Caspar Reuvens

During the reign of Napoleon, Paris received art from all the conquered nations and Reuvens studied with the famous antiquarian Vivant Denon, the director of the Louvre Museum.

It has been argued that this experience in Paris would prove an inspiration for Reuvens' later efforts to establish a Dutch national museum for archaeology.

Reuvens continued his childhood and teenage interest in the ancient world by studying and writing commentaries on Greek and Latin literature.

At this point the Minister of Education wrote a letter to King William I suggesting a professorship of archaeology for Reuvens, as the young man showed a keen interest in antiquities.

Immediately upon starting his teachings in Leiden, Reuvens boldly requested a new building for the collection, the creation of an archaeological library and had several other demands for the trustees.

With government support he began gathering various collections from outside Leiden as well, and occasionally he received personal gifts for the archaeological cabinet.

Some organizations did not mind parting with their antiquities, since they were often an alien group of objects among larger collections of for example biological or geological specimens.

During the same period a long friendship with Major Jean Emile Humbert began, and the two worked together on the research and publication of ancient Carthage.

Sending his reports and catalogs of collections on sale directly to Reuvens, the co-operation of the two men would bring important additions to the National Museum.

In 1830 Reuvens published parts of a papyrus in the Leiden collection, and for that is credited with beginning the scholarly study of papyri.

The whole project was hampered by bad weather and budgetary problems, but Reuvens demonstrated meticulous recording methods and invented techniques for field archaeology along the way.

Reuvens findings would not be published until 1923 when the site had been revisited by archaeologist and RMO director Jan Hendrik Holwerda.