The "Treasure of Priamos"

Noble vessels of gold, silver, and copper. Metal implements and weapons. In the largest silver vessel: gold jewelry, including two diadems, a narrow headband, four earrings, 8750 small buttons, and rings. All this belongs to the famous treasure of Priamos, which Schliemann discovered in Troy on May 31, 1873.

In his excavations, Schliemann was guided by ancient writings, especially Homer's heroic sagas. He saw one building as the residence of King Priamos. In the immediate vicinity of this "House of Priam" Schliemann discovered the treasure, which is said to have been in a wooden box. This must also have belonged to Priamos and was given its place in the war for Troy by Schliemann.

Researchers have long refuted this scenario. The find belongs to the second oldest layer of the mound (probably "Troy II Middle"), around 2500 B.C.. If indeed a king Priamos once ruled in Troy, which is purely speculative, then at the earliest in the 2nd millennium B.C. Today we also know that the objects were in a stone construction. Did Trojans hide belongings there or did they sacrifice the objects during a "foundation stone laying"?

Fearing that the Ottoman authorities might seize and divide the find, Schliemann did not report it. However, he was obliged to do so according to the ferman (excavation permit of the sultan). He brought the treasure secretly to Athens, where he lived at that time. Only then did he announce the find and attributed a prominent role in the discovery to his wife. Contrary to this account, she had been in Athens at the end of May 1873. The Ottoman government successfully sued Schliemann for a payment of 10,000 gold francs. He remitted 50,000 gold francs and also ceded finds. He donated the treasure itself, along with other objects from Troy, "to the German people." From 1882 the public could admire the finds in Berlin.