Schliemann's Excavations

Book excerpt: This overview of the famous and pioneering excavations of Heinrich Schliemann was first published in German in 1889, and in this extended English translation in 1891. The author, Carl Schuchhardt (1859-1943), had wide experience of excavations in both Asia Minor and Europe, and the translator, Eugénie Sellers (1860-1943), was the first female student of the British School at Athens. The book begins with a life of Schliemann, who had died in 1890, and goes on to describe his extraordinary discoveries at Troy and Mycenae, and his work at Tiryns, Ithaca and Orchomenos. It also contains two reports of later work at the mound of Hissarlik, the site of Troy, by Schliemann himself and his assistant Wilhelm Dörpfeld, which had not been included in the German edition. The book is illustrated with many line drawings, and includes the famous photograph of Sophia Schliemann wearing 'the gold of Troy'.