Troiani in Occidente. Heinrich Schliemann e la grande fuga

The figure of Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) continues to remain at the centre of the wider debate on the history of nineteenth-century archaeology and, in particular, on the role of the militant scholar who ranges from field research to the use of the most innovative strategies of communication and scientific dissemination. The figure with a complex personality, whose fame coincides with the success of the extraordinary discoveries made in Anatolia and Greece, today reveals new aspects relating to an early attention to the Prehistory of the Mediterranean; for example, a marked interest in the Etruscan world emerges, which gradually formed starting from the scholar’s first stay in Emilia-Romagna in the spring of 1868, when he came into contact with the Terramare culture. The study of the main pre-protohistoric collections of central-northern Italy contributed significantly to the development of the first interpretative proposals on the materials from Hissarlik/Troia, the exploration of which began in 1871.