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Which archaeologist first discovered the ancient city of Troy?
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Answer: Frank Calvert
Although Heinrich Schliemann is most famously associated with the discovery of Troy, it was actually Frank Calvert (1828–1908) who first identified the fabled city.
Calvert, a British expatriate and self-taught scholar, was serving as a U.S. consular official to Turkey when Schliemann arrived in the country on a hunt to find Troy. Like Schliemann, Calvert was interested in finding the city. He had a hunch that Troy was buried beneath an ancient mound called Hisarlik, which means “Place of Fortresses” in Turkish, part of which was located on his family’s property in Turkey. Unlike Schliemann, however, Calvert did not have the funds to excavate the site past his preliminary excavations in 1865. The two men got in contact with each other, and, with the combination of Calvert’s expertise and Schliemann’s wealth, excavations at Hisarlik commenced.
Almost immediately, Schliemann became convinced that he and Calvert had finally found the legendary city. However, Schliemann had his eyes—and his eyes only—on the prize, and he purposefully excluded Calvert’s name in all of the fanfare that followed.
As Calvert’s name faded into the background, Schliemann’s excavation practices became more unscrupulous—and his finds more stunning. In 1873, Schliemann produced a photograph of his wife, Sophia, wearing the hoard of royal gold jewelry of “Priam’s Treasure,” which he claimed to have found at the site. This was after he had smuggled the treasure from Turkey to Athens.
Previous to this spectacular discovery (in February 1873), Calvert had written an article in the Levant Herald to clarify the stratigraphy of the site—and that Schliemann was continuing his excavations. At that point, they had uncovered only layers from the Early Bronze Age and the Hellenistic and Roman periods—none from the time of the Trojan War (c. 1200 B.C.E. during the Late Bronze Age). Indeed, even “Priam’s Treasure” dates to the Early Bronze Age—not the time of the Trojan War, as Schliemann claimed. Enraged by this critique, Schliemann maligned Calvert and his brother and made many false statements, even claiming some of Calvert’s discoveries as his own in his 1874 book. Again, Calvert defended himself in print, but the personal nature of Schliemann’s attacks caused a falling out between the two.
It was not until 1876 that Schliemann tried to repair the rift—when he longed to excavate at Troy once more. The two men, however, did not truly patch things up until 1879. Calvert gave Schliemann permission to excavate on his lands again, and they planned some joint expeditions to Hisarlik in 1880.
It had been Calvert’s dream to see the walls of Homeric Troy unearthed. Although Schliemann’s and his own excavations had not found these, he had the opportunity to see a later excavation uncover them in 1893–1894. Thus, three decades after launching excavations at the site, his dream was realized. It is thanks to Frank Calvert’s original identification and careful, innovative excavation methods that ancient Troy was discovered.
Which archaeologist first discovered the ancient city of Troy?
066
Answer: Frank Calvert
Although Heinrich Schliemann is most famously associated with the discovery of Troy, it was actually Frank Calvert (1828–1908) who first identified the fabled city.
