Sophia Schliemann is a familiar figure. The name readily conjures up a determined young Greek woman, who shared with her older German husband a passion for Homer and archaeology. We see her gamely putting up with the inconvenient realities of living at the site of an excavation — uncomfortable lodgings, often shared with exotic and undesirable fauna, blazing sun, freezing cold, rain and mud at
Mycenae, and the relentless wind and dust of Troy. In recent years we have come to admire a woman who seemed easily to transcend the limitations imposed on her sex by the era and society in which she lived. She commanded groups of workmen at Troy, Mycenae and Orchomenos. Above all, we see her playing a crucial supporting role at the climactic moments of Heinrich’s excavations. At Troy she stood by his side and wrapped up Priam’s Treasure in her shawl. At Mycenae she got down on her hands and knees in the Shaft Graves and extricated the gold jewellery and masks from the mud.