Schliemann's discovery of ‘Priam's Treasure’: two enigmas

Abstract

There has always been an enigma over the precise date during the Troy excavations of 1873 when Schliemann found the collection of metalwork which he dignified as ‘Priam's Treasure’ . His only published indication of the date appears to be his statement in 1884 that the discovery was made ‘at the end of May 1873’ (Schliemann 1884, 57). Biographers, even those who have studied Schliemann' s unpublished diaries and letters, have proposed a variety of dates, Ludwig places it ‘on a morning in the middle of June, one day before the termination of the work’ , in other words on the 14th June (Ludwig, 1931, 179). Payne prefers 30th May, ‘or a few days earlier’ (Payne, 1958, 116). Stone seems to settle for Saturday 31st May (Stone, 1976, 318f). Poole and Deuel place the discovery simply in late May or early June (Poole, 1967, 133; Deuel, 1978, 194). Brackman suggests 17th June or several days earlier, but suspends judgement on the matter (Brackman, 1974, 157). Ernst Meyer, who, because of his extensive work on the Schliemann papers in the late 1930s, has some claim to be regarded as the definitive biographer, at first gave the date as lying between 7th and 10th June (Meyer, 1953, I, 342, n. 335). Later, however, he narrowed this to 7th June on the authority of an otherwise unpublished entry in Schliemann's diary (Meyer, 1969, 273). Thus there is not only disagreement in the secondary sources, but in Schliemann's own writings; for this date, which is indeed explicitly named in the diary, conflicts with Schliemann's published statement referring to ‘the end of May 1873’.