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The Lucky Archaeologist
11.
He had planned to leave the work on 15th June, 1873. On 14th June he found the treasure! Probably it wasn¡¯t
King Priam¡¯s actual treasure; but it was certainly treasure that had belonged to some great man. Schliemann¡¯s
wife saw it first, hidden in a wall. There were dozens of workmen around the couple, but they sent them away and
Schliemann and his wife dug the treasure out themselves.
12.
There was a priceless fortune in gold; more than twelve hundred gold rings had been hidden, for example,
and two dozen gold necklaces and a couple of fine gold crowns were also there. Schliemann placed one
crown on his wife¡¯s head ¡ª perhaps, he thought, the last person wearing it had been Helen of Troy.
13.
Archaeologists are still digging at Troy and are still finding interesting things. Slowly they are separating one
city from another; they are examining every spoonful of earth. But patient digging was not work that Schliemann
enjoyed; he was only satisfied with big finds. When he had found a treasure he wanted to move on. Having found Priam¡¯s
treasure he was then ready to leave Troy.
14.
Once more he was determined to dig in a place that Homer had described, and his next intention was to
follow King Agamemnon from his victory at Troy back to his own city of Mycenae in Greece. Mycenae had
been a grander city than Troy; Homer had called Mycenae ¡®rich in gold¡¯ and Schliemann was
always eager to find more treasure.
15.
Archaeologists were already workig at Mycenae. It was not an unknown place, like Hissarlek.
Everyone was hoping to find the graves of its kings. Later Greeks had written about the fortune
buried with them, a fortune that had never been found.
16.
Other diggers were working outside the walls of Mycenae. The ground inside the walls was hard rock,
and most people thought that nobody could be buried in rock; but Schliemann had read a Greek history
describing the grave of Agamemnon inside the walls, and he accepted this as the truth and began drilling
through the rock. As usual, he was lucky.
17.
Twenty-three feet down Schliemann found five graves cut out of the rock, and wonderful gold treasure met his eyes.
The treasure at Troy had indeed been collected and hidden in a hurry. This new fortune had been buried with a great
king and his family for their lasting honor. Everything was gold. Gold was sewn all over the clothes of the royal
family. They wore gold crowns and rings and chains. Two babies were covered completely in gold. There were rare gold
cups and swords with gold handles. The men wore gold shields for their protection and gold masks over their heads.
When Schliemann lifted the finest mask he saw the actual face of the ancient king---his eyes, his mouth, his perfect teeth.
Even the skin of the face was still there. Staring at the perfection of this face was probably Schliemann¡¯s greatest
moment. He sent a message to the then King of Greece in Athens:
18.
¡®I have looked upon the face of Agamemnon!¡¯
19.
No archaeologist has been luckier than Heinrich Schliemann. Treasure seemed to rise out of the earth around him!
But his discoveries were not completely accidental. It was not just by accident that he found Troy and the graves at
Mycenae. He was determined to follow the advice of the poet Homer and in so doing he deserved his great success.
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