Schliemann and the California Gold Rush

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.

After many years devoted to the study of the Minoan/Mycenaean cultural complex, Wout Arentzen became convinced that the archaeologist and his times are often as important for the interpretation of a culture as the archaeological finds themselves. To gain a better understanding of this aspect of the archaeological process, he began to study the history of archaeology. It soon became clear to him that the history of Bronze Age archaeology in the Aegean is directly linked to the history of prehistoric archaeology in Northern Europe. As a result of this, the focus of his interests has shifted from the Aegean to Northern Europe over the past twenty years.Relatively little work has been done on the history of archaeology in the Netherlands. Since Wout is Dutch, it was only natural that this field gradually came to occupy most of his attention.In 2015 Wout received the Heinrich Schliemann Medal for his contribution to the study of Schliemann and his support for the Schliemann Museum and the Heinrich Schliemann Gesellschaft in Germany.Publications:- Without having seen the queen. The 1846 European travel journal of Heinrich Schliemann: a transcription ans annotated translation, by Thanos & Arentzen (2012)- Schliemann and the Californian Goldrush. The 1850-1852 American travel journal of Heinrich Schliemann: a transcription by Thanos & Arentzen (2014)- Schliemanns dramatische Reise im Jahre 1841 by Arentzen (2011)- Schliemann en nederland. Een leven vol verhalen by Arentzen (20).