The World's Greatest Books — Volume 11 — Ancient and Mediæval History
History
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 11 — Ancient and Mediæval History
History, Ancient; Middle Ages
Heinrich Schliemann was born at Kalkhorst, a village in
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on January 6, 1822, and died on December
27, 1890. During his early childhood an old scholar, who had
fallen upon evil days, delighted him with stories of the great
deeds of Homeric heroes. At the age of fourteen he was
apprenticed in a warehouse, but never lost his love for
antiquity, and unceasingly prayed to God that he might yet
have the happiness to learn Greek. An accident released him
from his low position, and he went to Holland and found a
situation in an office. He now began to study languages,
suffering extraordinary denials so as to be able to afford
money for his studies. In 1846 he was sent by his firm to
Russia, learning Swedish and Polish, and next acquired Greek.
Later, he travelled in Europe and the East, making a voyage
round the world. At last he realised the dream of his life.
Inaugurating a series of explorations in Greece and Asia
Minor, Dr. Schliemann gained fame by his discoveries at
Tiryus, Mycenæ, and Troy, largely solving the problems of
antiquity and archæology associated with these localities.
"Troy and Its Remains" is published here in order that, having
read in the classical histories, we may see how the ancient
world is reconstructed for modern readers, by the records of
one of the most famous of archæologists.
_I.--Searching for the Site of Troy_
_Hissarlik, Plain of Troy, October_ 18, 1871. In my work, "Ithaca, the
Peloponnesus, and Troy," published in 1869, I endeavored to prove, both
by my own excavations and by the statement of the Iliad, that the
Homeric Troy cannot possibly have been situated on the heights of
Bunarbashi, to which place most archæologists assign it. At the same
time I endeavoured to explain that the site of Troy must necessarily be
identical with the site of that town which, throughout all antiquity and
down to its Complete destruction at the end of the eighth or beginning
of the ninth century A.D., was called Ilium, and not until 1,000 years,
after its disappearance--that is, in 1788 A.D.--was christened Ilium
Novum by Lechevalier, who, as his work proves, can never have visited
his Ilium Novum.
The site of Ilium is on a plateau 80 feet above the plain. Its
north-western corner is formed by a hill about 26 feet higher still,
which is about 705 feet in breadth and about 984 feet in length, and
from its imposing situation and natural fortifications, this hill of
Hissarlik seems specially suited to the acropolis of the town. Ever
since my first visit I never doubted that I should find the Pergamus of
Priam in the depths of this hill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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