Heinrich Schliemann was born in 1822 in Germany to a poor Protestant pastor. At the age of eight, his father gave him a "World History for Children" with pictures, among which was the image of Troy enveloped in flames. Heinrich immediately unconditionally believed in the authenticity of these events, and his dream was to discover the legendary city.
Chasing money
At the age of 14, he had to leave school and earn his own food. After working as an apprentice in a shop, he hired a cabin boy on the schooner "Dorothea". In November 1841, the ship was wrecked off the coast of Holland, but Schliemann, among nine sailors, escaped.
After that, as if realizing all the fragility of human life, Schliemann rushes to fulfill his dream. He learns languages, applying the method he himself created, and in two and a half years he masters six European languages, including Russian!
In 1846, 24-year-old Schliemann went to St. Petersburg as an agent of his firm. Iron business acumen and willingness to take risks are multiplying his fortune at an unprecedented rate. Thanks to his business qualities, he quickly made himself a fortune of a million rubles.
At the age of 30, Heinrich Schliemann married 18-year-old Katya Lyzhina, the sister of one of the richest Russian merchants.
The Crimean War, which began in 1853, became the reason for the next adventure of the young businessman. Heinrich got his firm to become the general contractor for the Russian army, and began an unprecedented swindle. Especially for the army, the cheapest boots with cardboard soles, uniforms made of low-quality fabric, belts that sag under the weight of ammunition, flasks that let water through, and so on were developed. All this was presented as a product of the highest quality. Of course, such a supply of the army to a large extent influenced the defeat of Russia, and Schliemann in this case behaved like a criminal (in Russia they did not forget about this. When many years later he turned to Emperor Alexander II with a request to enter the country, he petition imposed a laconic resolution: "Let him come, we will hang!").
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And only at the age of 46, Henry decides to change his fate: he sells his "business", leaves his wife and children, assigns a good support to the family and leaves Russia with a huge fortune of 2.7 million rubles. He travels the world, listens to lectures on archeology at the Sorbonne, finally divorces his Russian wife in absentia and marries an 18-year-old Greek woman Sophia Engastromenos for the second time, and gives the two children born from this marriage the ancient Greek names - Agamemnon and Andromache.
Priam's stash
In his exploration of Troy since April 1870, Schliemann was guided mainly by intuition. Excavations continued both in the second year and in the third, when powerful foundations with traces of fire were found in the lower part of the cultural layer. It would seem that the goal has been achieved, but the usual in such cases, mental devastation and depression has come. He was about to give up further research when he suddenly received an unexpected gift of fate!
According to the archaeologist, it was like this. On June 14, Heinrich and his wife Sophia watched the completion of the excavation. He goes down into a deep trench to once again inspect the walls and make sure that his conclusions are correct. Suddenly, at a depth of 8.5 meters right in front of him … a piece of earth falls off, and Schliemann sees a strange object covered with greenery in the wall, under which sparkles … gold! Let's now imagine this event. Gold appears before a man who is obsessed with the idea of proving the discovery of the legendary city. This happens right in front of him and exactly at the moment when he examines the walls of the excavation. And no one else sees this find. Mystic! Does this happen in life? It turns out that it happens.
A burnt-out merchant immediately understands the meaning of the find and looks up. Fortunately, none of the many workers are paying attention to the small landslide below. He immediately makes a decision and sends the workers home. As a pretext, he announces that today is his holiday - his birthday, which he is going to celebrate. Everyone is surprised - only 8 am, excavations have just begun. But when Sophia announces that everyone will receive money for a full time, the workers go home with congratulations, unaware of the treasures. The secret of the discovery was preserved, which in itself is also amazing!
The couple are left alone and inspect the landslide. Things are in a layer of red ash, hard, like a stone, and a powerful fortress wall with a height of 6 meters rises directly above them. Risking his life, Heinrich Schliemann climbs under the wall and begins to clear it. First he pulls out a strange copper object, which turns out to be an oval shield half a meter long. Then the finds appear as if from a cornucopia: gold and silver cups, vases, bowls and ingots, copper axes, daggers and knives …
Incredible luck
Subsequently, he described what had happened: “In the greatest haste, straining all my strength, risking my life, for the large fortress wall that I was digging could at any moment bury me under me, I dug out the treasure with a large knife. The sight of these items, each of which had colossal value, gave me courage, and I did not think about the danger. Wrapping the finds in a shawl, the faithful wife secretly carries them into a small house standing not far from the excavation site. There they are examined behind closed curtains.
Soon the tables in the room are filled with treasures of incredible value. The couple have no doubts - this is the "treasure of Priam", the last king of Troy. There were kilograms of jewelry on the table: a golden bottle weighing 403 grams, dishes made of silver, electre and copper, various objects made of ivory and semi-precious stones … Examining a large silver bowl, Sophia looks inside and pours the contents out of it. In front of the astonished couple, tiaras, chains, bracelets, earrings, rings, buttons and countless small jewelry made of pure gold fall out. "These are Elena's treasures!" - Schliemann is convinced.
The inventory of finds lasted all night and ended only in the morning. According to one of the sources, it included: 27259 items of bronze, silver and gold! The treasure consisted of 13 vessels, of which 8 were made of precious metals, 3 gold ingots, 29 tools and 8 copies of bronze. It also included 2 magnificent gold tiaras (large from 16441 and small from 2211 pieces), 6 bracelets, 16 pendants, 44 plaques, 870 rings and over 60 earrings. Only one and a half kilograms of gold alone! And all these precious finds were more than three thousand years old. Subsequently, Heinrich Schliemann estimated them at one million rubles. All of them were at an angle to the structure, which was immediately called "the house of Priam."
Three days later, on June 17, 1873, excavations cease. According to the agreement concluded with the Ottoman government, half of the finds had to be transferred to Turkey. But Henry and Sophia decide to break the treaty and take the treasure to Europe. They quite rightly believe that there is no guarantee of its safety by the Turkish side. In addition, they learn that Turkish workers have discovered another treasure, which they have hidden and completely plundered. The decision was made, and with the help of loyal assistants, the “Priam's treasures” are illegally leaving Turkey. According to one version, in baskets with vegetables, according to another - in six boxes. They were secretly embarked on a vessel chartered by the Greek consul, which initially took them to the island of Silos (Cyclades), and then another ship brought the cargo to Athens. Classic smuggling operation. On the other hand,it was the rarest smuggling in the name of science in history.
Odyssey of Trojan Treasures
Later, Heinrich Schliemann continued his research for another 16 years - until 1890. In addition to Hisarlik, he conducted excavations in Mycenae, on the island of Ithaca, in Orchomenos and Tiryns. And again, incredible luck. In 1876, in Mycenae, “gold-rich,” according to Homer's definition, he makes no less striking discoveries: among other things, he finds five shaft-like tombs with a mass of jewels. Ancient gold is measured in kilograms. Schliemann traditionally attributes these findings to famous participants in the Trojan War - Tsar Agamemnon and his companions. Just a simple listing of the treasures discovered at Mycenae takes 206 pages of close-fitting text.
And now - attention. In just 20 years of scientific activity, G. Schliemann found 129 treasures! On average, 6 treasures per year. They contained over 40,000 finds! It is safe to say that this is a phenomenal achievement in world archeology that cannot be explained by luck alone. And what is most striking: he did not set himself the goal of finding the treasures, but they were revealed to him with enviable regularity during excavations! Despite the great discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries, no archaeologist has found so many treasures with gold items and unique works of art.
The fate of the Trojan treasures discovered by Schliemann turned out to be truly dramatic and is a real detective story written by life itself. The discoverer himself was not averse to admiring them for the rest of his life in his own home in Athens, but he was well aware that their further fate could be unpredictable.
The first thing that comes to his mind is to offer the "gold of Troy" to Greece. But for understandable political reasons (the treasure was illegally exported from Turkey) Greece rejects this flattering offer. Then the researcher tries to sell his finds to the Louvre, the British Museum and the Hermitage. He is negotiating with museums in Naples, Munich and even the small German town of Schwerin. But each time various financial and diplomatic problems arise. England hesitates. France coldly accepts the offer and does not respond. Russia sharply refuses. Italy is waiting for the development of events. A century later, these countries will bitterly regret their scrupulousness, and between some of them a serious struggle will unfold for the heritage of a millionaire archaeologist.
From 1877 to 1890, the exhibition "Gold of Troy", which included almost 4,500 items, was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Everything went to the fact that these finds will remain in Foggy Albion. But their owner makes a decision unexpected for many: he brings treasures as a gift to Germany. As a result, in 1881 Germany received one of the largest collections of the Homeric era. Until 1939, it was exhibited at the Berlin Museum of Primitive and Ancient History.
By law or by conscience?
During the war, the treasures, even in spite of Hitler's strictest orders, remained in the same museum. When Soviet troops entered the capital of the Third Reich, three sealed treasure boxes were secretly taken to the USSR.
It is still unclear why they had to be taken out secretly. Indeed, at this time, dozens of factories and plants were taken out of here at the expense of the damage suffered by the Nazis, and the USSR Committee for Arts was officially engaged in the return of stolen valuables and the export of trophy art.
Today Germany demands from Russia the return of all "stolen" valuables. At the same time, he refuses to return to Turkey the Pergamon Altar, which is located in Berlin and was at one time returned free of charge from the USSR. Wasn't Priam's treasure stolen from Turkey? Such is the double arithmetic, but a completely unambiguous policy.
These golden treasures, of course, have a difficult fate and, probably, negative energy. But let's remember that the capital, without which the discovery of Troy was impossible, Schliemann amassed in Russia, including on the blood of Russian soldiers during the Crimean War. Here he left his first wife and three children (his eldest son Sergei died in besieged Leningrad). Shortly before his death, in 1898, in one of his letters, he wrote that he wanted antiquities to return to Russia.
We will assume that the wish of this extraordinary man has come true, and the Trojan gold that adorns Russian museums today is a tribute to the respect that Heinrich Schliemann always had for Russia.
Magazine: Riddles of History No. 11, Evgeny Yarovoy