Description

Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) was a businessman and self-taught archaeologist who is best known for discovering the site of the ancient city of Troy. This short book, published posthumously in 1891, begins with a vigorous polemic in which Schliemann defends himself and Wilhelm Dörpfeld against allegations by Ernst Boetticher, who persistently claimed they had falsified the evidence from Hissarlik and that 'Troy' was in fact a cremation site with ovens, rather than a settlement. The book goes on to describe the pottery of different periods exposed by a river cutting through the site. Schliemann then describes a newly excavated area that had not been razed by the Romans prior to rebuilding and gives detailed accounts of pottery, artefacts and defensive works found there, and the texts of a number of inscriptions. A final section by Dörpfeld, completed two days before Schliemann's untimely death, describes the buildings in more detail.