Adrien Prévost de Longpérier

Henry Adrien Prévost de Longpérier (21 September 1816, Paris – 14 January 1882) was a 19th-century French numismatist, archaeologist and curator.

Adrien was the son of Henry Simon Prevost Longpérier, a commander of the National Guard who was later mayor of Meaux from 1840 to 1848.

As such, he welcomed in the Louvre the first Assyrian sculptures arrived in France since Khorsabad, and took a close interest in deciphering the cuneiform script.

His numerous scientific interests include civilizations of America and national antiquities: Longpérier was behind the creation of the Louvre's Musée mexicain (1850) and a member of the commission for the establishment of the National Archaeological Museum in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

In a eulogy read on 14 June 1882 at a meeting of the Société des Antiquaires de France, Longpérier's disciple Gustave Schlumberger said of him that he "had read everything, had complete mastery of all the written sources left to us by Antiquity" and that he knew "all the artefacts that have been found and have accumulated in the great museums and collections of Europe (...) Mr de Longpérier was the last universal archaeologist, having studied all forms of figuration from Antiquity, capable of addressing all the corresponding topics; now there are only specialists.