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The level of culture in any country is measured by whether it runs its own excavations in Egypt.

Kazimierz Michałowski Lipinska Michalowski Ksiazka:Layout 1 2007-09-19 10:45 Page 20 Lipinska Michalowski Ksiazka:Layout 1 2007-09-19 10:45 Page 21

Jadwiga Lipińska

KAZIMIERZ MICHAŁOWSKI 1901-1981 Lipinska Michalowski Ksiazka:Layout 1 2007-09-19 10:45 Page 22 Lipinska Michalowski Ksiazka:Layout 1 2007-09-19 10:45 Page 23

Kazimierz Michałowski 1901-1981

In winter 1919 Kazimierz Michałowski, bution to the study of ancient portraiture, then a young officer cadet, was granted was awarded the prestigious George Parrot three months’ leave from the Polish army to price of the Académie des Inscriptions et begin university studies. He chose the Belles-Lettres. Philosophical Faculty of Lvov University The year after receiving his veniam and embarked on what was to be a long and legendi in 1929 he started at Warsaw Uni- fruitful scholarly career, taking courses in versity as assistant professor, organizing and literature, philosophy, art history and later then heading the university’s first Chair of in classical archaeology. He spent a year Classical Archaeology in 1931. Grandiloquent traveling to Vienna, Paris and several centers as it sounds, it was no more than a single in Italy before finally receiving his PhD de- small room at the university. He became gree in 1926. For three years he worked as Professor ordinarius in 1939. an assistant at his alma mater before leaving Michałowski made it his prime ob- on a modest ministerial grant to continue jective to establish Mediterranean archaeol- post-graduate studies at the universities ogy as a regular branch of learning in Poland and archaeological institutes in Berlin, Hei- and he spent a lifetime working toward this delberg, Münster, Paris, Rome and Athens. goal. Step by step, he made it cover the The names of his tutors read as a list of the broadest possible chronological and geo- most prominent European scholars of the graphical range. His Memoirs are a record not time. He gained from them a deep knowl- only of the actual events, but also of his edge of classical archaeology, which he later thoughts on the subject and diligent studies broadened in the field, excavating for the of methodology and aspects of fieldwork in French Institute in Athens on the Greek islands the different countries. He had become a of Delos, Tasos and Crete. scholar competent in various aspects of art His habilitation thesis was concerned history and archaeology, and at the same with the Greco-Roman portraits from Delos time a brilliant teacher to whom students and the volume, considered a major contri- flocked, and a scrupulous excavator, always

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Jadwiga Lipińska

taking advantage of a deep understanding came attaché étranger of the French Institute of human nature and resources. The Chair of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo where he of Classical Archaeology which he headed was befriended by Jacques Vandier, Alexan- at Warsaw University soon drew an enthu- dre Varille, Clement Robichon, Georges siastic group of specialists and students, Posener, Michel Malinine and life-long willing to work for the objectives set down dear friend Jaroslav Černy, all future scholars by the Professor. of eminence. With Polish historian Tadeusz First and foremost were archaeo- Wałek-Czernecki he took part in the exca- logical excavations. Without genuine vations at Deir el-Medineh run by the promi- ancient relics available for study, there was nent French archaeologist Bernard Bruyère. little hope of generating a wider interest in Michałowski’s Memoirs provide a colorful ancient cultures. The existing Polish collec- description of lodgings in an ancient tomb tions were few and dispersed, and they pervaded with the stench of mummies were in private hands, hardly open to the stored in the back room. general public. This was due to the political Michałowski returned from Egypt situation in the country in the 19th century with a promise of joint Polish-French exca- and the first decades of the 20th. Until 1918 vations at Tell Edfu in Upper Egypt, a site al- Poland did not exist as an independent ready partly explored by a French mission. country. The few Polish collectors, such as In Poland, he persuaded Warsaw University Michał Tyszkiewicz, who amassed fabulous authorities to cover part of the excavation collections of antiquities, preferred to sell costs. The general director of the National or donate them to West European museums. Museum in Warsaw, Professor Stanisław Others were interested in objects of patriotic Lorentz, agreed to create a gallery of an- value and seldom did antiquities from the cient art in the new building of the museum Mediterranean area bear such significance. (still under construction at the time!). The In these circumstances, the only way to build excavations started in 1936 and continued up a comprehensive ancient art collection for three winter seasons, only to be rudely was to purchase objects on the art market interrupted by the outbreak of World War or to uncover them by excavating on ancient II. Two volumes of excavation reports were sites. Buying exhibits was possible but costly published directly following the close of – quite unacceptable in the position of a the fieldwork; the third, although ready to country which had only just regained its in- be printed, had to wait until the end of the dependence. Michałowski knew the way war. out of this dilemma: he needed to start ar- Michałowski was well aware of the chaeological excavations in the Mediter- need to stimulate public interest in his ranean. beloved archaeology. In 1935, he had trans- He also knew he wanted to exca- lated into Polish a book by W.H. Boulton vate in Egypt, a plan that was impossible “The Romance of Archaeology”, adding an without a formal education in the field of introduction in which he wrote: “The ar- Egyptian Archaeology. But Michałowski chaeology of Mediterranean and Near East- found a way around this. In 1934, with the ern countries is hardly a popular subject in help of French colleagues in Athens, he be- Poland”. It is largely to the credit of this

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Kazimierz Michałowski 1901-1981

dedicated man that visitors were soon Institute had been temporarily closed crowding into the newly opened gallery at down for political reasons. Understanding the National Museum in Warsaw to see the need for a logistic and administrative real Egyptian antiquities. base for the various projects envisioned and War put a stop to these activities. initiated in Egypt as well as in neighboring Michałowski, an officer in the Polish army, countries, Michałowski took another step spent the war imprisoned in a Nazi POW and established a Polish institute in Cairo. camp. Upon returning home to a ruined In 1959 fieldwork started in Syria, in the Warsaw, he immediately set himself to the desert town of Palmyra. In 1960 excavations restoration effort, acting first as dean of the began at Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria. Soon faculty, then vice-rector of the University, Polish archaeologists reached into Sudan simultaneously serving as deputy director of (Faras in ancient Nubia) and later Cyprus the National Museum and Secretary General (Nea Paphos). A major restoration project of the Warsaw Scientific Society (later trans- started at Deir el-Bahari, in the temple of formed into the Polish Academy of Sciences). Queen Hatshepsut, and in 1962 a hitherto He distinguished himself as an outstanding unknown temple of Tuthmosis III was dis- lecturer and administrator. In a short time covered there. In his Memoirs Michałowski he succeeded in reconstructing the staff at wrote that “the beginning of the 1960s both the university and museum, educating witnessed our greatest and most spectacular a solid group of specialists in Classical, Near discoveries, and it was then that the further Eastern and Egyptian art and archaeology. development of Polish archaeology was de- In 1949 a new permanent Gallery of An- termined and its international standing es- cient Art was opened in modernized halls tablished”. with specially designed showcases and The Polish Centre of Mediterranean lighting. It came to be considered then Archaeology of Warsaw University was (and long after) as one of the best presen- opened in Cairo with help from the Polish tations of ancient art in Europe. Ambassador, His Excellency Aleksander Kra- Michałowski did not stop dreaming jewski, and support from the Egyptian Minis- of excavations in the Mediterranean. In 1956, ter of Culture, Mr. Saroit Okacha and Professor Russian colleagues invited him to excavate Anwar Shoukry, then chief of the Antiquities part of the Greek colony of Mirmekeion on Service and a friend of Michałowski. The the Black Sea coast in Crimea. A year later opening ceremony took place in April 1960 in he was already back in Egypt, lecturing as a rather small rented building in the district visiting professor at Alexandria University of Heliopolis. The worst chamsin ever that and carrying out some limited excavations spring blew on the day of the inauguration, with associates and students in Alexandria. canceling plans for a terrace and garden Given the chance, he chose to work at Tell party and forcing guests to crowd inside. Atrib in the Delta, near the modern town Neither the stifling heat nor the crowded of Benha, turning the project into a veritable rooms exacerbated the congenial mood training school for young Polish archaeolo- that day… gists. He did not reopen the Edfu dig out The greatest discovery – for Micha- of loyalty to his French colleagues, whose łowski as well as for the National Museum

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Jadwiga Lipińska

in Warsaw – was made in the Sudanese ICOM International Committee of Historical village of Faras far to the south. Over 120 and Archaeological Museums (1965-1971), murals were excavated in an early Christian then served as an expert of UNESCO for mu- Cathedral and subsequently removed from seums and excavations in Algiers (1966) and the walls by Polish restorers. Half of these was a member of the UNESCO Committee wall paintings is now in Khartoum, and the for Mohenjo-Daro (1969). In international other half was brought to Warsaw, where recognition of his scholarly achievement, he they are exhibited in a gallery that is unique was awarded honoris causa doctoral de- in Europe. Michałowski not only conducted grees from Cambridge, Strasbourg and the excavations, but also served as chairman Uppsala universities. His oeuvre includes of the International Committee of Experts hundreds of papers and several volumes created by UNESCO to supervise the removal reporting on the results of his excavations. of the Abu Simbel temples and their recon- And seventy years later, it can be said that struction on a site beyond the reach of the his numerous students and their students rising waters of the new Nasser lake. Micha- in turn have successfully taken up and con- łowski was also elected chairman of the tinued his legacy.

Select bibliography K. MICHAŁOWSKI, Wspomnienia [Memoirs], Warszawa 1986 J. LIPIŃSKA, Kazimierz Michałowski, BMNV XLII, 2001 (2006), No. 1-4, pp. 7-13 K. MYŚLIWIEC, “Nothing is impossible” – the Professor and the Academy, EtTrav XIX, 2001, pp.10-25

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Kazimierz Michałowski supervising fieldwork at Faras (National Museum in Warsaw photo archive) Lipinska Michalowski Ksiazka:Layout 1 2007-09-19 10:45 Page 28

Kazimierz Michałowski at Tell Atrib (National Museum in Warsaw photo archive)

Tell Atrib1962. Michałowski’s team at work (Photo T. Biniewski) Lipinska Michalowski Ksiazka:Layout 1 2007-09-19 10:45 Page 29

Kazimierz Michałowski with collaborators at the National Museum in Warsaw (National Museum in Warsaw photo archive) Kazimierz Michałowski with wife Krystyna and guests at Deir el-Bahari (Photo J. Lipińska’s archives) Lipinska Michalowski Ksiazka:Layout 1 2007-09-19 10:45 Page 30

Kazimierz Michałowski discussing the work at Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria (Photo J. Lipińska’s archives)

The first quarters of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology in Baron Empain Street, Heliopolis, Cairo (Photo J. Lipińska’s archives)