Pigs, Russian Steam Baths and the Hunt for Troy: Heinrich Schliemann

Heinrich Schliemann is the legendary bronze age archaeologist who claimed to have discovered Troy, unearthed the treasure of King Priam and proved that Homer’s Iliad was based on real events.

But before all that, he had already survived a shipwreck, joined the California Gold Rush, made a fortune supplying the Crimean War and conducted a surprisingly businesslike search for a new wife.

From pigs and Russian steam baths to buried treasure and extremely questionable excavation methods, Louise and Nat dig into his extraordinary life.

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

Heinrich Schliemann, Ilios (1880) and Ithaka, der Peloponnes und Troja (1869)

Emil Ludwig, Schliemann: The Story of a Gold-Seeker (1932)

David A. Traill, Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit (1995)

Susan Heuck Allen, Finding the Walls of Troy (1999)

Christo Thanos and Wout Arentzen, eds., Schliemann and the California Gold Rush (2014