Definition: German archaeologist and adventurer Heinrich Schliemann was the excavator of Hisarlik, the location of the legendary site of Troy; also of Orchomenos and Tiryns. He is still a terrifically controversial figure in archaeology, because of his habit of self-mythology, writing his personal journal and describing his archaeological findings in grandiose and at least partly fictional ways.
Schliemann was gregarious and expansive in his reports, both in the popular press and in his academic publications; and he had an excellent facility with languages, all of which attracted global media attention to archaeology. Schliemann can be probably best be remembered as the first real public archaeologist.
Schliemann was gregarious and expansive in his reports, both in the popular press and in his academic publications; and he had an excellent facility with languages, all of which attracted global media attention to archaeology. Schliemann can be probably best be remembered as the first real public archaeologist.
Sources
Runnels, Curtis Neil, 1950 The archaeology of Heinrich Schliemann: an annotated bibliographic handlist. Boston: Archaeological Institute of America, 2002.
Schliemann, Heinrich. 1989. Troy and its remains: a narrative of researches and discoveries made on the site of Ilium, and in the Trojan Plain. Salem, N.H.: Ayer Co.
Traill, David. 1995. Schliemann of Troy. St. Martin's Press, New York.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
