DOI Artikel:
Gawlikowski, Michał: Kazimierz Michałowski: in meomoriam
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41368#0015
IN MEMORIAM
KAZIMIERZ MICHALOWSKI (1901-1981)
Twenty years ago Polish Mediterranean archaeology lost its founder. He would have been one
hundred this year.
He is remembered by several generations of pupils as a white-haired fatherly figure
of unquestionable authority, and a man inspired by a vision. This vision consisted of nothing
less than introducing his country to the group of nations taking an active part in the study
of the great civilizations of the Mediterranean. In the nineteen thirties, not much enthusiasm
or understanding could be mustered in a newly independent Poland for the ambitions of a young
archaeology professor of Warsaw University. Yet in the pirnuit of the mission he had chosen
for himself not once in his life did he bow to adversity.
The beginning he made, starting the French-Polish excavation in Edfu (1936-39), was
brilliant, but was soon followed by six years of languishing in a Nazi POW camp. Some of his
fellow prisoners in Woldenberg remembered all their life the course in Egyptian hieroglyphs they
took there with him.
Captivity broke many a career, but not his. After the war, rebuilding the University and the
National Museum in Warsaw with its Egyptian and Classical collection apparently took up all
of his attention, while Egypt and Greece seemed as unattainable as the moon. When some trendy
colleagues criticized Classical archaeology as a “bourgeois science”, Michalowski readily agreed
to change the name to “Mediterranean”. Little did he know that a couple of years later this
subterfuge would be essential to the fulfillment of his dream.
The label permitted him to seize the opportunity that presented itself after 1936 to return
to Egypt. Aj he would not take up Edfu without his partners, he chose the site of Tell Atrib in the
Delta. Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria, Deir el-Bahari in Luxor, and Palmyra in Syria followed
suit in short succession. Practically at the same time the great international rescue effort in Nubia
provided Michalowski with his most important discovery — the cathedral of Far as and its mural
paintings. By 1961 Michalowski was directing five major excavation projects in three Arab
countries. In 1963 Nea Paphos on Cyprus was added as a foothold on Classical soil.
His vitality and stubborn perseverance against all odds was legendary. In fact, he never
retired, not until a banal accident precipitated his demise. He did not hesitate, however, to pass the
responsibility for one site after another to his pupils.
Today, though we conduct altogether some twenty operations in five countries of the Middle
East, four of the original six sites are still under excavation.
All this would have never happened without the man. It is eminently fitting that the Polish
Center of Mediterranean Archaeology he established now bears his name (since 1983).
More importantly, it is to this day strongly marked by the subtle presence of its founder.
Michal Gawlikowski
13
KAZIMIERZ MICHALOWSKI (1901-1981)
Twenty years ago Polish Mediterranean archaeology lost its founder. He would have been one
hundred this year.
He is remembered by several generations of pupils as a white-haired fatherly figure
of unquestionable authority, and a man inspired by a vision. This vision consisted of nothing
less than introducing his country to the group of nations taking an active part in the study
of the great civilizations of the Mediterranean. In the nineteen thirties, not much enthusiasm
or understanding could be mustered in a newly independent Poland for the ambitions of a young
archaeology professor of Warsaw University. Yet in the pirnuit of the mission he had chosen
for himself not once in his life did he bow to adversity.
The beginning he made, starting the French-Polish excavation in Edfu (1936-39), was
brilliant, but was soon followed by six years of languishing in a Nazi POW camp. Some of his
fellow prisoners in Woldenberg remembered all their life the course in Egyptian hieroglyphs they
took there with him.
Captivity broke many a career, but not his. After the war, rebuilding the University and the
National Museum in Warsaw with its Egyptian and Classical collection apparently took up all
of his attention, while Egypt and Greece seemed as unattainable as the moon. When some trendy
colleagues criticized Classical archaeology as a “bourgeois science”, Michalowski readily agreed
to change the name to “Mediterranean”. Little did he know that a couple of years later this
subterfuge would be essential to the fulfillment of his dream.
The label permitted him to seize the opportunity that presented itself after 1936 to return
to Egypt. Aj he would not take up Edfu without his partners, he chose the site of Tell Atrib in the
Delta. Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria, Deir el-Bahari in Luxor, and Palmyra in Syria followed
suit in short succession. Practically at the same time the great international rescue effort in Nubia
provided Michalowski with his most important discovery — the cathedral of Far as and its mural
paintings. By 1961 Michalowski was directing five major excavation projects in three Arab
countries. In 1963 Nea Paphos on Cyprus was added as a foothold on Classical soil.
His vitality and stubborn perseverance against all odds was legendary. In fact, he never
retired, not until a banal accident precipitated his demise. He did not hesitate, however, to pass the
responsibility for one site after another to his pupils.
Today, though we conduct altogether some twenty operations in five countries of the Middle
East, four of the original six sites are still under excavation.
All this would have never happened without the man. It is eminently fitting that the Polish
Center of Mediterranean Archaeology he established now bears his name (since 1983).
More importantly, it is to this day strongly marked by the subtle presence of its founder.
Michal Gawlikowski
13