Without Having Seen the Queen: The 1846 European Travel Journal of Heinrich Schliemann, a Transcription and Annotated Translation

ISBN-13: 9789088900877 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 212 str.

Christo Thanos

Opis

Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890), a shrewd trader and later in life one of the best known archaeologists of the 19th century, made many travels around the world. He recorded his experiences in several diaries. This publication is a transcription and translation of Schliemann's first travel diary: his European journey in the winter of 1846/47. This journey was his first as a commercial trader and through the diary he kept we get to know Heinrich Schliemann more as a tourist and human being than as a trader.

From his new residence in Moscow he travelled to London and Paris and via Berlin back to St. Petersburg. He writes with admiration and amazement about buildings and the emerging industrialization, while indirectly he offers us a glimpse of the poverty and filthiness of that time. He describes his visits to amongst others the theatre, the British Museum, the Champs ElysEes, and the Louvre. Besides the many pleasant experiences, he also mentions negative aspects such as the theft of his hat and the seasickness that plagued him during every one of his sea voyages.

The original diary was written in English and French and for a small part in Italian. "Without having seen the Queen" comprises an introduction to the diary, a transcription of the diary, and a full English translation with annotations. This publication unlocks Schliemann's first travelogue and presents a unique view of his life before rising to fame as the discoverer of Troy.

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.