Charles Thomas Newton

Charles Thomas Newton ( born September 15, 1816 in Clungenford, Shropshire, † November 28, 1894 in Westgate -on-Sea, Kent ) was a British archaeologist Classic.

Newton attended Shrewsbury School and studied since 1833 at Christ Church College, Oxford ( BA 1837, MA 1840 ). Here he became friends with John Ruskin. From 1840 to 1852 he worked as an assistant at the British Museum in London. From 1852 to 1860 he was British Vice Consul at Mytilene on Lesbos, 1853/54 in Rhodes, 1860 British consul in Rome. With the re-creation of a separate department for classical antiquities at the British Museum Newton was in January 1861 the first Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities, he retained this position until 1885. On April 27, 1861 he married the painter Ann Mary Severn. From 1880 to 1888 he also taught the first Yates Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology at University College, London University. In 1887 he was awarded the Order of the Bath in the personal ennobled (Sir).

During his stint as an assistant at the British Museum, he worked mainly in the coin collection at this time (1846 ), the Museum also acquired parts of the reliefs from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. During his time as consul in the Aegean Sea, Newton was able to perform numerous excavations on the west coast of Turkey. So he managed to expose parts of 1856-58 the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and send the remaining sculptures to London. 1857-59 he dug in Didyma, where he was able to secure the most archaic seated statues of Branchidai for the British Museum, as well as in Knidos, even here he was able to acquire numerous sculptures for the British Museum. Main purpose of his excavations was the discovery of finds for the Museum, an excavation methodology was alien to him, the documentation of the excavations insufficient. As head of the Department of Antiquities him the expansion of the collection was achieved by the acquisition of several private collections, he could reposition the Elgin Marbles and the sculptures from the Mausoleum. He has published with Samuel Birch the first catalog of the vases of the British Museum ( 1851-70 ) and the catalog of the Greek inscriptions of the Museum ( 1874-90 ).