Schliemann's excavation of Hissarlik beginning in 1871 was as destructive as it was revelatory — his team blasted through the very Homeric Troy layer he was seeking in order to reach earlier strata, a blunder that still frustrates archaeologists. Gibraltar has issued commemoratives for an eclectic range of historical figures over the decades, and Schliemann fits the pattern: famous, controversial, and just obscure enough to feel like a collector's choice rather than a mass-market subject.
He died in Naples in 1890 before completing work at Mycenae, having smuggled the so-called Treasure of Priam out of Ottoman territory in a fruit basket.
Schliemann's excavation of Hissarlik beginning in 1871 was as destructive as it was revelatory — his team blasted through the very Homeric Troy layer he was seeking in order to reach earlier strata, a blunder that still frustrates archaeologists. Gibraltar has issued commemoratives for an eclectic range of historical figures over the decades, and Schliemann fits the pattern: famous, controversial, and just obscure enough to feel like a collector's choice rather than a mass-market subject.
He died in Naples in 1890 before completing work at Mycenae, having smuggled the so-called Treasure of Priam out of Ottoman territory in a fruit basket.