Alexander Conze

Who was Alexander Conze?

Alexander Christian Leopold Conze was a German archaeologist who specialized in ancient Greek art.

He was a native of Hanover, and studied at the University of Göttingen. In 1863 he became a professor at the University of Halle, 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.

From 1877 until 1887, Conze was director of antique sculpture at the Berlin Museum, and in 1887 become secretary of the German Archaeological Institute.

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.