873 † Manfred Korfmann omer, Troy, Schliemann”- for more than one able that scholarship could achieve anything more “H hundred years these words have been unit- through further excavations”. Soon afterwards, how- ed in the public consciousness. The subject has been ever, he saw things differently. He pressed ahead taken up again and again. Schliemann is regarded as with excavations at Tiryns and Mycenae, resuming an epitome of the archaeologist, his life’s work stand- work at Hisarlik in autumn 1878. ing as a monument within the history of scholarship. The direct value of Schliemann’s first book on the Schliemann himself did much to encourage this Trojan excavations lies in its facilitation of an under- continued public interest by producing nearly 300 standing of Schliemann as he was at the beginning of publications, large and small, including books and his scholarly activities, when he was not yet influ- articles for specialist journals and newspapers. The enced or supported by personalities from the estab- bibliography of publications concerning Schliemann lished circle of antiquarian scholars. In particular, himself, as well as his work, in particular the archae- these would later include the anthropologist and ological excavations of Troy and Mycenae, cannot be pathologist Rudolf Virchow (from 1879 onward), or ignored. A summary of “Schliemannia” compiled by Emil Burnouf, the former director of the French the Athenian pre-historian and Schliemann researcher Archaeological School in Athens (from 1879 onward) George Korres (1974) lists over 2000 publications - and the architect and archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld and the number increases every year. (from 1882 onward). How often in later years would In this, the centennial year of Schliemann’s death, the negative aspects of the work at Troy be put down we turn with particular intensity toward the famous to Schliemann, with the positive aspects credited to excavator of Troy. Recent research has focused on the collaboration of others! questions about his personality and, above all, his Troy and its Remains is an authentic, original do- character. The negative personal aspects detailed in cument. The text is divided into 23 periodic reports, these discussions have given rise to general doubts called “essays” by Schliemann. They consist of one-or- about Schliemann’s scientific honesty. Against this two-week, occasionally chronological progress reports, background, which we will not go into in further similar to those that Schliemann sent off regularly to detail here, it is both justified and necessary to allow the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung during the Tro- Schliemann himself another chance to speak, lest jan excavations. The text is doubtlessly based on these contradictory personal judgements cause the Schliemann’s daily-kept diary and excavation note- concrete archaeological results of his excavations to books, which are today stored in the Gennadius Li- disappear from view. brary in Athens. Naturally, what we have here is a Schliemann’s first book on the Trojan excavations, worked-over version deliberately placed at the dis- published in German in 1874 and in English in 1875 as posal of a critical public. Troy and its Remains, provides a useful point of ref- The reader of Schliemann’s first book must under- erence. It reports on the first three years of excava- stand that the text retains much of its diary character tion at Hisarlik (1871-1873), a place called Ilion or Troy and that he will be led astray. For example, during in antiquity, as it would be again from the time of the the first two years of excavation Schliemann held the Schliemann excavations. At the end of these first assumption that the lowermost “settlement” was three years, the excavator wanted to halt the excava- Homer’s Troy. By the third year, the “second settle- tions “forever”. For Schliemann, it “was not conceiv- ment” is Homer’s Troy, as it is in the broad introduc- 4 Manfred Korfmann tion written at the end of 1873 summarizing the graphs during Schliemann’s lifetime; they would results of three years of excavation. A similar inter- henceforth always appear as engravings. These en- pretation made in light of additional findings from gravings, however, were frequently based on photo- later excavations was published by Dörpfeld in 1902 graphs, as Schliemann continued to document his as Troy and Ilion: Results of Excavations of the Pre- excavations photographically. historic and Historic Levels of Ilion, 1870-1894. Only one year after the publication of the original The efforts of the first excavation cycle were German Atlas, engravings were used to illustrate the crowned by the discovery of “Priam’s Treasure” in English language edition, a change that was visually 1873. Schliemann believed he had achieved the goal of attractive. However, the scholarly worth of the origi- his work and therefore intended to close the Trojan nal Atlas remains, based to a large extent upon the 19 excavations for good and present the results as quick- photographs of “Priam’s Treasure”, the contents of ly as possible. This haste is noticeable throughout the which were lost during the final weeks of World War text in the many discrepancies and contradictions of II. ideas and conclusions; however, this style serves to It is sometimes claimed that Schliemann did not in underline the naturalness of the presentation. This fact find the treasure in toto at Troy, but instead lack of basic revision and editing is also apparent in enlarged a smaller group of finds with purchased the introduction. pieces. It is therefore of particular interest that these The speed with which the results were prepared objects were photographed in a partially uncleaned for publication can also be seen in the accompanying or unrestored state. How much more could be specu- volume of illustrations, the Atlas trojanischer Alter- lated concerning “falsification” were it not for an thümer. A user of the original German edition of the early publication with photographs such as these? In Atlas is confronted with photographs of varying qual- any case, there was not much time for falsification. ity, badly cropped and carelessly mounted. There is Schliemann’s prophecy that this treasure would no planned or aesthetic arrangement. In addition, the “remain the subject of ongoing research for hundreds textual references to Atlas illustrations could be of years” has, without a doubt, proved true for the much more exact, and where the references are pre- first century. cise, they occasionally turn out to be incorrect. The majority of the original Atlas illustrations Schliemann’s excavations at Hisarlik were reproduced as what Schliemann called “photo- as a form of Iliad-reception graphic drawings”. These are drawings that have Heinrich Schliemann’s excavations at Troy are been documented photographically and reproduced only one part of the long and varied history of how as prints. As a result, every Atlas volume counts as a the Iliad was received by its audience. This epic writ- curiosity. The Athenian photographer Panagos ten in the eighth century BC has left its mark upon Zaphyropoulos took not only the majority of the pho- the spirit of the Western world like no other work. tos, but also made the over 100,000 prints. From Archaeologists have ascertained that the theme of the these, 25,000 were rejected by Schliemann due to battle for Troy inspired works of art a generation poor quality, which, considering the pervading cir- after Homer, after which time it was indeed on every- cumstances, was surely an exceptional proportion. body’s lips. The influence of the Iliad has not dimin- Nevertheless, the quality of the remaining photo- ished to the present day. graphs can only be described as very poor. It was an In antiquity as well as today, the stories connect- altogether laborious and unsatisfactory attempt with ed with the Trojan War inspired not only those a relatively new medium. A new edition of these pho- learned in Greek. The theme was also employed tographs was out of the question. The original photo- toward artistic and even political ends. Rome pro- graphic plates were not preserved and the prints in fessed its Trojan origins from the 5th century BC. In the few folios still extant in libraries became increas- building up their dynastic ideology, Julius Caesar ingly yellowed with the years. and the Julio-Claudian dynasty traced themselves The lesson drawn from this experience was so back to Aenaes and his son, Iulus, himself named vivid that the finds and results from the Trojan exca- after the legendary founder of Troy. Notably, Troy vations would never again be published as photo- had a second name: Ilios. Many holders of political On the beginnings of field archaeology (or “spade research”) - the first regular excavations at Hisarlik: 1871-1873 5 power made reference to the battle between the Euro- citizen Frank Calvert had already begun excavating pean Greeks and Asiatic Trojans, including Xerxes at Hisarlik (Hahn 1865; Easton 1991; Allen 1999). before the conquest of Greece, Alexander the Great Calvert was a local resident of the Dardanelles before the campaign in southwest Asia, the knights of who had amassed a fortune as a large landowner, the fourth crusade before and after the capture of merchant and British, as well as American, Consul. Constantinople and the Sultan Mehmet Fatih after the He was also a scholar interested in antiquities, which conquest of the same city by the Ottomans. Hundreds he publicized and exhibited internationally. For all of the Franks, the kings of France, the dukes of Bur- the tenacity that one grants Schliemann, it should be gundy and many other ruling houses derived them- emphasized that it was Frank Calvert who smoothed selves genealogically from the Trojans (Chandler the way for him into the Trojan countryside and who 1802; Rose 1997).