In 1863 Heinrich Schliemann (1822-90) liquidated his business interests and retired. Frank Calvert (1828-1908) apparently suggested to Schliemann that Hissarlik in northwest Turkey was the site of ancient Troy, a theory first proposed by Charles Maclaren (1782-1866). In 1869 Schliemann published his Ithaka in which he asserts that Homer was describing real places. In 1871 he received permission to dig at Hissarlik. Problems with the Turkish government forced Schliemann to abandon Turkey and to excavate at Mycenae in the northeast Peloponnese. His work and publications attracted Wilhelm Dorpfeld (1853-1940). In 1884 Schliemann returned to Tiryns, where he had dug in 1876, now with Dorpfeld help-ing maintain better archaeological standards. Schliemann’s great contribution to archaeology was his approach. He set out to prove the historicity of the Trojan War (c.1200 BC) and so turned archaeology into a science in which hypotheses are formed and then tested. This went against the practice at the time, which amounted to little more than treasure hunting.
It had long been known that Knossos had once existed. In 1878 Minos Kalokairinos (1843-1907), a native of Crete, unearthed two of the palace’s storerooms. When the island was declared independent in 1900, Sir Arthur John Evans (1851-1941) purchased the site and began his excavation. By the end of 1903 almost all of the palace had been uncovered and work began on the surrounding area. The huge ruin had a maze-like quality and he dubbed the people that had inhabited it as Minoans. Over 3000 clay tablets had been found during excavations and he later discovered that the language had two scripts, later known as Linear A and Linear B. The latter was deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris (1922-56).
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