Schliemann's 1873 discovery of Priam's Treasure at Troy

July 17, 2026

TürkiyeArtifact

City/town/settlement500 BC - 1 AD

Source: Do These 10 #Artifacts Transform The Trojan War from Myth into Reality? by Inside Archaeology

⚱️ On May 31, 1873, Schliemann uncovered Priam's Treasure at Troy: gold/silver vessels, copper weapons, the "Jewels of Helen" diadems, 8,000+ gold rings, and bracelets. He smuggled it out of the Ottoman Empire. Some was traded back to Istanbul; the rest went to Berlin, then Moscow after WWII. Scholars suspect it may be a composite hoard.

Key facts

On May 31, 1873, during his third excavation campaign at Troy, Heinrich Schliemann uncovered a cache of gold and silver jewelry and vessels
The treasure included gold and silver pitchers and cups, a copper shield, axes, daggers, two golden diadems (dubbed the Jewels of Helen), over 8,000 gold rings, six gold bracelets, and two gold goblets found inside a silver vase
Schliemann smuggled the treasure out of the Ottoman Empire to Germany rather than handing it to authorities
Some of the treasure was later traded to the Ottoman government for permission to continue digging and is now in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum
The remaining treasure was acquired by the Royal Museums of Berlin in 1881 and transferred to the Soviet Union after WWII; the Pushkin Museum in Moscow admitted possessing it in 1994
The Troy layers where the treasure was found date much earlier than the traditional date of the Trojan War and King Priam's reign
Schliemann likely fabricated details about the discovery, and the treasure may be a composite of multiple finds rather than a single hoard