The Gold of Troy

The account

Heinrich Schliemann was a rich businessman who believed, when almost no scholar did, that Homer's Troy was a real place. In 1873 he dug into a mound called Hisarlik on the Turkish coast and struck gold, literally: a hoard of golden diadems, earrings, vessels, and weapons that he announced to the world as the treasure of King Priam, the doomed king of the Iliad. He had his wife Sophia photographed draped in the jewels, calling them the Jewels of Helen, and the image went around the globe.

Almost none of it was what he said. To reach his treasure Schliemann had blasted straight down through the layer that actually was Homer's Troy into a city more than a thousand years older, so the gold he called Priam's belonged to a king who died long before the Trojan War. And he got it out of the country by smuggling, hiding pieces away while the Ottoman official who was supposed to guard the dig took the blame and a prison sentence.

From there the treasure began a second life as loot. It went to Berlin, was hidden in a bunker under the Berlin Zoo during the Second World War, and vanished when the city fell. For half a century the Soviets denied having it, until in 1993 Russia admitted the gold of Troy was sitting in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, where it remains, claimed at once by Russia, Germany, and Turkey, and released to none of them.

So the gold of Troy has been found three separate times, by a treasure hunter, by an army, by a confession, and in a strange way it is still lost to everyone with a claim to it. And the deeper loop is quieter and more tantalizing: the hoard in Moscow was never really Priam's. The treasure of the actual Troy of the Iliad, the city that burned, has never been found, and it may still be in the mound at Hisarlik, waiting under the layer Schliemann tore through in his hurry to be right.

Known intelligence

• Heinrich Schliemann found a hoard of gold jewelry, vessels, and weapons at Hisarlik in 1873 and called it the treasure of King Priam of Troy.
• His wife Sophia helped smuggle it out of Ottoman territory, and was photographed wearing the golden "Jewels of Helen."
• The gold is actually over a thousand years older than Homer's Troy; Schliemann had dug down through the right city into a far earlier one.
• Displayed in London and Berlin, hidden under the Berlin Zoo in WWII, then taken to Moscow by Soviet troops; Russia admitted holding it only in 1993.

Theories of the hunt

• The hoard is genuine Bronze Age treasure, just not Priam's, and the real treasure of Homer's Troy may still lie in the mound.
• Ownership is contested between Russia, Germany, and Turkey, and it has stayed in Moscow's Pushkin Museum.

Leads, where the trail points now

• Schliemann's hoard sits in Moscow's Pushkin Museum, claimed by Russia, Germany, and Turkey, so recovering it is a legal and diplomatic matter, not a dig.
• The real archaeological lead is at Hisarlik: Schliemann blasted through the actual Troy of the Iliad to reach an earlier city, so the treasure of Homer's Troy, if any, may still be in the mound.
• His excavation diaries are unreliable, and he may have assembled the treasure from finds spread over days; a critical reading of them is an open scholarly thread.
• Ongoing Turkish-led excavations at Troy are the place to watch for any new gold.

The trail, in order

• 1873: Schliemann uncovers the hoard at Hisarlik and smuggles it out.
• 1881: the treasure moves to Berlin.
• 1945: Soviet troops remove it from Berlin to Moscow.
• 1993: Russia admits the treasure is in the Pushkin Museum.

Sources and the record

• Priam's Treasure (Wikipedia)
• The man who discovered and nearly destroyed Troy (Smithsonian)