The book introduces into the scientific circulation unknown archival materials, important primarily for research in the field of medieval archaeology. These sources refer to the works on archaeological sites that were carried out in the...
moreThe book introduces into the scientific circulation unknown archival materials, important primarily for research in the field of medieval archaeology. These sources refer to the works on archaeological sites that were carried out in the last quarter of the 19th century, on the lands within the present borders of Poland. The materials come from the former archive of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, nowadays kept at the Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia. This is the first of two planned books devoted to this issue.
The monograph consists of introduction and five chapters. The first chapter – “History of the Imperial Archaeological Commission”, for the first time in Polish archaeological literature presents briefly and objectively the history of the IAC from its foundation in 1859 to the reform of 1919, when the Russian Archaeological Commission was transformed into the Academy for the History of Material Culture. The Commission was the first state archaeological institution in Eastern Europe running a centralized scientific archive. The chapter provides characteristics of all employees of the IAC, its corresponding members and supernumerary members.
Particular attention is paid to the imperial decree of 1889 which confirmed the authority of the Commission to issue the excavation permission (the so called Otkryty List) and to control the restoration of architectural monuments and monumental paintings. The multifaceted field activities of the Commission in Europe and Asia, which were not limited to the Classical Antiquity and Scythian archaeological sites of the Northern Black Sea region, are described. The authors also characterize IAC’s relations with the Imperial Hermitage, the Historical
Museum in Moscow and archaeological societies.
In the second chapter – “The Cultural Heritage of Poland and the Imperial Archaeological Commission”, based on the materials of the IAC archive, an overview of its activities in the field of studying and preserving the cultural heritage of Poland is given. This activity had three directions: the restoration of architectural monuments and paintings, the accumulation of
information about accidental archaeological finds and the so called treasures, the issuance of permits for archaeological research and control over their conduct in the form of a mandatory field report. The archive contains numerous photographs made by Polish photographers and unique details of the life of Polish society in the late 19th–early 20th centuries.
Contrary to popular belief, IAC actively participated in the protection of Polish architecture, including medieval monuments: the castles in Łęczyca, Czersk and Bodzentyn, monasteries in Ląd and Sulejow, Catholic churches in Wysocice, Sandomierz and in the Lublin Castle. The Commission tried also to save the wooden church of the 18th century in Myszyniec. It participated in the restoration of the Orthodox church in Supraśl, but also in the repair of Orthodox wooden churches of the 17th–18th centuries in the Lubelskie and Podlaskie
voivodships. At the turn of centuries, IAC actively cooperated with the Society for the Protection of Antiquities in Warsaw.
The archives of the Commission also contain information about nearly 900 monetary hoards and single finds related to the culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, about 300 of which originate from the territory of modern Poland. The authors characterize the ways of describing coin hoards in the late 19th–early 20th centuries and emphasize the importance of the IAC archive in reconstructing their composition. According to the practice of that time, the hoards might be returned to the owner, sent to be melted down at the St. Petersburg Mint, or – if deposited in museums – distributed between various collections and disassembled.
In the archive of IAC the materials concerning archaeological researches on the territory of Poland are not numerous. Polish archaeologists rarely applied to the IAC for excavation permits, mainly due to political and legal reasons. However, Russian researchers who carried out excavations in Poland, for example Dmitri Samokvasov (1843–1911), also did not apply for permits to St. Petersburg, thereby emphasizing the priority of research freedom over the state control. Nevertheless, the preserved archives are a significant supplement to our knowledge of many monuments and sites, but also to the history of archaeological research in Poland.
The third chapter – “Early Medieval Burial Site in Sejkowice” (Gostynin district, Mazowieckie voivodship), contains the analysis of three archaeological finds from 1878, including an accidentally found burial ground. In response to the request from the IAC – made after a press note about the find – drawings of two spearheads and a ceramic vessel with a brief description of the circumstances of the discovery were sent by Warsaw governor. These preserved archival materials allow us to assume the existence here of graves in stone constructions of the 11th–12th centuries, possibly on the site of an earlier, prehistoric cremation burial ground.
The fourth chapter – “Nikolai Avenarius and his archaeological research on Polish lands”, for the first time gives a complete picture of the research of the amateur archaeologist N. Avenarius (1834–1903), mainly in Drohiczyn (Podlaskie voivodship) and in its surroundings in 1886–1894. The significant element of the study is the comparison of the materials of the IAC archive with the letters of N. Avenarius to D. Samokvasov, which also contains important
information about the finds. The authors were able to trace the evolution of the researcher’s views on the ethnicity of local people buried in mounds and graves in stone constructions, which he initially associated with the Baltic Yotvingians. In this chapter, the problem of small lead seals of the Drohiczyn type in their changing interpretation by Avenarius and his contemporaries (K. Tyshkevich, N. Leopardov, P. Efimenko, E. Solovev. I. Luchitsky, K. Bolsunovsky). In the archive of IAC, it was possible to identify several dozens of previously unpublished images of small lead seals collected by N. Avenarius between 1886 and 1888, which were briefly analysed in the context of finds from Drohiczyn and recently published small lead seals from Czermno in Lubelskie voivodship. In total, the IAC received 719 small lead seals out of more than 1835 such finds from collection of N. Avenarius. Also in the archive were recorded drawings and photographs of 250 other archaeological objects from Drohiczyn and vicinity, some of which housed in the State Historical Museum in Moscow. The chapter provides a brief description of these finds. Attention is drawn to a significant number of small copper icons from the 18th–19th centuries, testifying to the spread of the cultural influence of Russian Orthodoxy here.
The fifth chapter – “Louis de Fleury – a collector of antiquities from Kempa Giełczynska”, is focused on the analysis of materials from the excavations carried out by Count L. de Fleury (1828–1909), the well-known antiquarian recognized by his collections, mainly of Neolithic finds. In 1892 he excavated about 20 burials with stone settings on three cemeteries: Kokoszki,
Kotowek (Rostki Małe) and Ruś, all on the Kolno Upland in northeastern Mazovia. The artefacts from the excavations by L. de Fleury have perished. Until now, the results of his works were known mainly from Aleksandr Spitsin’s summative article on the Lithuanian
barrows, published in 1925. Preserved in the IAC archive the Russian translation of L. de Fleury’s report with his illustrations is today main source of knowledge about the Early Medieval cemeteries on the Kolno Upland. The analysis of the necropolises, the funeral rite and artefacts was carried out by the authors against the background of contemporary sites in Mazovia and Podlachia regions. The investigated burials can be dated to the last third of the 11th – the second half of the 12th century. Further analysis of the materials from the excavations of L. de Fleury in the archaeological context of the region will make possible to put forward and substantiate hypotheses about cultural interactions and local migrations in these lands in connection with the political history of the region, as well as to propose new hypothesis on circumstances of geographical spread of graves with tone settings.
In the second part of the monograph the authors plan to focus on analyses of archival materials related to the so called hoards and stray finds and on archaeological research in Poland at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It will also contain the main conclusions in
the field of archaeology and history of the medieval Polish-Rusʹ borderland, basing on the archive of the Imperial Archaeological Commission.
