Image Details

Photo of Sophia Schliemann courtesy of the Gennadius Library, Athens. Color photos courtesy of the Pushkin Museum, Moscow/Gold of Troy.

In this photograph, taken in Athens at Christmastime, 1873, Heinrich Schliemann’s second wife, Sophia, models a spectacular gold headdress and gold earrings found by her husband at the site of ancient Troy. Schliemann claimed these jewels came from the palace of Homer’s King Priam, but later studies show they are the product of an earlier Trojan culture (c. 1900–1750 B.C.). The hammered gold and wire headdress crowning Sophia’s brow consists of hundreds of 4-inch-long gold chains. Scattered around the old photo are more recent images of the Trojan gold: a basket earring, a ring and a portion of the headdress worn by Sophia.