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The Archaeological Career of Sophia Schliemann*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

D.A. Traill
D.A. Traill*
Affiliation:
University of California at Davis
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Extract

Sophia Schliemann is a familiar figure. The name readily conjures up a determined young Greek woman, who shared with her older German husband a passion for Homer and archaeology. We see her gamely putting up with the inconvenient realities of living at the site of an excavation — uncomfortable lodgings, often shared with exotic and undesirable fauna, blazing sun, freezing cold, rain and mud at Mycenae, and the relentless wind and dust of Troy. In recent years we have come to admire a woman who seemed easily to transcend the limitations imposed on her sex by the era and society in which she lived. She commanded groups of workmen at Troy, Mycenae and Orchomenos. Above all, we see her playing a crucial supporting role at the climactic moments of Heinrich’s excavations. At Troy she stood by his side and wrapped up Priam’s Treasure in her shawl. At Mycenae she got down on her hands and knees in the Shaft Graves and extricated the gold jewellery and masks from the mud.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 23 , 1989 , pp. 99 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 1989

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References

1 Schliemann, H.Troy and its Remains (London 1875) 62.Google Scholar

2 Lynn, and Poole, GrayOne Passion, Two Loves: The Schliemanns of Troy (London 1967); 94.Google Scholar

3 Poole, 8.

4 For further details, see Traill, D. ‘Schliemann’ s Discovery of “ Priam’ s Treasure”A Re-Examination of the Evidence:’ JHS 104 (1984) 109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 See Traill, 109.

6 Diary 13, p. 382. This diary and the other papers of Schliemann referred to in this article belong to the Schliemann archive in the Gennadius Library, American School of Classical Studies, Athens. I am grateful to George L. Huxley, former director of the library, for permission to publish the excerpts quoted.

7 Traill (n.4), 109.

8 These facts emerge from an unpublished letter to Sophia’s father dated 29 April 1873.

9 Trojanische Alterthümer (Leipzig 1874) is the German original of Troy and its Remains (n.1). The account of the excavation of Pasha Tepe is found on pp. 268–269 (= Troy and its Remains 301).

10 Schliemann, H.Briefwechsel,ed. Meyer, Ernst 1 (Berlin 1953); 229Google Scholar(letter of 14 May to A. Conze): ‘Meine Frau ist wegen des plötzlichen Todes ihres Vaters nach Athen zurückgekehrt …’; Diary 14 p. 223 (entry of 7 May): ‘Heute reiste Sophie wieder ab.’

11 Traill (n. 4), 96–115, esp. 109–110.

12 Myth, Scandal and History: The Heinrich Schliemann Controversy, edd. W.M. Calder III and D.A. Traill (Detroit 1986) 110.

13 For Schliemann’s diary of the Mycenae excavations see Myth, Scandal and History 124–260.

14 See Schliemann’s letter of 25 September printed below. The steamer sailed between Athens and Nauplion once a week. It is clear that Schliemann had expected Sophia to arrive on 25 September and was now insisting that she arrive on the following Monday (2 October). It follows that she was absent from Mycenae at least two weeks. It is not clear if she did return on 2 October. Schliemann closed the excavation anyway on 9 October for a two-week break.

15 These reports to the Times are reprinted in Myth, Scandal and History 240–260.

16 Entry of 17 August; see Myth, Scandal and History 147.

17 The text given in Ludwig, E.Schliemann of Troy (London 1931) 202,Google Scholar which is an English translation of a German translation of the Greek original, contains a number of inaccuracies. The translation given here was made from a photostat copy of the original report kindly given me by the late Professor G. Mylonas.

18 The original is in English and is kept in the Sophia Schliemann archive in the Gennadius Library. Since the text published in Ludwig (n.17), 205, was first translated into German and then retranslated into English, it differs from the original reproduced here.

19 Sophia sailed from Nauplion to Athens on the night of 27–28 November. Shaft Grave IV was opened on 25 November but the masks were not found until the 28th. See Myth, Scandal, and History (n.12), 236 for Sophia’s departure and 201–202 for the opening of Shaft Grave IV.

20 Palingenesia 26 Nov. (= 8 Dec, Gregorian) 1880. Ioannides’ report is dated ‘Orchomenos, 19 Nov.’, that is, 1 Dec, Gregorian. The translation offered here is my own.

21 She is not mentioned in the Tiryns index.

22 Sayce, A.H.Reminiscences (London 1923) 222–223.Google Scholar