“Priam's Treasure”

Abstract

In Antiquity 57 David Traill claims to have exposed Schliemann's discovery of “Priam's Treasure” as a fraud (Traill, 1983). By this he means that it was not a single find as Schliemann represents, but an artificial collection put together from several different sources. The collection was formed around a group of bronzes (not identified exactly, but presumably including some of the spearheads, daggers, and flat axes) which was genuinely found on the site of Troy near the end of the 1873 season, but whose precise findspot and date of discovery Schliemann falsified. To this were added more valuable items which Schliemann had been setting aside from his excavations for just such a purpose over a period of months “or even years”. This theory was first put forward in outline in a BBC Chronicle programme on 20th January, 1982 and at that time included the further suggestion that some items were not even excavated at Troy but were bought from dealers in Constantinople or Athens. It is not clear how far Traill still holds to this notion: he acknowledges that all the pieces contained in the Treasure are appropriate to the Early Bronze Age at Troy, but at the same time hints that the purchase-theory would be a legitimate speculation (Traill, 1983, 185).