A
Saxon born in
Schäßburg (Sighișoara), a town in the
Habsburg controlled
Principality of Transylvania (now part of
Romania), Johann Ackner first studied at the college in his hometown. He then went on to study
philosophy at the Reformed College of Hermannstadt and in 1805 in
Wittenberg. However, his studies were interrupted by the
occupation of Wittenberg by the troops of the
French Empire in 1806. Ackner continued his studies in
Göttingen where he heard among others
Christian Gottlob Heyne,
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach,
Johann Beckmann and
Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren. After finishing his university studies, he traveled by foot through large parts of
Germany,
France,
Italy and
Switzerland. After returning to Transylvania, he worked for 13 years as professor of
philology and
archaeology at the school of Hermannstadt. In 1821, the community of
Hermannstadt elected him as priest, which gave him time to follow his studies. He traveled several times between 1832 and 1847 to visit areas of ancient
Roman and
Dacian history, as well as sites of
mineral findings and
petrifactions in Transylvania and neighbouring countries. As a result of these travels, he wrote a series of archaeological tracts and tracts on natural history and collected
Roman Dacian antiquities, coins, petrifactions and minerals. He often accepted visitors from scientific circles in his parish. In 1851, Johann Michael Ackner was elected as member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. In 1856 he initiated the archaeological research at the ancient Dacian town of
Cumidava (now
Râșnov), where the Romans built a
castrum after the conquest of
Dacia. Ackner died in 1862 in
Hermannstadt (Sibiu). ==Works==