Then the ruler of husbands Agamemnon objected to Achilles:
Well, run if you want! I'm not going to beg you
For my sake, stay; others will remain here;
They will honor me, and especially Zeus the Provider.
You are more hateful to me among the kings, pets of Zeus.
Only strife, war and battles are pleasant to you.
Yes, you are mighty by hand. But it was given to you by God.
Iliad. Homer. Translation by V. Veresaev
The culture of ancient civilizations. The pre-New Year's success of the second material about the Croatian Apoxyomenos, which in two days, with all its specificity, was read by more than 10,000 people, testifies to the great interest of VO readers to the history and culture of ancient civilization. Of course, it was not without the opinions of “those interested in history” - in the style “everything is deception, everything is fake”, or that the sculpture was made 400 years ago, before the World War of 1780, which the Slavs lost, and in which, of course, nuclear weapons were used … The winners (reptilians, most likely) erased the memory (what ?!) of all the survivors, and for 200 years they have been diligently wiping out cities in the antique style, and especially the bastion fortresses. This is done in order to break the single architectural field of the planet, so that the modern population would not guess that the world was already global before”.
But we will not be guided by this. We will not write in the comments that “everyone knows that Schliemann's gold is a fake” without references to a specific text of a specific author in a specific article of a refereed print publication, or a book with page (s) indicated. Links like "there was such a magazine" Knowledge - Sila "in the 80s …" are not accepted. Or "I read" a blue (and also green, red, thin, thick …) book. " It is always necessary to indicate the author, title and publisher, because this saves irreplaceable time. After all, knowing the author and the publisher, sometimes the book itself can no longer be looked at …
The very concept of the cycle seemed incomprehensible to some. But in reality, everything is simple. The articles deal with various moments in the history and culture of ancient civilization, in which it will be considered from the most different (and sometimes unexpected) sides so that it is both informative and interesting.
What happened after the treasure?
Well, now, after such an introduction, let's get acquainted with what modern science can tell us about the discoveries of Heinrich Schliemann, who gave humanity not only Troy, but an entire ancient civilization. However, we will not talk about an entire civilization so far. We will confine ourselves only to the no less fantastic “Priam's treasure”. And first we will talk about the consequences of his discovery, and then we will consider this treasure itself.
Let's start with the fact that Schliemann's sensational find in Troy has two dimensions: one is material (this is the treasure itself) and the other is political, that is, the consequences of this find. And so we will start with them, because how can you do without politics? But politics is also money. And here you need to start with the fact that the value of the treasures he found in those years was estimated at 1 million francs, of which, in accordance with the firmman of the government of the Ottoman Empire, she owned exactly half. A tidbit, isn't it? And most importantly - a good reason for mutual … accusations! However, Schliemann himself spent a lot on excavations. He estimated his expenses for three years of excavations at 500,000 francs and, as a businessman, he expected not only compensation for his expenses, but also counted on a profit.
In search of an object of national pride
However, literally opposite the excavation site - it was only a matter of swimming across the sea - there was a young Greek state, which had become independent some half a century before Schliemann's discovery. And it strove to instill in its citizens a sense of national pride, which is easiest to cultivate on the victories of the past, and not on the achievements of the present. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the Greek press the find of Troy was presented "as returning a piece of their history to the Greeks." The Greek government offered to organize an exhibition of Schliemann's finds, but the poor Greeks did not have money, money that could interest him. Schliemann, however, seems to have found an original way out. He offered to arrange a museum in his name in Athens (and to build it for his own money), that is, free of charge for the government, but in return he demanded exclusive rights to excavate in Mycenae. To the Greeks, all this seemed unfair and insulting.
When is the king's request more valuable than money?
Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire demanded the return of the treasures, and what did Schliemann respond to? He put forward a counter-proposal: to give him permission to resume excavations in Troy with the help of 150 workers provided to him on such a condition that everything that he finds will go to Turkey, but he will not give Priam's treasure. And since the Greek government rejected Schliemann's idea of a museum, he also took offense at him and began to think about donating the treasure to some museum in Western Europe. However, the Greeks also had reason to take offense at Schliemann. For what? Because he wished (though again at his own expense) to demolish the medieval Venetian tower that stood on the Acropolis. They say she obscures the view from the windows of his house to the Parthenon. And again, the Greeks could only be indignant, and only the personal appeal of King George prevented Schliemann from realizing his decision, and so opinion - opinion, and money decides a lot, although not everything!
The law is strong, but it's law
Meanwhile, Schliemann lost the lawsuit in Istanbul regarding the ownership of the treasure, but … he was sentenced only to the payment of a 10,000 francs fine, since he had previously paid 50,000 more voluntarily. In the end, it was Schliemann who benefited from this decision, because now he became the sole owner of the "Priam's treasure" on the basis of a court decision. Moreover, he still received government permission for further excavations in Troy, where he left in May 1876. But the local governor Ibrahim Pasha forbade him to dig, and Schliemann had to go back to the capital, hammer the doorsteps of government officials and ask to reason with the wayward governor. The attempt failed and Schliemann moved to Argolis, as the Greeks finally allowed him to excavate at Mycenae.
Following Homer and Pausanias
Again, he began to dig there not just like that, but following the instructions of Homer. According to legend, the city was founded by Perseus, the son of Zeus, and then King Atreus, the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, began to rule there. He acted very ugly, feeding his brother Fiesta with his own children, for which he cursed both himself and his entire family. And the gods heeded the curse: first Atreus himself was stabbed, and then his son Agamemnon was beheaded in the bathroom by his wife Clytemnestra. Moreover, all these immoral characters were buried with royal honors in the royal graves, as reported by the ancient Greek historian Pausanias: “There were also the underground structures of Atreus and his sons, where their treasures and riches were kept. Here is the grave of Atreus, as well as the graves of those who returned from Ilion with Agamemnon, and whom Aegisthus killed at the feast (Pausanias, II, XVI, 4-5).
Schliemann read all this and began to dig in Mycenae. True, now under the control of observers assigned to him by the Greek government, who greatly annoyed him. As a result, he did indeed discover the tomb, which he called "the treasury of Atreus", and two other tombs, which he considered to be the tombs of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
At the service of His Imperial Majesty
On October 9, 1876, Schliemann had to stop work for a very important reason: the Turkish government asked him to come to Troada and serve as a guide on his own excavations for the Brazilian emperor Pedro II, who was eager to see the ruins of ancient Troy and came there together with the French ambassador to Brazil, Count Gobino and renowned artist Karl Henning.
Count Gobineau and businessman Schliemann did not immediately like each other, but the Brazilian emperor liked both the excavations and Schliemann's stories. Moreover, Schliemann managed to convince him that Hisarlik is the legendary Homeric Troy. It is not surprising that the emperor then wished to see the excavations in Mycenae, where Schliemann immediately took him away. Since it was autumn time, the emperor, due to the beginning of the rain, had to be received in one of the domed tombs excavated by Schliemann ("the tomb of Clytemnestra"), where the crowned lover of antiquities was even served lunch.
Thirteen kilograms of gold finds
Meanwhile, torrential rains literally flooded the excavations, and the workers were constantly sick. But this did not stop work! People turned out to be more stubborn than nature! Between November 29 and December 4, the opening of five (all like Pausanias!) Royal tombs began. When they were finally opened, they found badly damaged skeletons with gold masks on their faces. Schliemann was greatly discouraged, because Homer did not say a word about such masks. But in one of them he clearly saw a portrait of Agamemnon. Remembering this discovery, he wrote: "The face of Agamemnon was looking at me." In addition, there were much more amazing treasures here than in Troy: about 13 kg of gold finds. Because of this, he later greatly regretted that he had signed an agreement with the Greek government on the transfer of everything found into the national treasure. It was necessary, of course, to agree on receiving at least half!
Nothing great happens without the press
However, Schliemann still did not lose. He turned the excavation into a real advertising campaign and immediately reported through the British newspaper The Times of his discovery of a new civilization. In this newspaper alone, from September 27, 1876 to January 12, 1877, 14 of his articles were published, for which he was decently paid. Then he took up a book on Mycenae, which came out on December 7, 1877.
And, of course, at first Schliemann did not doubt for one minute that the burials he discovered belonged to Agamemnon and his companions, who were killed by the hand of his insidious wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Although in fact, although they belong to the kings of Mycenae, they are much older in time than the Trojan War, beloved by Schliemann. But he realized this much later …
Why did they scold Schliemann?
For the cause, of course, because, not being a professional archaeologist, he dug up the same Troy "as God puts it on his soul", confused the archaeological layers, and caused a lot of problems for those who replaced him. But … with all this, no one before him even thought to dig there, saw nothing in the Iliad except a literary work, and did not dare to risk capital. And Schliemann took the risk, and was not afraid of either hard work or huge expenses, but in the end … yes, he brought new unique knowledge to mankind. So even the harshest critics of Schliemann cannot deny the very fact of the discovery he made and its unconditional value, although instead of the Greeks of Homer, whom he wanted to find in Mycenae, he found a civilization previously unknown to mankind. Well, later scientists gave it first the name Mycenaean - after the legendary city of King Agamemnon, and then Crete-Mycenaean, when its "continuation" was also discovered in Crete.
Schliemann's heirs
Now excavations on the territory of the same Mycenae are already being carried out by Greek archaeologists and according to all the rules. And their labor was rewarded with the largest, since the time of Schliemann, finds made in 1952 - 1954. Then, during the restoration of the tomb of Clytemnestra, located outside the Mycenaean Acropolis, archaeologists found a stone fence in the form of a ring with a diameter of 28 m, and in it new shaft graves, similar to those that Schliemann had once discovered. The burials in this circle of tombs, which was called circle B, were more modest than those that he found in circle A. But it also contained vessels of gold, silver and crystal, as well as bronze rapier swords and daggers, amber beads and one a burial mask made of an electron - an alloy of gold and silver. But Schliemann dug hastily and carelessly, did not leave proper records, and here the Greek archaeologists tried to do everything "according to science"!
