Calvert, Frank

Frank Calvert ( Eng. Frank Calvert ; 1828-1908) - British and American consul on the Ottoman lands of the eastern Mediterranean, amateur archaeologist . He began excavating Gissarlyk (the location of the ancient city of Troy ) 7 years before the arrival of Schliemann .

Frank was the youngest of 7 children in the family of James Calvert (1778–1852) and Malta, his wife Louise Ann Lander (1792–1867). By nature, Frank was modest and shy; he remained single all his life. Despite this, throughout his life he had a keen interest in the Homeric Troy, which he, unlike many contemporaries, considered a real city, not a fiction.

As early as 1822, Charles Maclaren pointed to Hissarlyk as the possible location of Troy. ^[2] In 1847, Frank's brother, Frederick, acquired an 8 km² farm in Akcha Koy ; The farm territory included part of the Gissarlyk hill. Since 1852, Frank began to help his brothers Frederick and James in consular affairs, writing correspondence in English and French on their behalf.

In 1856 and 1858, Frank served as the British consul instead of Frederick. From 1874, Frank also held the unpaid position of Honorary Consul of the United States until the end of his life. From time to time, he also participated in mixed European-Turkish tribunals.

Along with diplomatic work, Frank Calvert conducted excavations in his section of the Gissarlyk hill, where, according to his calculations, Homer Troy should have been located. After the Crimean War, he shared his thoughts with Heinrich Schliemann. Schliemann carried out much larger (and at the same time extremely sloppy) excavations in 1873-1890 and published their results, in connection with which he received the laurels of the discoverer of Troy. Calvert did not dispute Schliemann’s discovery, but argued with him about ownership of some of the properties found.