David A. Traill

Another mendacious hero. Traill tells a great balanced story of one of the greatest archaeologists, setting the facts straight and pointing to the whoppers he told while changing the history of history. From his version of his childhood - that he'd been obsessed with digging up Troy as a boy - to his stuffing his finds with bought, smuggled, and shuffled around goodies - truth played a limited role in his account of himself. He ranks with those great liars - L v d Post, Baron Munchausen, Jonathan Aitken, perhaps T E Lawrence and a recent Prime Minister come to mind - who were also great achievers. Traill is very good at sorting out the blatant from the suspect from the worthy-of-scepticism and generous in pointing to Schliemann's genuine achievements. Most important, that he rescued Homer from legend and put Troy back into history. Occasionally the details of which grave or pile of rubble or hunk of sculpture was found where can be hard to follow; nonetheless overall, an intriguing story with several big personalities,especially the central one.… (meer)