Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

OBITUARY


Katarzyna Urbaniak-Walczak
1956-2003

Dr. Katarzyna Urbaniak-Walczak, Coptologist and Keeper at the National Museum in Warsaw,
died prematurely on June 10, 2003-
Katarzyna studied Christian archaeology at the Catholic Theology Academy in Warsaw in
1977-1982. Her interest in Coptic Egypt, especially Coptic language and literature, was awakened
then and she embarked on her first translations from Coptic, published in the Academy's periodicals.
Having obtained her diploma, she took up an assistantship in the Institute of Egyptology of Warsaw
University. While on scholarship in Egypt in 1983-1986, she met Prof Martin Krause, who
encouraged her to further her studies of the language and culture of Christian Egypt in Germany.
Katarzyna spent the next three years, from 1987 to 1990, at the Westfaelische Wilhelms-
Universitaet in Muenster, preparing a doctoral dissertation, which was presented in 1991 and later
published, on the subject of Coptic representations of Conceptio per Aurem and their literary proto-
types.

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