Christos Karouzos

Christos Karouzos (Greek: Χρήστος Καρούζος; 14 March 1900 – 30 March 1967) was a Greek archaeologist. Born in Amfissa, he was educated at the University of Athens, where he was taught by Christos Tsountas. He joined the Greek Archaeological Service in 1919, where he developed a reputation as an innovator and a moderniser, working to promote the use of the everyday Demotic dialect of Greek against the state-imposed dominance of the artificial, literary Katharevousa dialect. His early postings included work in the museums of Thebes and Volos, and at the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Karouzos travelled to Germany on a Humboldt Scholarship in 1928, and married his former university classmate, Semni Papaspyridi, in 1930. The two frequently collaborated in archaeological and museum work. During the Second World War, he worked to conceal Greek antiquities from Axis forces and resigned his membership of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens in protest of the German occupation of Athens. He was made director of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens in 1942, declined the directorship of the Archaeological Service in 1944, and was forced to resign from the service in 1948, due to suspicions that he held communist beliefs. He returned in 1949 and directed the National Archaeological Museum until shortly before his death in 1967.