Athanasios Rhousopoulos

Athanasios Rhousopoulos
Αθανάσιος Ρουσόπουλος
Born	Athanasios Sergiou Rhousopoulos 1823 Vogatsiko, Ottoman Empire
Died	13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1898 (aged 74–75) Athens, Kingdom of Greece
Known for	Antiquities collecting Antiquities crime
Spouse	Louisa Murray
Children	9
Academic background
Education	Leipzig University Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin University of Göttingen
Thesis	De Zamolxide secundum veterum auctoritatem (1852)
Academic work
Institutions	University of Athens (1855–1884)

Athanasios Sergiou Rhousopoulos (Greek: Αθανάσιος Σεργίου Ρουσόπουλος) (1823 – 13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1898^[a]) was a Greek archaeologist, antiquities dealer and university professor. He has been described as "the most important Greek collector and dealer between the 1860s and 1890s",^[2] and as "a key figure in the early days of archaeology in Greece."^[3]

Born in 1823 in a region of northern Greece under the Ottoman Empire, Rhousopoulos was educated in Constantinople and Athens before receiving financial support from the antiquarian and philanthropist Konstantinos Bellios to pursue formal archaeological training in Germany. In 1853, he returned to Greece to work as a teacher, before being appointed to a post at the University of Athens in 1855. He wrote and translated numerous educational works concerning Greek history, culture and archaeology.

Rhousopoulos played a significant role in the foundation of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, and was a prominent member of the Archaeological Society of Athens, itself an important fixture in Greek archaeology during his lifetime. He excavated in Athens's Theatre of Dionysus as well as in the Kerameikos, where his 1863 discovery of the Grave Stele of Dexileos helped to confirm that the site was that of Athens's ancient cemetery. He attracted controversy in the early 1870s for his criticism of the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, and of Schliemann's claim to have found artefacts from the Trojan War at the site of Hisarlik.

Rhousopoulos was renowned for his collection of ancient artefacts, particularly coins, which was considered among the most impressive private collections in Greece. He was also a prominent dealer of antiquities, trading regularly with collectors, museums and society figures from around the world, and heavily involved in the illegal excavation and trafficking of ancient artefacts. From 1865, his activities came to increasing public and official attention, particularly that of the Ephor General, Panagiotis Efstratiadis; Rhousopoulos was fined after his illegal sale of the Aineta aryballos to the British Museum, and expelled from the Archaeological Society.

Dismissed from his academic post in 1884 for reasons that remain unclear, Rhousopoulos died in 1898. He made significant contributions to Greek epigraphy, and was a major source of artefacts for several of the world's largest museums. In the twenty-first century, study of his extensive correspondence, particularly with the British scholars George Rolleston and Arthur Evans, has provided important evidence for the practice of archaeology and antiquities trading in nineteenth-century Greece.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).