Heinrich Schliemann

Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) was a German businessman and pioneering excavator of Troy and Mycenae whose work helped popularize Aegean prehistory.

Hisarlik: An archaeological mound in northwestern Turkey containing the remains of successive settlements, including ancient Troy. Schliemann identified this mound as Troy and excavated it from 1870.
Tell excavation: The archaeological investigation of a mound formed by successive human settlements. Hisarlik’s layered history required excavating an accumulated settlement mound.
Frank Calvert: An English-American archaeologist and diplomat who investigated Hisarlik before Schliemann and helped identify it as ancient Troy. Calvert’s earlier work and land ownership challenge accounts that credit Schliemann alone with finding Troy.
Aegean prehistory: The study of human societies around the Aegean Sea before written historical records became available. Schliemann’s discoveries helped make the region’s Bronze Age societies a major subject of research.
Troy: An ancient city in northwestern Anatolia, known from archaeological remains and its central role in Greek epic tradition. Schliemann’s Troy excavations sought the city described in Homer’s Iliad.
Stratigraphy (archaeology): The study of archaeological layers and their sequence to establish relative chronology. Schliemann’s trenches exposed successive occupation levels, though his methods often damaged their contexts.
Carl Blegen: An American archaeologist whose excavations at Troy in the 1930s established a more systematic chronology of its settlement layers. Blegen’s chronology replaced key parts of Schliemann’s interpretation of which Troy Homer might describe.
Mycenaean Greece: The Bronze Age Greek civilization centered on palace societies such as Mycenae, flourishing roughly from 1600 to 1100 BCE. His excavations helped establish the archaeological visibility of this civilization.
Mycenae: A major Late Bronze Age citadel in the northeastern Peloponnese, associated with Mycenaean Greece. Schliemann’s excavations uncovered elite tombs and helped establish the site’s archaeological prominence.
Wilhelm Dörpfeld: A German architect and archaeologist who worked with Schliemann and advanced the architectural recording of ancient sites. Dörpfeld’s more systematic work at Troy helped correct Schliemann’s interpretation of its layers.

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