Ludwig Ross

Ludwig Ross
Lithograph of Ross in 1845, by Nicolas Eustache Maurin
Born	(1806-07-22)22 July 1806 Bornhöved, Duchy of Holstein
Died	6 August 1859(1859-08-06) (aged 53) Halle an der Saale, Kingdom of Prussia
Occupation	Archaeologist
Known for	Ephor General of Antiquities of Greece; restoration of the Temple of Athena Nike.
Title	Ephor General (1834–1836)
Spouse	Emma Schwetschke ​ (m. 1847)​
Relatives	Charles Ross (brother)
Academic background
Education	Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel
Doctoral advisor	Gregor Wilhelm Nitzsch
Academic work
Institutions	Archaeological Museum of Nafplion Greek Archaeological Service University of Athens University of Halle
Notable students	Panagiotis Efstratiadis
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Ludwig Ross (22 July 1806 – 6 August 1859) was a German classical archaeologist. He is chiefly remembered for the rediscovery and reconstruction of the Temple of Athena Nike in 1835–1836, and for his other excavation and conservation work on the Acropolis of Athens. He was also an important figure in the early years of archaeology in the independent Kingdom of Greece, serving as Ephor General of Antiquities between 1834 and 1836.

As a representative of the "Bavarocracy" – the dominance by northern Europeans, especially Bavarians, of Greek government and institutions under the Bavarian King Otto of Greece – Ross attracted the enmity of the native Greek archaeological establishment. He was forced to resign as Ephor General over his delivery of the Athenian "Naval Records", a series of inscriptions first unearthed in 1834, to the German August Böckh for publication. He was subsequently appointed as the first professor of archaeology at the University of Athens, but lost his post as a result of the 3 September 1843 Revolution, which removed most non-Greeks from public service in the country. He spent his final years as a professor in Halle, where he argued unsuccessfully against the reconstruction of the Indo-European language family, believing the Latin language to be a direct descendant of Ancient Greek.

Ross has been called "one of the most important figures in the cultural revival of Greece".^[1] He is credited with creating the foundations for the science of archaeology in independent Greece, and for establishing a systematic approach to excavation and conservation in the earliest days of the country's formal archaeological practice. His publications, particularly in epigraphy, were widely used by contemporary scholars. At Athens, he educated the first generation of natively trained Greek archaeologists, including Panagiotis Efstratiadis, one of the foremost Greek epigraphers of the 19th century and a successor of Ross as Ephor General.