Theodor Makridi

Theodor Makridi ( Greek Θεόδωρος Μακρίδης , also Theodore Macridy or Macridy-Bey , * 1872 in Constantinople , † December 1940 in Istanbul ) was a commissioner of the Ottoman antiquities administration and curator of the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul.

Theodor Makridi was born in Constantinople in 1872 as the son of the military doctor Ferid Konstantin Makridi Pascha and trained at the Galatasaray High School. On April 1, 1892, he entered the service of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum , which had been newly founded a year earlier, under the direction of Osman Hamdi Bey , initially as secretary for French. There he stayed for 38 years and also worked under his successor Halil Ethem Bey , since 1923 as Vice Director. In his function as commissioner of the Ottoman antiquities administration, he took part in the Austrian excavations in Ephesus (1897/98, 1902/03, 1905/06), as well as in the German excavations in Baalbek (1900–1902) and Sidon (1902). Makridi became known to the world of research mainly through his participation as a partner of Hugo Winckler in the excavations in 1906–1907 and 1911–1912 in Boğazköy , the relics there being identified as Hattuša , the capital of the Hittite Empire . He distinguished himself there and in other excavations in which he took part on behalf of the museum, above all through his organizational talent and his skills in dealing with local landowners and in the procurement of labor. His collaboration with Winckler, who is often described as difficult, is generally viewed positively.

He also carried out his own excavations, including in Klaros and Notion (1904, 1907). After retiring in 1930, he moved to Athens and was the founding director of the Benaki Museum from 1931 to 1940 . Theodor Makridi died in Istanbul in December 1940 after a brief serious illness.

literature

• Demetra Papanikoala-Bakirtzi et al. a .: Byzantine glazed pottery in the Benaki Museum , Athens 1999, pp. 11-14 (with picture).
• Silvia Alaura: “To Boghasköi!” On the prehistory of the excavations in Boğazköy-Hattusa and on the archaeological research up to the First World War , Berlin 2006.

Web links

• Literature by and about Th. Macridy in the catalog of the German National Library
• biography