Dr. Wilhelm Dörpfeld on Schliemann (1932)

Preface by Dr. Wilhelm Dörpfeld ( November, 1932) to the Book "Schliemann Briefe" published by Ernst Meyer

(This is translated from the German by Marius Balogh to give an opportunity to those readers who are interested in valuable additional information on Schliemann, to gains a more accurate insight as to the true character of a great man. To my knowledge this has not been translated into English previously.)

I am very grateful to Ernst Meyer to have invited me to write the Preface to his Book, "Schliemann Briefe." As it gives me a good opportunity to comment and correct some of the points in Emil Ludwig's book "The story of a Gold seeker.", and also to comment on the Preface written by Sir Arthur Evens to the same book. As I have been a close associate of Schliemann I have an understanding of his life and archaeological discoveries.

First of all I find it regretful that Schliemann in Ludwig's book has been portrayed as a 'Gold seeker' and that this is repeated in the title of the book.

I find this regretful and unfortunate that he should be remembered by the German public and in the eyes of the world as such. He was and probably is for all of us the great and maybe lucky discoverer of Troy and Mycenae and deserves to take his place in history as such.

And due to his successful excavations at Troy and other Homeric sites he has shown new ways for us to understand the two Homeric Epics and the early Greek history.

We know now that these classical Greek poems, not only have a great literary value to our cultural heritage, and are not only based on Mythology of a long gone civilization, but they belong to the literature of the Palaces of the prehistoric Greek Kings, who participated in the war against Troy. This early Mythology of the Trojan wars was not, as we presumed, invented centuries after the event, but was handed down, right after the end of the Trojan war from father to son in the Greek motherland. It's development around 1100 B.C. is prior to the Doric Invasion, that destroyed the palaces of the Achaian kings, who had to flee to the Near East and the Islands.

And as these stories tell of the present, they are telling us the true situation of those times and the names of the people who participated in those events of the 12 century B.C. and inform us of the cultural situation of those days.

Schliemann was with his clear mind, (Schliemann war mit seinem klaren Verstand,) from the beginning convinced that the Homeric Epics are based on true historical events, and has proved through his excavations of those historic sites that his presumptions were correct.

The only way you can call Schliemann a gold seeker, is if you interpret his early life as a business man who had the goal of getting rich. Also for a short time he traded in gold dust in California. And he did discover Gold artifacts in Troy and in Mycenae, in larger quantities than he ever expected to find. But the lack of finding more gold artifacts in his later excavations did not discourage him to continue with his archaeological explorations or even to curtail them. Therefore it is not appropriate to label Schliemann a gold seeker.

In the years of 1882 to 1890 were I was privileged to be his associate in his archaeological excavations, he never ever mentioned to me that he wanted to discover more gold artifacts, and the only challenge for him was to excavate more Homeric sites to prove that the Homeric poems are based on true historical events.

As an archaeologist he was never a gold seeker.

It is true that in the beginning he made mistakes in his excavations and destroyed some ruins, which he also later regretted but he learned from these mistakes and in his later excavations he secured the cooperation of experienced archaeological associates. He also learned from his excavations and even Emil Ludwig and Sir Arthur Evans had to admit later on that he progressed from an amateur to a competent archaeologist. He was grateful to his Friends like Rudolf Virchow and Richard Schöne, who helped him to correct his mistakes, and supported him in his archaeological excavations.

He could never understand why several German Scholars, scoffed at and criticized his excavations of Troy and of Ithaca. Even I had to endure the criticism leveled at my work, excavations and interpretations of the Homeric times by some very educated Scholars (Philologen) which I found very regrettable. I always found this very inappropriate and very unscientific.

Because the important question that we were trying to interpret was as to how much of actual history was in the Homeric Epics. And this cannot be decided or answered by historical Scholars. (...konnte und kann nicht von Philologen allein entschieden werden.), but only in cooperation between archaeologists and historical experts (Philologen).

For the excavation of Homeric sites requires the cooperation of both parties, and we have to be and should be grateful to Heinrich Schliemann for the first steps he took in this direction and he does not deserve to be scoffed at or criticized by anyone. (That includes present day critics.)

As it has been proven by his archaeological excavations he started over 60 years ago and which I have continued over the past 50 years, that the present interpretation of the Homeric Epics by historical scholars (Philologen) of the present time are incorrect. It is a fact, that the Homeric Epics are based on actual historical events of the 12th century B.C.

We should not be wondering about this important result, as Schliemann and all of us have always known, that the history of ancient Greece and their important historians like Herodot and Thukydides, have always believed that the Trojan war was based on historical fact and that all the participants whose names appear in those writings are real people who lived at that time.

TO BE CONTINUED SHORTLY.