Alexander Conze

Alexander Conze 1831–1914)

Alexander Christian Leopold Conze (10 December 1831 – 19 July 1914) was a German archaeologist who specialized in ancient Greek art.

He was a native of Hanover, and studied at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin. In 1855 he obtained his doctorate at Berlin as a student of Eduard Gerhard. In 1863 he became an associate professor at the University of Halle,^[1] and from 1869 to 1877, he served as a professor of archaeology at the University of Vienna. In the 1870s, he performed two archaeological explorations at Samothrace (1873 and 1875).^[2]

Alexander Conze at Samothrace

In 1877 he succeeded Karl Bötticher as director of the Berlin Antikensammlung (Collection of Classical Antiquities),^[1] In 1887, he became Secretariat of the German Archaeological Institute.^[3]

In 1878 with engineer Carl Humann, he began excavation at Pergamon in Asia Minor, a project that lasted until 1886. With Wilhelm Dörpfeld, he started a second archaeological dig at Pergamon in 1900. At Pergamon, Conze and Humann uncovered one of the greatest archaeological treasures of Hellenistic civilization, the Pergamon Altar, which today is housed at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

Conze died in Berlin.

Selected writings

• Die Bedeutung der klassischen Archäologie (The importance of classical archaeology). Wien 1869
• Zur Geschichte der Anfänge der griechischen Kunst (The history of the beginnings of Greek art). Wien 1870–1873
• Heroen- und Göttergestalten der griechischen Künste (Heroes and "god-figures" in Greek art). Wien 1874.
• Römische Bildwerke einheimischer Fundorte in Österreich (Roman works locally discovered in Austria). Wien 1872–78

Notes

1. Biography of Alexander Conze @ NDB/ADB Deutsche Biographie
2. Harper's Magazine: (1889-1890), Volume 80 by Harper's Magazine Foundation
3. Dictionary of Art Historians biography

References

• "This article incorporates translated text from an equivalent article at the German Wikipedia".