There’s a fascinating article from the Phildelphia Inquirer that highlights just how narrow the distinction between archaeology and looting might be. Back in the 1960’s the University of Pennsylvania bought some intriguing items from an antique dealer who claimed that he was selling gold from Troy.
You see, nearly 150 years ago a German amateur archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann, armed with a copy of Homer’s Iliad, went searching in modern Turkey for the legendary city. He hamfistedly dug through many layers of a mound that had been traditionally thought to be the site of the city and at last turned up a trove of gold, silver, and lapis. Really remarkable stuff.
Without the permission of the Ottoman government Schliemann carted his loot back to Germany and it ended up in a Berlin musuem. And during the invasion of Berlin at the concluding days of World War II in Europe “Priam’s Treasure”, as it was called, disappeared and its disposition was unknown for nearly 70 years. When the folks at Penn decided to buy what the antiquities dealer had to sell, they thought they might be getting some of the stuff that Schliemann had, uh, excavated.
In 1993 the Russian government revealed that the Red Army had absconded with the hoard and it’s now safely ensconced in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow where it will stay, thank you very much. Both the German and Turkish authorities have demanded its return.
That brings up a very interesting question: to whom does “Priam’s Treasure” really belong? Sure, the Russians were looters; so was Schliemann. But the ancient Trojans (or whoever the residents of the place where Schliemann dug up his treasure were) weren’t Turks. The Turks are just one of the many looters. If possession actually is nine-tenths of the law, the Russians’ claims are as good as anybody else’s and Moscow is probably as safe a place as any for what is certainly a world treasure.
Anyway, back to the gold that the University of Pennsylvania bought. We know it’s not something that Schliemann dug up—the Russians have that. But it’s been tested and not only is it stylistically like the stuff at the Pushkin Museum, it’s chemically identical to it and has trace elements that tie it to the site of Schliemann’s dig.
Pictured above are a piece of “Priam’s Treasure” and a piece from the holdings of the University of Pennsylvania. Cool, huh?
