Mycenae was a Greek town in the late bronze age, situated 90 miles from modern-day Athens. It takes the form of a fortified citadel. In the late 1870s, German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated the ancient Greek city of Mycenae, on behalf of the Greek Archaeological Society. Much of Schliemann's reputation would be built on what he found in Homer, his originally planned excavation site. Schliemann felt he had to rely on two of his assistants to help him locate the lost civilisation of Iliad and the Odyssey. However, Schliemann' greatest discovery was the discovery of the mask of the Greek leader Agamemnon. Schliemann's discovery was accidental, as his original excavation as for Homer, and not Mycenae.
Agamemnon was the leader of the Greeks during the war against the Trojans, but was brutally killed by his wife, Clytemnestra. It was Schliemann himself who discovered the notes, but did not write down or describe any of the facial features of the mask at that time. This could have been in a sense of awe and wanted to live in the moment, or else there are other theories such as Schliemann not even discovering the mask himself.
This has since led to many archaeologists, like William, L. Calder III, to believe that Schliemann actually forged the discovery and placed the mask there himself. Calder III had previously explained that much of Schliemann's early work had been 'romanticizing fiction'. The author, Oliver Dickenson, tells us that Schliemann started with Grave V, and there were 'three bodies' that were laid 'feet to the west, and heads to the east.' The first grave proved to have nothing in it, while trying to make himself believe that the grave had been robbed. In the second grave, he found the mask along with the body. This was now to be the main grave of his excavation. However, it was only a few years previous, in 2001, that a French journal, led by author Wout Arentzen, disproved Calder's theory, deeming it as "improbable that the mask is a forgery, or is slightly altered." He feels that Calder's claims cannot be provided with sufficient evidence to prove it is forged mask or has been tampered with.
As I've said earlier in the essay, Schliemann was not originally looking for the mask. Instead, he was searching her his "beloved Homer" to uncover some of the legends of the region. The mask was discovered in grave v of the excavation. It was solid gold with the face of Agamemnon on the front. The mask was a gift for Agamemnon at his funeral after his murder. To many archaeologists, it remains a mystery and a tragedy.
Though this was seen as a massive discovery, again like I have mentioned, it did not come any short of controversy. In a the early 1990s, an American archaeologist, John Calder III openly criticised criticised Schliemann's work, explaining there was no sufficient evidence that it was he himself that had found it. Calder even went as far as to claim the mask had been forged or stolen. In fact, he even wrote about it. At a conference in Germany in 1997, he delivered a paper on how Schliemann has purposely forged and faked the discovery of the mask, despite having no sufficient evidence of Schliemann actually being involved in any forgery.
Though we know that Schliemann is a notorious liar, there is still very little evidence to prove that the mask is forged or altered. Calder could not get access to examine the mask, as the Greek authorities denied him the proper access to it. However, the Calder and Harrington report had their reasons to be sceptical about the mask. They came up with a theory that Schliemann had indeed came prepared with more than one mask to pass off as his own. Calder thinks that he had also paid off the Ottomans in a bid to excavate the city of Troy.
There may never be any evidence that the mask was forged or even placed intentionally by Schliemann. It can remain a mere accusation or conspiracy theory. One of the big things is that it was still a major find for archaeologists everywhere. Though it was an accidental find, it will go down as one of the biggest accidents in modern history in terms of archaeological discoveries. The mask is now on display in the national museum in Athens, Greece. To this day, there will still be heavy controversy over the mask as to if it really is real or it was planted by Schliemann or one of his team.