Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1995 - 68

sisting his brothers Frederick and
James, and becoming the United
States consular agent there in 1874.
His passion for archaeology, however, would remain
paramount
throughout his life.
The Calvert family had three
residences: an Italianate mansion at
the Dardanelles; a villa overlooking
the Hellespont, the narrowest point
of the Straits; and a rambling farmhouse at Thymbra on the plain of
Troy. Several early travelers published descriptions of the houses
and Frederick's hospitality, commenting on pleasing musicales performed by Calvert women and noting the family's rich collection of
artifacts from the region, most of
which had been excavated
by
Frank. Scholars, lords, and princes
sought out Frederick for diplomatic
services and his younger brother,
Frank, for information on Trojan
topography. Frank's early explorations had gained him a reputation
as an expert guide, and he would
take visitors to his favorite sites.
From travelers' accounts and
Calvert's own published articles, a
picture emerges of the Troy area as
a vast terra incognita. Indeed, only
one excavation in the region predated those of Calvert. Choiseul de
Gouffier, French ambassador to the
Sublime Porte (Constantinople),
had sponsored a dig on the Sigeum
promontory near the Hellespont,
believed to have been where the invading Greeks beached their ships.
Since Frederick and Frank owned
thousands of acres of farmland on
the plain of Troy, Frank could excavate where and when he pleased.
Just when he began to dig is not
known. In 1853 Charles Thomas
Newton, British Vice Consul at
Mytilene and future Keeper of
Greek and Roman Antiquities at
the British Museum, visited the
area and recorded Calvert's early
and inconclusive probing of Hanay
Tepe, located near the family farmhouse.
Calvert escorted Newton to a
bluff known as Bali Dagh overlooking a bend in the Scamander River
and the plain of Troy, to view the

site of Pmarba§i (Bunarbashi),
which most scholars of the day associated with Homer's Troy. Newton was skeptical and wrote in his
journal that the identification was
not accurate, since the potsherds
found there did not resemble those
from the Homeric site of Mycenae.
When Calvert later dug at the site,
he turned up only pottery from the
fourth century B.C., which confirmed Newton's impressions and
encouraged Calvert to look elsewhere.
Calvert also escorted Newton to
the mound at Hisarlik, identified in
1812 as the site of the Roman city
of Ilium Novum and believed by
some scholars at the time to be
Homer's Troy. Newton noted that
"the remains visible above the
ground are very trifling," but suggested that "irregularities of the
ground" indicated that "extensive
remains were hidden beneath the
soil." Perhaps fueled by Newton's
skepticism about the remains at
Pinarba§i, Calvert switched allegiance to Hisarlik, subsequently
purchasing thousands of additional
acres of nearby land. According to
a letter written to Schliemann some
years later, Calvert had intended to
excavate the mound, funding his
work with proceeds from the sale of
coins and sculptures in his possession.
Calvert's letters to Newton discuss his first attempts to excavate
Hisarlik. In September 1863 he
wrote that he had dug a trench
"twelve feet long by eight feet
broad and three deep." In it he had
found "a number of fluted columns,
a capital, an inscription,
and
friezes... and whilst clearing out
brushwood from the theatre, a torso, and two fore-paws of a lion...
just below the surface." Hoping to
entice Newton into persuading the
British Museum to sponsor fieldwork at Hisarlik, he offered the museum the opportunity to excavate
on his land, retaining all rights to
what was found for £100 if he
could have "direction of the excavation, or that my name might be
attached to any discoveries made."

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Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1995

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