Wilhelm Dörpfeld (26 December 1853 – 25 April 1940) was a
German architect and
archaeologist, a pioneer of
stratigraphic excavation and precise graphical documentation of archaeological projects. He is famous for his work on
Bronze Age sites around the
Mediterranean, such as
Tiryns and Hisarlik (the site of the legendary city of
Troy) where he continued
Heinrich Schliemann's excavations. Like Schliemann, Dörpfeld was an advocate of the historical reality of places mentioned in the works of
Homer. While the details of his claims regarding locations mentioned in Homer's writings are not considered accurate by later archaeologists, his fundamental idea that they correspond to real places is accepted. Thus, his work greatly contributed not only to scientific techniques and study of these historically significant sites but also renewed public interest in the
culture and
mythology of
ancient Greece.