Gustav Körte

Who was Gustav Körte?

Gustav Körte was a German classical archaeologist. He was the brother of philologist Alfred Körte and surgeon Werner Körte.

He studied classical philology and archaeology at the University of Göttingen, then continued his education with Heinrich Brunn at Munich. From 1875 he performed research in Italy and Greece, where he worked was an assistant at the German Archaeological Institute in Athens.

In 1881 he became a professor of archaeology at the University of Rostock, and later served as director of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome . In 1907, upon the death of Karl Dilthey, Körte was appointed chair of archaeology at Göttingen, a position he held until his death in 1917.

In 1900, with his brother Alfred, he began the first excavation at Gordion, an ancient Phrygian city in Asia Minor. In 1904 the two brothers published their archaeological findings in a treatise called Gordion: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabung im Jahre 1900. Also, he conducted significant investigations of the necropoli at Orvieto and Tarquinia.

With Adolf Klügmann, he continued edition of Etruskische Spiegel, a project involving systematic study of Etruscan mirrors that was initiated in 1843 by Eduard Gerhard.