Archaeology and Heinrich Schliemann 2012

60The operation and death of Henry Schliemann 1† Francis H. McGovernAbstractHenry Schliemann’s reputation as an archaeologist,a linguistic, a financial genius and a scholaris seldom recognized by Americans. His discoveryof the ruins of Troy changed Homeric myths and legendsinto history and made him the founder ofAegean archaeology.Recent popular books on Schliemann sketchilydescribe his otologic problems which eventually ledto his death of an otogenic brain abscess.From a number of bibliographic sources, the detailsof Schliemann’s ear history and the final monthsof his illness are recounted. The important informationof Schliemann’s ear operation by the famous ProfessorSchwartze is presented.Henry Schliemann’s name is seldom recognizedby Americans, but his spectacular and controversialcareer in the last half of the nineteenth century is wellknown to many Europeans. Indeed his accomplishmentsas a financial genius, a linguist and a scholarand his discoveries as an archaeologist are worthy ofa distinguished entry into the annals of man.Henry Schliemann was born in Germany in 1822and died in Italy in 1890. In this paper I will attemptto recount Schliemann’s otologic story, his ear operation,and his death of an otogenic brain abscess.Schliemann’s fame rests firmly on his archaeologicaltriumphs in Asia Minor, and at Mycenae, Tirynsand Orchomenos on the Greek mainland. His excavationof the ruins of the ancient city of Troy at Hissarlik,three miles from Hellespont, and the recovery ofthe Trojan gold hoard changed Homeric myths andlegends into history. In 1876 he discovered the incrediblegolden treasury from the royal graves at Mycenae,across the Dardanelles from Troy. He is rightlycalled founder of Aegean archaeology.As a self taught archaeologist, Schliemann’s boastfulcommunications and books about his work and hissometimes unwarranted assumptions of the exactappraisal of his discoveries, aroused the ire and disbeliefof academic archaeologists, forcing him to laborfor decades to establish his claims. The criticism ofSchliemann’s archaeological techniques is well foundedand is in common with the criticism of his contemporaries,Henry Layard and Emile Botta excavatingin the ruins of Babylon, Nineveh and Khorsabad inMesopotamia. The era of the scientific method of horizontalexcavating was in its infancy and much tooslow for Schliemann’s impetuous and mercurial temperament.His digging was so rapid and productivethat he uncovered nine successive levels of Bronzeage culture in a remarkably short time. Later excavationsshow that he passed by the edge of the Troylevel and actually uncovered the fortifications of aburned city of great antiquity belonging to the pre-Mycenaean period.What happened to the Trojan gold? Schliemanngave it to his homeland, Germany, where it washoused in a splendid museum. During World War IIthe treasure was placed in a vault beneath the Berlinzoo. The Russians discovered the vault; the treasurehas disappeared.Schliemann’s almost uncanny talent to pin-pointancient Greek historic sites was a result of continuedstudy of the Iliad and Odyssey in the original and apassion and an obstinate belief held since childhoodin the authenticity of the poems of Homer.Schliemann’s ability as a linguist was phenomenal;it is said he could speak, read and write in eighteenlanguages, all self taught. In addition he was aninternational banker and businessman and a multimillionaireby the time he was forty-six when heretired to devote his major efforts to archaeology.1. First published in Laryngoscope 87 (October 1977): 1726-1730; reprinted here after the publisher’s permission.