Christos Tsountas

Christos Tsountas ( Greek Χρήστος Τσούντας ; * 1857 in Stenimachos , Ottoman Empire , today Bulgaria ; † June 9, 1934 in Athens ) was a Greek classical archaeologist . He is considered to be the co-founder of scientific research into the prehistory of Greece and the "father of Cycladic research".

Christos Tsountas attended school in Athens and then began studying engineering at the Technical University of Hanover , but quickly switched to studying classical archeology and classical philology at the universities of Munich and Jena . He received his doctorate in Jena in 1880.

In 1883 Tsountas Ephoros became part of the Greek Antiquities Service. In this function he began to examine "classical" sites, including from 1884 the Acropolis of Athens and in 1884 the Strait of Salamis . After Heinrich Schliemann died in 1886, Tsountsas followed him as head of the excavations in Mycenae . Several simultaneous excavations also produced numerous significant results. The investigations carried out in Laconia from 1880 to 1891 brought, among other finds, the discovery of the Mycenaean dome tomb of Vaphio . In 1889/90 he led the first systematic excavations in the Cycladic settlements and necropolises of Sifnos , Paros , Syros , Andiparos and Amorgos . Between 1889 and 1903 he also excavated in Sesklo and Dimini , the important prehistoric settlements in Thessaly . Tsountsas not only dug here, but through the publication of the results was also able to demonstrate for the first time an important Neolithic culture on Greek territory. Furthermore, after the epochal results of the excavations by Schliemann, himself and other researchers, he tried for the first time a synthesis of the knowledge about the Mycenaean culture . The resulting work was required reading and standard work for several generations of Greek researchers. In 1904 Tsountsas moved from the Antiquities Service to the University of Athens , where he held the archaeological professorship. From 1909 to 1911 he was succeeded Panagiotis Kavvadias General of the Archaeological Society at Athens , followed him back Panagiotis Kavvadias after. He retired in 1924 and then taught again at the newly founded University of Thessaloniki in 1926/27 . In 1926 he was a constituent member of the Academy of Athens .

literature

• Diamantis Panagiotopoulos : Tsountas, Christos. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 1234 f.