A talk about Heinrich Schliemann (Neubukow 1822-Naples 1890) will be presented by Prof. Annick Louis (Université du Franche-Comté/EHESS) on Feb 28, 2022 at 4:30 pm on Weiboldt 408.
This talk is about Heinrich Schliemann, the autodidact and polyglot archeologist, whose name evokes the extraordinary destiny of a child fascinated by the ancient world, and who, once an adult and having made a fortune, used his wealth to make his dream come true: to discover the place of the ancient city of Troy. First, the speaker will talk about the scene where he narrated the origin of his vocation, which can be found in his autobiography. This text has been widely popular since its publication and quickly acquired an exemplary character. This fascination partly explains that, for almost a hundred years, his autobiography Schliemann's autobiography was considered a true story, even by academics. In fact, Schliemann wrote four autobiographies, in different moments of his career, that present significant variations motivated by different agendas as to how he desired to present himself. In the second part of the talk, the speaker will deal with his first campaign of excavations in Troy (1870-1873) which ends with the discovery of the Treasure of Priam (or Trojan treasure). Speaker will focus on the mode of financing of this campaign, carried out essentially thanks to Schliemann's personal income, generated by a set of buildings in Paris, that he acquired in 1866 when he moved there and tried to insert himself into the French scholarly community. This talk will end with a consideration of the interdisciplinary approach necessary to complete this research.