Sir Charles Walston | |
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Born | March 30, 1956 New York City, New York |
Died | March 21, 1927 Naples, Italy |
(aged 70)
Nationality | Anglo-American |
Fields | archaeology |
Charles Waldstein, later Sir Charles Walston KBE (March 30, 1856 – March 21, 1927) was an Anglo-American archaeologist.
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Waldstein was born into a Jewish family in New York City, USA, on March 30, 1856. Waldstein was educated at Columbia University (A.M., 1873), and also studied at Heidelberg (Ph.D., 1875). In 1880, he became university lecturer on classical archaeology at Cambridge University, and in 1883 university reader.[1] From 1883 to 1889 he was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum. In 1889 he was called to Athens as director of the American School of Classical Studies, which office he held until 1893, when he became professor at the same institution. In 1894 he was made a fellow of King's College.[1] In 1895 he returned to England as Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge; and he held this chair until 1901. During his stay in Athens he directed the excavations of the Archeological Institute of America at the site of ancient Plataea, Eretria, where he claimed to have unearthed the tomb of Aristotle, the Heraeum of Argos, among other discoveries. Later he formed an international committee to promote the excavation of Herculaneum. He died in 1927.
Besides writing the following the books, Waldstein also published in journals numerous reports on his excavations as well as three short stories under the pseudonym Gordon Seymour which were later released under his own name as The Surface of Things (1899).
He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. Waldstein competed in the military rifle event. His final score and place in the competition are unknown, but his first two strings of 10 shots apiece resulted in scores of 354 and 154. This put him at 508 points halfway through competition, though the rest of the results have been lost.