Heinrich Schliemann

Heinrich Schliemann

January 6, 1822, in the small town of Neu Buckow, Germany, Heinrich Schliemann was born. His father was a Protestant Minister and his mother died when he was young. He received a book of ancient history by his father named Illustrated History of the World which he was enthralled by. He was fascinated by the Homeric Greece.

When his mother died he was sent to live with his uncle. This forced Heinrich to provide for himself. He tried many jobs never staying at them for a long time.

He became rich through different trades and spent his time learning languages. He married Ekaterina Lishin, the niece of a wealthy friend, in October 12, 1852. She was bitter to him so he took his first trip to Greece in the summer of 1858. He decided to dedicate his life to archaeology. His fist idea was to start at Ithaca, home of Odysseus, and work on from there. He then discovered a room filled with vases. The vases contained ashes; they were believed to be the ashes of Odysseus and Penelope. He went to a hill top in Turkey, the site where he believed the city of Troy was. The made a deal with the owners of the land to give them stone from the excavation in turn for the work Heinrich would be doing on their land. He found nothing when the Owners told him to stop, but after some intense arguing with the Turkish government he was able to excavate. Later he found, what he believed to be Priam's palace, on that hill. He also discovered many other relics dealing with the Trojan War.

Bibliography

King, Wellington. Heinrich Schliemann: Heros & Mythos. University of Texas, 1997.

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/schliemann heinrich.html. 2/7/05

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