Heinrich Schliemann

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Heinrich Schliemann an archaeological treasure hunter.

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Heinrich Schliemann was born in Beubukow, Germany in 1822 and he died in 1890 at Naples, Italy. He received little education as a child, and first was enrolled at school at age 9. But he was later removed after his father could no longer afford payments, as he was accused of stealing church money. In the Christmas of 1829 Heinrich's father gave him a book entitled, an illustrated history of the world, by Ludwig Jerrer. These, along with other classical stories read to him by his father, especially Homer's Iliad, inspired him to one day uncover the city of Troy.

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Heinrich Schliemann is credited with the discovery of the city of Troy, the mask of Agamemnon and King Priam's treasure, a treasure which consisted of golden earrings, necklaces, pots of silver and gold. In his report he said, "I cut out the Treasure with a large knife. This required great exertion and involved great risk, since the wall of the fortification beneath which I had to dig threatened every moment to fall on me. But the sight of so many objects, every one of which is of inestimable value to archaeology, made me reckless. I never thought of any danger." This was just one of his unorthodox archaeological methods.

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Map of Ancient Greece, Troy can be found on the coast of the Aegean Sea, to the North East of Athens.

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After being forced to make his own living after school, he got an apprenticeship with Herr Holtz grocers. After 5 years in this job, which he hated, he fled to Hamburg and became a cabin boy on the 'Dorothea'. The ship was wrecked off the coast of the Netherlands. He got a job in Amsterdam for an import/export company, and had learnt Russian and Greek, which enabled him to prosper in his position. He went to the United States for a short period and returned to Russia and married his first wife, Ekaterina. They had three children.

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It is said he retired in 1858, at age 36. He was particularly wealthy at this time. With his retirement came archaeology, he wanted to live his childhood dream of finding the city of Troy. He was a well travelled man and in his travels he was inspired by Frank Calvert at a site called Hissarlik. He made partners with Frank and they decided that Hissarlik was the site of Troy. He took over the excavations there, bringing to the project much needed funds, and a fresh perspective.

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Heinrich wanted to find someone who was an 'insider'