• Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    Schliemann dug straight through the actual Troy that he was looking for, destroying a huge chunk of it to get to an even earlier settlement in the strata beneath that he decided to call Troy. His “method” was essentially do dig a trench all the way to the bottom, assuming that the oldest level would be Troy. (Yes…he was that stupid).

    It was only afterwards that other, actual archaeologists placed the proper stratum that the homeric Troy would have existed in. And by then, much of it was already obliterated.

    I majored in Near Eastern Classical Archaeology with a focus on the Bronze age (Hittites, Minoans, Mycenaeans, Babylonians, etc…), and lesson one may as as well have been titled “Why Heinrich Schliemenn was an asshole.”

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      This is extremely true and worth saying as you have.

      Yeah, I’m not an subject matter specialist? expert? as you are, but yeah… errybody hates Schliemenn, because his idiotic site practices very likely destroyed a whole lot of … pretty important history.

      • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        I’m far from a specialist. Not only is my knowledge about 25 years or so out of date, I ended up leaving with half a year left on my degree because not only did a divorce make me unable to afford to continue, but some guys from the middle east crashed into the World Trade Center and ignited a war that shut down any actual archaeological work in the most of that part of the world for a decade or so.

        So rather than specialist, I’m a guy that has 3.5 years of a 4 year Bachelor’s degree, and then went off to take a bunch of computer certificates instead. lol.

        Still regret never going back to finish it once the middle east settled down again.

        • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 days ago

          Well… middle east is never settling down again, in our lifetimes, so… best make your peace with it, if you can.

          I still appreciate 3.5 years of out of date study.

          3.5 more years than me!