Schliemann and the California Gold Rush: The 1850-1852 American Travel Journal of Heinrich Schliemann: A Transcription and Translation

ISBN-13: 9789088902550 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 200 str.

Wout Arentzen; Christo Thanos

Opis

In this second part of The Schliemann Diaries we follow Heinrich Schliemann (the famous 19th century archaeologist, trader and traveller) through his diary on his second journey: his travels to America from December 1850 to March 1853. The original diary was written in English and for a small part in Spanish. This publication is a transcription and translation of Schliemann's travel diary. In 1850 the millionaire Schliemann decided to end his job as trader in Russia and to try his luck in the United States. He travelled via Europe to New York and Washington and then via Panama on to the goldfields in California. He made a second fortune in Sacramento with buying gold dust and with banking. After two years he returned to Europe and got married in St Petersburg. In this diary Schliemann describes his travels from the perspective of a wealthy business man in the mid-19th century and writes about the landscape, his visits to the theatre, the hotels he used, his much discussed meeting with the American president, his lucrative banking business in California, etc. His travels and accommodation weren't always without danger. Schliemann describes in detail the extreme heat and humidity, fatal illnesses, rainstorms, floods, mosquitoes, robbers, murderers and swindlers. Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) was a shrewd trader and later in life he became one of the best known archaeologists of the 19th century for discovering the legendary city of Troy and the golden masks of Mycenae. Schliemann also made many travels around the world and recorded his experiences in several diaries. In this series, all Schliemann's travel diaries will be made available to a wider public by means of a transcription, an English translation and an introduction. These publications will present a new image of the trader and archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann and the world in which he lived.

O autorze

Christo Thanos (1968) studied Prehistory of Northwest Europe at Leiden University. From 2002 to 2010 he was employed at the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency and while working with old archives his interest was aroused in the history of archaeology (in particular the life and work of Glyn Daniel (1914-1986) and Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890)). From 2012 onward Christo is working as archaeological advisor for nine councils in the province of South-Holland. After having occupied himself for a longer period with the Minoan/Mycenaean cultural complex, Wout Arentzen became convinced that quite often the archaeologist and his time are as important for the interpretation of a culture as the archaeological finds themselves. To get a better understanding of this side of the archaeological process he started to study the history of archaeology. It soon became clear that the history of Bronze Age archaeology in the Aegean is directly connected to the history of prehistoric archaeology in Northern Europe. As a consequence Wouts interests have moved from the Aegean to Northern Europe in the last twenty years.Only limited work has been done on the history of archaeology in the Netherlands. Being a Dutchman, it was only natural that this became the main focus of his work.