The collection of the former JU Archaeological Cabinet (Gabinet Archeologiczny UJ) in Kraków is unique in Poland. This is the oldest archaeological academic collection in Poland and the only one to survive to the present day in a nearly unchanged form. The collection's history goes back to 1867, when it was established by Józef Łepkowski, the creator of the first Chair of Archaeology in the Jagiellonian University. The basic bulk of the collection was accumulated after the January Uprising of 1863, in a period marked by increased interest in antiquities: at that time it was regarded as a patriotic duty to preserve the achievements of Polish science and art. The establishment of the cabinet fit well into the general interest in antiquity observed throughout 19 th -century Europe. Today, the collection is divided into two parts (each of them kept separately): Mediterranean and Prehistoric. As the artefacts from the Archaeological Cabinet have not been put on display since the end of WWII, the collection has generally maintained its 19 th -century character, becoming in itself a museum monument of a kind.
Architecturally dominating Igołomia village in Kraków district on the Vistula River is a neoclassical manor house with an English-style park surrounding it, erected at the beginning of the 19th century. After several changes of ownership, in 1950 it was taken over by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences for the purposes of its Archaeological Museum. For several years, the manor house served as a base for excavation research in Igołomia and the surrounding area, including the production center of “grey ware”, wheel-made pottery of the Roman period, and a project known as the Millennium research, aimed at exploring the beginnings of the Polish state and thus celebrating its 1000-year anniversary. In 1954, the manor house came into the possession of the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Polish Academy of Sciences (now the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the PAS). After renovation in the 1960s, an Archaeological Laboratory was organised there, which became the basis for ongoing research on the prehistoric settlement of the nearby west Lesser Poland loess upland and archaeological excavations in many other, sometimes distant, areas.
The Role of Józef Łepkowski in Acquiring the Collections of Karol Rogawski and Bolesław Podczaszyński for Krakow Institutions During many years of scientific activity, Józef Łepkowski (1826–1894), archaeologist, the first Polish professor of this discipline and protector of monuments, looked after the collections belonging to the Krakow Scientific Society (the predecessor of the Academy of Arts and Sciences), the Jagiellonian University, and the Czartoryski dukes for whom he acquired the collection items. The archaeological artifacts, works of art, works of artistic craftsmanship, collections of weapons, and other artifacts obtained by him constitute a valuable part of the resources of Krakow institutions to this day. The article shows the methods by which, in the 19th century, objects were acquired for state institutions, scientific societies and large, aristocratic collections. The author takes as an example the fate of the collections of Karol Rogawski (1820–1888) and Bolesław Podczaszyński (1822–1876). Encouraged by Łepkowski, Rogawski donated the book collection, archaeological artifacts, and works of art and crafts to the Jagiellonian University and the Czartoryski dukes. However, a specialized part of Podczaszyński’s collection – archaeological artifacts with notes on prehistoric finds from the territory of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – was purchased by the Academy of Arts and Sciences as a result of Łepkowski’s efforts. Therefore, thanks to the long and complicated measures taken by this tireless researcher, museum expert, and protector of monuments, the collections survived in their entirety to the present day, avoiding the dispersion to which many other private 19th-century collections were subjected.
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