(b Madrid, Oct 26, 1856; d Madrid, Dec 30, 1933).
Spanish archaeologist, art historian and writer, brother of Enrique Mélida y Alinari and Arturo Mélida y Alinari. He studied in Madrid, and in 1881 he became an assistant in the department of Archiveros, Bibliotecarios y Arqueólogos at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. In 1884 he was appointed head of the department of Prehistoria y Edad Antigua at the museum. There he began his work on the inventory and cataloguing of items that resulted in the organization and establishment of the Sala de Antigüedades Ibéricas. In the same year he was appointed Director of the Museo de Reproducciones Artísticas, Madrid. In 1899 he became a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de S Fernando and in 1906 was elected a member of the Real Academia de la Historia. His two areas of specialization were those of Classical art and ancient Spain, and in 1906 he was in charge of excavations at Numancia in Soria. As Chairman of the Department of Archaeology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, he excavated in ...