Calder III in 1999 that the most famous burial mask from the Shaft Graves ... The
burial mask NM 624 (Fig. 1) from shaft ... cially with regard to his work at Troy.
HESPERIA
74
THE
(2OO5)
OF
"FACE
299?308
Pages
AGAMEMNON"
ABSTRACT In this article, the author responds to the claim put forward byWilliam M. Calder III in 1999 that the most famous burial mask from the Shaft Graves one that Schliemann took for atMycenae?that generally believed to be the the "face ofAgamemnon '?is a forgery, planted by Schliemann himself. From an it is argued that this theory is analysis of the surviving documentation, not since Schliemann did untenable, particularly originally associate this mask with
The
Agamemnon.
is one of
624 (Fig. 1) from shaft grave V atMycenae icons of the Aegean Bronze Age, recognized
burial mask NM
and it is the most widely identified it as the almost universally believed that Heinrich Schliemann a "face of Agamemnon."1 Any argument that it is forgery planted clandes to be "discovered" during excavation is, tinely in the grave by Schliemann therefore, surely of more than specialist importance. This view was put forward in a relatively recent article byWilliam Calder III,2 awell-known on Schliemann who has shown in various publications that much expert of what The
that
queries
David
he
were
raised
cially with regard to his work at least one major falsehood
1.My
thanks me
encouraging
to for Tracey Cullen to write this article and
considerable
showing
the lengthy period of itswriting and rewriting; original Stephanie Aegean Fellow Classical helpful
?
The
to the reviewers draft
for their
A. H.
of the
Institute
Skennell,
Schliemann
Prehistory at the American Studies comments
American
School
for
Project of
at Athens, on
for very the documenta
School
to
Ludwig;
in Schliemanns
mission
Penny
in Athens
to Katie
on
my behalf; Demakopoulou a copy of her Deltion report (Demako
of Classical
and R. Witte;
Studies
to the American
School
at Athens
for per
Studies
account
to
to Sinclair
fiction. article
career,
by espe
of his excavations,
1 and 2; reproduce Figs. Hood and the Trustees of
the Knossos for
for copies of his article and for drawing to, and providing my attention copies of, the cited articles ofW. Arentzen of Classical
Schliemann's
the
at Troy. Traill has been able to demonstrate
Librarian of the British School for research
of
analyst
poulou 2002); toTobias M?hlenbruch
to
comments;
and on Emil
at Athens,
during
patience
tion
Wilson,
on
in comments
supported
well-known
another
Traill,3
about his early life is romanticizing
claimed
Schliemann
Trust
to
for permission
reproduce Fig. 3; and to Jeff Veitch of the Department of Archaeology, of Durham, for making print for Fig. 3.
versity
Uni the
III, in Harrington 53-55. pp. et al. in 3. D. A. Traill, Harrington 1999, pp. 55-56. 2.W.
M.
Calder
et al. 1999,
at Athens
American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Hesperia ® www.jstor.org
OLIVER
3??
DICKINSON
Figure 1. Burial mask NM the
southern
burial
in shaft
624, from grave
V,
Alison Frantz Photographic Mycenae. American School of Classical Collection, Studies at Athens
in which
the circumstances
the hoard nicknamed
"Priam's Treasure" was
found,4 and he has previously expressed doubts about mask NM 624.5 Calder s arguments were opposed by Katie Demakopoulou, who was Director of the Prehistoric in the National Collection Archaeological at the time of on writing, and further commented by set out In this I criticisms article, my specialists, including myself.6 of this theory in detail. The arguments of Calder and Traill can be ques tioned not only on grounds of their general plausibility and presentation of the archaeological setting (to say nothing of the implications concern Schliemanns in the fraud), but also ing honesty and collusion by Greeks are on a to because they based premise that Iwish dispute, that NM 624 is the mask that Schliemann identified as that of Agamemnon. Iwould ar was in that the NM mask 623 gue, opposition, Agamemnon (Fig. 2), from the same tomb. It follows that if the fine mask NM 624 was not Schlie manns "face of he would have had little motive to forge it. Agamemnon," I first came to the conclusion that NM 623 was Schliemanns "face of course in the of Schliemann for other when, Agamemnon" researching
Museum
inAthens
other
4. Traill 1984; but his suggestions that Schliemann made even
earlier
incorporated the site, purchases, and fakes into "Priam's Trea
on
possibly sure"?as he has
Shaft
finds
Graves?have
also
of the
suggested not been accepted,
to my
knowledge. 5. Calder and Traill
expressed excellent masks
a different
view:
"there
are
reasons
for assuming the In Harrington authenticity."
et al. 1999, pp. 55-56, he goes over the same the idea that ground, introducing it could be "an authentic find from a unaware that tomb," apparently such masks have ever been found
later 1986,
p. 134.
Later, however, Traill (1995, p. 172)
no
in Mycenaean
contexts
except
in the
and that no major tombs, that might such produce a mask, have been found on the acrop olis of Mycenae; in the end, he is non committal. Shaft Graves
of the kind
6. K. Demakopoulou, et al. 1999, pp. 57-58; see others, "Epilogue,"
in Harrington for comments by p. 59.
THE
Figure 2. Burial mask NM the northern
burial
"FACE
OF
AGAMEMNON"
623, from
in shaft
w \
V,
grave
301
Alison Frantz Photographic Mycenae. School of Classical Collection, American Studies at Athens
^
the text of a telegram re purposes, I read in Emil Ludwig s biography to be "to the Minister." in This the translation: "In reads, ported English the last tomb three bodies, one without ornaments. Have to telegraphed a for Nauplia painter, to preserve the dead man with the roundface [my italics]. This one is very like the picture which my imagination formed of
7. Ludwig 1931, p. 208. 8. Dickinson 1976, p. 164. It is remarkable,
in view
of their more
recent
writings, that Calder andTraill (1986, p. 238, n. 26) originally accepted this "It is clear, if rather point: surprising, that Schliemann the mummy regarded and its unprepossessing rather mask, as resem than the mask, Agamemnon See also Traill bling Agamemnon." 1995,
p. 323,
9.Witte p. 189. 10.1 Skennell
n. 1.
2000; Arentzen 2001,
am very grateful for information
See
to on
Stephanie this point.
further http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/ archives/Gennadius/Schliemann/
SchHistory.htm.
Agamemnon long ago."7 Surely, the "round-faced man" could refer only to NM 623. I briefly referred to this conclusion in an article published in it privately to many colleagues, but was 1976, and have since mentioned to return to the of Calder s ar prompted point only by the publication ticle.8 I recently discovered that Reinhard Witte reached independently the same conclusion, and made some trenchant criticisms of Calder's ar as them in a lecture, although, guments when Calder first presented Arentzen
out, Calder and Traill appear to have ignored these completely.9 Here, while not answering Calder point for point asWitte does, it ismy intention to reopen the question with close atten to tion the documentation and history of the excavation. has pointed
criticisms
It has proved impossible to verify the and even the existence wording of the telegram cited by Ludwig; the relevant copybook of Schliemanns "for correspondence was among those taken to Germany by Ernst Meyer safekeeping" during World War II, and apparently lost or destroyed there.10 The text cited by Ludwig is remarkably similar, however, to that of a tele sent to various Greek newspapers, Schliemann and printed on gram by December This in the translation made for Calder and 3-4,1876. reads,
OLIVER
302
three bodies, of which one was found to Nauplion for an artist to come here
"In the last tomb there were
Traill:
DICKINSON
ornaments. I telegraphed to draw the corpse which I referred to in my last telegram. This corpse much the resembles very image which my imagination formed long ago of
without
wide-ruling
Agamemnon."11
could well have used very similar language in dif ferent telegrams, one might conjecture that Ludwig "improved" the text of on Schlie the newspaper telegram, perhaps drawing for dramatic effect manns account of the body, in which the phrase "round face" appears.12 more he may have been given an elabo Alternatively, perhaps plausibly, While
Schliemann
rated version
of the story handed down in the Schliemann family tradi source of the story that Schliemann could also have been the
tion, which wrote in a telegram
These
Agamemnon."
to the king of Greece words
constitute
"I have gazed upon
a factoid,
a statement
no means so often that it is taken to be fact. It is by print later
years
Schliemann,
an
inveterate
romancer,
the face of
impossible
claimed
in
repeated
this,
that in
as he
cer
was his tainly seems to have been claiming by 1889 that mask NM 624 account In his the ex "face of Agamemnon" of (see below). contemporary a more in he records much restrained cavations, however, French, telegram sent on November
and replied to by the king's secretary. In that 28,1876, he discovered the tombs that tradition, as re stated that he had telegram as to claimed Cassandra, belonging Agamemnon, ported by Pausanias, immense and that these contained and their companions, Eurymedon, treasures, all of which he was giving to Greece.13 In any event, the refer ences
to
summoning
an artist
that
are found
in the
telegrams
sent
to news
can be no doubt are very papers significant; there that Schliemann is referring there to the making of a painting of the sup burial found in the north of grave V (Fig. 3), a figure posedly mummified whose face was covered by NM 623. and "to the Minister"
it is appropriate to insert a brief account of the excavation of was the First Grave, for In V. Schliemanns grave terminology, grave V upon removing three of the grave stelae that he had found together in late Here
the circular wall of slabs that he had originally taken for August within an and tombstones, "agora," he discov subsequently believed to enclose ered the mouth of a shaft cut into the rock. This discovery took place on October 25,14 but for a long time more effort was put into other excava 9 that he began to concentrate effort tions, and itwas only on November the Grave Circle, to discover the mouths of other graves and find within the first burial, in the grave he called the Second Grave (now grave I), on 13. This grave and others were cleared first, partly because their November burial layers seem to have lain nearer to the surface, and so the grave dis covered first actually came to be excavated last. that there were
in grave V, each laid out with feet to west and head to east, and he apparently excavated them from the west eastward. The central one proved to be without goods, Schliemann
discovered
and he plausibly hypothesized scatter of small items found
three burials
that it had been robbed, thus explaining the the fill of the shaft above. The throughout
southern burial, with mask NM
624, was
cleared next, and then that with
11. Calder andTraill 1986, p. 234. 12. Schliemann 1880, p. 296: "but of the third body, the round all its flesh, had been wonder
face,
with
fully preserved." Emil Ludwig (1881 1948) was a professional biographer, as work has been described
whose vivid
and dramatic
but
sometimes
(see The Columbia
unreliable
Electronic
Encyclopedia, 6th ed., 2005; http:// www.infoplease.com, s.v. Emil Ludwig);
"Encyclopedia," see alsoTraill 1995,
pp. 7-8. S. Skennell (pers. comm.) to writes: approach biogra "Ludwig's was and literary-artistic consciously phy but he he avoided references, scholarly did have
access
more to considerably than sur documentation
first-hand vives
today, Schliemann
as well swidow Skennell
daughter."
as contact and believes
that Schliemann
possible an alternate, that
more
elaborate
with
(I think) that
it is
"encountered account
is now
contained removed
it was lost, either because in one of the books copying or because someone by Meyer
in Schliemann s family told it to him as a oral
piece of (not necessarily tradition." 13. Schliemann
1880,
reliable)
pp. 380-381,
cited in English inTraill 1995, p. 162; see also Harrington
et al. 1999,
p. 52.
14. Calder andTraill 1986, p. 179.
THE
FACE
OF
AGAMEMNON
303
Figure 3. Painting of the northern burial S. Hood
in shaft
grave V. Courtesy and the Knossos Trust; after 1990, p. 117
Demakopoulou
NM
623. The
northern burial, with mask NM 623, attracted considerable interest, because itwas sowell preserved.15 Not only did Schliemann have a painting made of it, he first preserved the body by chemical means and then removed it by cutting into the rock beneath it and excising the whole slab.16A lump of earth, 1.3 x 0.7 m in dimensions, that seemed to be part of this burial was rediscovered in the Athens National Museum some years but revealed small of ago, bone, scraps of gold investigation only fragments and bronze, and a few amber beads.17
It is important to note that Schliemann ended the excavation at Myce nae with this burial and not that covered by mask NM 624, for this point undermines Calder's argument that Schliemann wished to close the exca vations with a spectacular find, i.e., NM 624. in his reports he Although does speak highly of the qualities of this mask, he gives much more space 15. See 16. See
above,
Schliemann
for the fullest 17.
n. 12.
account
Demakopoulou
to the discovery
of the burial with
mask NM 623, which was, indeed, with it lavishly supplied precious goods than the other, although had a less impressive mask and breastplate. The burial with NM 623 had
more 1880, p. 298, of this operation. 2002.
many weapons
associated with
it, including
swords with
decorated
gold
OLIVER
304
DICKINSON
aswell as gold scabbard attachments and other ornaments, three four silver cups and a silver jug (almost certainly from aKnossian gold cups, aMinoan stone chalice. A plain gold breastplate rested on and workshop), hilt-plates,
it seems, there once sat a hexagonal box to which the chest, on which, with animal art had been attached; a long golden decorated golden plates a with of sword band, attached, lay across the loins of the deceased.18 part In contrast, the southern burial, on whose body was found mask NM 624 and the only decorated gold breastplate, was notably poor in precious vessels, having none in gold and only two in silver, together with an ala near baster jug with a gilded bronze rim attachment.19 Many weapons lay however, including a sword with fine gold hilt-plates; on the a as well as mask NM 624 and the gold armband body were, breastplate, and a gold necklace, while many amber beads and other smaller finds were the deceased,
also
associated.20
of these lists includes all of the goods placed with the dead on the occasion of their burial. A great deal more was found in grave V, al was the richest of the graves?that though Calder is incorrect to say that it as to distinction grave IV, correctly noted elsewhere by Traill.21 belongs treasures from the Grave IV also contained far more of the well-known Neither
(e.g., the Siege Rhyton, the "Cup of Nestor," the Lion Hunt Calder claims that no other Mycenaean than grave V.22 Although Dagger) a was contains of what found in grave V (thus ignoring graves tenth grave III and IV), comparable quantities of treasure can be found in those rare cases where graves have survived unplundered.23 There Early Mycenaean Shaft Graves
is nothing suspicious about the quantities of treasure found in graves IV and V, which might suggest that Schliemann "improved" them with addi items excavated elsewhere on the site or dupli tions of his own, whether cates
and
forgeries.
and Traill do not seem to appreciate how rare it is to find intact Greece, nor how unlikely it is that finds like princely burials inMycenaean those in the Shaft Graves would be discovered in the excavation of settle Calder
strata. Indeed, atMycenae levels, which itself, the Early Mycenaean have to be the source of any items supposedly used by Schliemann to enhance the Shaft Grave finds,24 have largely been effaced or covered
ment
would
18. See 306,
1880,
316-317,
andTraill 1986, pp. 254-256 letters XII goods marized
the northern in Karo
and Dickinson
burial,
1930-1933, 1977,
to
sum
product,
for references
with rized
the
southern
in Karo
burial,
1930-1933,
1930-1933,
pp.
166
in style from
an
to
goods summa p. 37, and
main held were
associated
seven
1977, pp. 48-49,
the most
finds. important et al. in Harrington
I summarize 23. Calder,
the most p. 54. For example, contents of the intact cist significant to have the Vapheio tholos, reported
that
arranged
13 precious implements,
as if around
a
14 weapons vessels, and 23 sealstones
(Dickin
"king") pro nine very
four metal sealrings, and glass ornaments sealstones, some form seem to have decorated weapons,
24. There in
were
body, and
the
vessels,
of headgear (Persson 1931, pp. 31-39).
1999,
been
with
10 precious
duced ornate
22. InDickinson
Egyptian vessel (Warren 1969, p. 104). 20. See Schliemann 1880, pp. 295 296, 300-302, 307-308, and Calder andTraill 1986, pp. 256-257 (Times letter XIII),
see also Karo
p. 90; the original report is the while 1889, pp. 136-172), in the Dendra tholos (which pit two burials, but most of the items
Tsountas
168.
p. 49.
adapted
et al.
1999, p. 54;Traill 1995, p. 171. In point of fact, both graves III and IV contained more gold (byweight) than V;
p. 37,
19.This jug (NM 829) was aMi noan
son 1977,
1977, p. 49. in Harrington
21. Calder,
(Times
for references
and XIII),
with
Dickinson
pp. 296 and Calder
Schliemann
308-314,
early date
can be no the doubting one or two items
of all but
found by Schliemann in the Shaft Graves.
The only clear exceptions two Late Psi figurines Mycenaean in grave I. found posedly
are sup
the
of
"face
over
Agamemnon"
by laterMycenaean where
acropolis
305
building
activity, particularly
was
Schliemann
Further,
excavating.
in the area of the the
excavations
at
successors, although far more extensive than Mycenae by Schliemann's to turn have failed his, up anything like the Shaft Grave treasures, either in or settlement strata, apart from Grave Circle B.25 graves It is difficult to see how Schliemann could have inserted awhole col lection of forgeries into his finds without large-scale of his workforce and also of the Greek archaeologists
collusion
on the part
under whose
super or to imagine how he could have had work of he was working, such quality made so quickly. This theory has been criticized by several scholars, who have drawn attention to the difficulty of providing models for the forgeries, ordering them without trace, and leaving any written
vision
in the burial them toMycenae and placing them clandestinely it In be this connection noted that the of which Nestor," may layer.26 "Cup Traill singles out as a potential forgery added to the Shaft Grave mate of Nestor's rial,27would not in fact be a good representation cup as de scribed in the Iliad (11.632-635); that cup h-usfour handles, not two, and bringing
two birds per handle. Train's alternative suggestion, that if the cup is genu ine it is of Late Helladic IIIC date, is extremely implausible, since there is no clear evidence
of gold were being produced at all in the world by then. Its links with material of theMiddle and early Mycenaean Late Bronze Age are much clearer.28 Traill suggests that Schliemann had ample time to plant the mask. He that vessels
writes:
If we
examine
to within
excavated
diary, it is clear that grave V had been or so of the burials 20. by November
Schliemann's ameter
nine full days and nights, Schliemann was certainly capable of finding away of adding the Agamemnon mask to the mud of
Given
grave
V.29
Yet Schliemann had no reason to believe that there were gold burial masks on any of the dead until the on November 28, resumption of excavation when the three masks in grave IV were discovered, as his diary entry shows.30 Two of these show notable points of comparison with NM 624, as has often
been
observed.31 Thus, the time-scale within which Schliemann is far shorter than Traill allows. It is difficult to see
have had towork
would
how the insertion of the mask was
under
could have been achieved when
Schliemann
the constant
Stamatakis, working supervision of Panagiotis of Antiquities, the Director who was assisted from November 28 by sent from Athens, other archaeologists and by a guard of Greek soldiers on the site. Another pressing question is how Schliemann could have found
25. The
original
source
of the
discovered
p. 595; at
"Acropolis Treasure," in 1877 and in Mycenae reported is not Schliemann 1880, chap. XI, not the but was certainly known, prob see itwas found; able grave in which Thomas 26.
1939. See,
in particular,
rington
1995,
et al. 1999,
S. Lapatin, p. 59.
in Har
illustrated
29. Traill,
good
modern
with
figs. discussion.
Harrington
et al. 1999,
30. Calder andTraill 1986, p. 202.
p. 174. The vessel in Schliemann and discussed
is
1880, pp. 235-239. See Davis 1977, 183-186,
in
p. 56.
27.Trailll995,p.l74. 28. Traill 1995,
pp. Masson
also K. D.
148-150,
for a
31. See, e.g., comments by K. Dema in Har and J. G. Younger makopoulou et al. 1999, pp. 57 and 59, rington respectively.
OLIVER
3?6 the exact spot to place the mask the skull).32
(which, as he describes
DICKINSON
it,was found over
at this time evidence that Schliemann regarded the is provided by his choice burial in grave V as that of Agamemnon to chapter X o? of mask NM 623 for the frontispiece Mycenae, where he sets out his argument that the burials in the Shaft Graves are those of Circumstantial
northern
uses an and his murdered Agamemnon image of mask following.33 He NM 624 to head the general account of the excavation of grave V in chap ter IX.34 It also seems noteworthy in his intro thatWilliam Gladstone, toMycenae, to be arguing that the clearly understood Schliemann northern burial in grave V was Agamemnon.35 Schliemann, however, never to in Times his the that he had found Agamemnon, of letters any proclaimed duction
no attempt in the publication with any particular burial.
and he made Agamemnon
of his excavations
to identify
did Schliemann not do this? One can only speculate that he felt Why himself presented with a quandary. In many respects the northern burial seem more appropriate for because of its well-pre would Agamemnon, served state and the generally richer and more spectacular goods associ ated with it; but the southern burial had a much finer mask and breast a Schliemann delib potential contradiction, plate. So perhaps, perceiving erately left obscure the question of which burial he believed to be Agamem seen it as a was richer, and non. He might also have problem that grave IV contained many more elaborate finds, than grave V. To judge from a state ment of Karl Schuchhardt's, by 1889 Schliemann evidently believed that was that of Agamemnon;36 but by that time the burial with mask NM 624 he could quite possibly have confused the details of what was found with burial in his own mind. Certainly, Georg Karo had no doubt which when he wrote his magisterial Schliemann took to be Agamemnon burial as Tobias M?hlenbruch has catalogue of the Shaft Grave finds,37 while, in 1941 that mask himself stated Schuchhardt out, erroneously pointed
which
624 came from the northern
NM
burial.38
For all the spectacular finds that he had made, Schliemann leftMycenae a state of considerable in frustration and never returned.39 The Depart ment
of Antiquities
and Stamatakis
had tried to control his activities closely,
32. Schliemann
1880,
p. 296.
"An der Leiche
33. Schliemann
1880,
p. 333,
seinem
1880,
p. 289,
E. Gladstone,
36. Quoted from
inTraill 1995, p. 297,
Schuchhardt's
when mann
a
remains
autobiography, with Schlie meeting
recalling in July 1889:
that I had
refused
with
Agamemnon, points." 37. Karo
in Schliemann
xxxvii-xxxviii.
pp. xxxi,
1880,
himself places the two
M?hlenbruch
no. 474. 35. W.
"He was
also
to consider
the bearded and on many
1930-1933;
angry
the
mask
des Grabes,
..."
[my italics]. Agamemnon 38. M?hlenbruch 2003, p. 48. earlier on the same page Unfortunately,
no. 473. 34. Schliemann
im S?den
at the wrong ends of grave V, 623 in the i.e., the burial with NM
see p. 37:
M?ller
comments
written
1876:
"Believe
times
at Mycenae.
me,
in a letter
on December I have I had
had
hard
an overseer
me
to continue
at
than
According
furious
that
Troy.... They the work; but
do it" (quoted inMeyer
minate to leave
2000, p. 24.
39. See his Max
that
taken NM
the "face of Agamemnon,"
citingWitte
to be
other
to be
623
notes
I had
Sunday, vember
south and thatwith NM 624 in the though he correctly seems to have Schliemann
a bit better
to his diary November 13
Turk
all beg I wont
1962, p. 95). entry
dated
(actually No seems to 12), Schliemann to the excava have wanted complete to ter tions much earlier: "Wishing
burials
north,
not whom
to 31,
the excavations tomorrow
today
morning"
in order (quoted
inCalder andTraill 1986, p. 191). Calder andTraill (p. 220, n. 188) that this was "mere dramati suggest zation after the fact," but it is hard to see a rationale for this, since this
the
of
"face
Agamemnon"
307
is hardly surprising in view of the fact that he had smuggled "Priam's out of Turkey and had been sued inAthens for its return by the
which
Treasure"
were They surely justified in taking such precau a chafed fiercely against any restraint; he wanted tions, but Schliemann free hand. with the bad weather, This, together completely increasingly is to my mind the most which often made it difficult to find workmen, Turkish
Government.
likely explanation Calder and Traill
on which for his rather abrupt departure from Mycenae, a more sinister It interpretation. characteristically place that the that he of surprising only publication produced
is, perhaps, more the finds atMycenae
was an edited version
of his letters to the Times. This
be seen as another
sign of his frustration, compounded might by the fact in a letter to Emile Burnouf, that, as he rather characteristically commented, Director of the French School of Archaeology, "unfortunately, nothing is mine
except the glory."40 The curious statement made
a local reporter of the news by Argolis on no December that mask NM had 624 mustache41 2,1876, may paper support the possibility that the mask was "improved" during restoration,42 but it is very hard to believe that awhole mustache could have been added. This
alteration would
have to have been made
is clearly visible in the photograph which also appeared in the German
the mustache was
Statement Times
never let alone
in a published in his book. He
Mycenae, the book
see the letter
toM?ller
quoted
by Calder andTraill (1986, p. 227, n. 265), also inMeyer 1962, p. 93.My left as soon
is that he
impression
could,
reasonably
as he
if in a bad mood.
the mask45
40. Quoted in Ludwig 1931, p. 209. 41. Cited by both Traill and et al. 1999, in Harrington Lapatin, pp. 56 and 58, respectively. as a
42. Considered Lapatin, pp. 58-59. 43.
in Harrington
Schliemann
fig. 474; p. 312.
the mask
by possibility et al. 1999,
1880, p. 289, on is discussed
2001, pp. 191-192. argues that the attractive "bloom" on the gold objects,
whose loss through cleaningMahaffy must
have
been
like the other
present
and
goldwork, hardly have been counterfeited a modern is an inter This goldsmith.
for the argument it is but inferential, authenticity, to for Mahaffy refers only specifically
esting mask's
additional
the "bloom"
on
the cups.
did not
of Schliemann impress contemporaries of the British Museum and the Irish scholar J. P.
saw and a actually handled the finds at very early stage and the overenthusiastic of the finds deplored cleaning by the National Mu too would surely have noticed any changes seum's conservators.46 Mahaffy made to the appearance of mask NM 624 between seeing and handling the finds in the National Bank of Greece and seeing them on display in Museum.
doubt
presently available, that mask NM 624 was found in pre circumstances the that Schliemann described. Whatever cisely questions may be raised about Schliemanns general behavior and veracity, and his the indications
on
could
of
to have mask NM 624 dissociated from it is disappointing the "Agamemnon" story, but it seems to me that the conclusion is inescap able. This conclusion has the merit of exonerating not only Schliemann, but a good many people associated with him in one way or another, from the charge of foisting a fraud on the public. Further data may yet come or from corre from Stamatakis's still unpublished diary, unpublished But there seems no reason to doubt, on all spondence of Schliemanns.
also
deplored, NM 624,
versions
who
Mahaffy
No
46. Arentzen
reddish
apparently such as Charles Newton
the National
190. 44.Arentzen2001,p. et al. 45. Calder, in Harrington 1999, p. 55. Arentzen
and British
in 1878, and is discussed in some detail by Schliemann in his not of the Schliemann himself could have had this description piece.43 as Arentzen Stamatakis would have noticed done, for, points out, certainly so any attempt to change the mask's appearance markedly.44 "Indeed, Arentzen makes the point that the "Hohenzollern facial hair" and Winck elmann's Greek nose" that Calder had detected and thought suspicious in
letter, fumed at the delay that forced the on November closure of the excavations
26-27;
at a very early stage, since in used by Schliemann
by
claims
about the circumstances
sure") were made
at Troy,
falsified his discoveries not mask NM
624.
in which
finds
there seems no good
atMycenae
(especially "Priam's Trea reason to suppose that he
by incorporating
forgeries, particularly
308
OLIVER
sur H.
Schliemann,"
DICKINSON
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Arentzen, nation
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Ill,
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memnon'
Oliver Dickinson University
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JHS 104, pp. 96-115. -.
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1931. The Persson, A. W. Royal Tombs near Midea, at Dendra Lund.
Mycenae?Tiryns?Orchomenos.
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einmal
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