From the history of archaeology in Odessa

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From the history of archaeology in Odessa

Jozef Czaki

The excavations at Nikonion, where from 1995 onwards Polish archaeologists together with their colleagues from the Odessa Archaeological Museum of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences1, continue a long tradition of Polish interest in the history and archaeology of the North Pontic region2. In the 19th and early 20th centuries around twenty thousand Poles lived in the city, and probably the same number (or even more) Poles were settled in the region surrounding the city. Some of them were keenly interested in the ancient history and archaeology of the Northern Black Sea coast.

When visiting the mound near the modern village of Roxolany (covering the remains of ancient Nikonion) P. Bekker found three amphoras3. One of them he had donated to the Odessa Society for History and Antiquities, the second one went to an unknown “citizen of Odessa”. The third one found itself in the hands of a Pole, August Poniatowski (18051869), who was a colonel in the Russian army, the owner of a property not far from Odessa4, and, more importantly, a friend of the Jaxa-Malachowski family, who were hairs of the village which became known as Roxolany. excavation archaeological museum

In the light of published evidence and the archival data, a significant number of Poles living in Odessa were people with a passion for collecting. Among them were teachers at the Richelieu lyceum, or, later, Odessa university, architects, physicians, officers in the Russian army, and high ranking officials. According to the list of 19th century numismatists collated by A. Ryszard5, more than ten significant numismatic collections originated in Odessa. Most popular was the collecting of Polish coins and medals. The attention paid by collectors to these antiquities of a historical character was a natural consequence of the loss of Polish statehood. Very often ancient specimens formed a supplement to collections of Polish coins. This was one of the latest manifestations of the concept which arose in the 16th century that the Poles were of Sarmatian origin. Greek and Roman, Scythian or Sarmatian antiquities occupied the secondary position among the collectors' fields of interest, after coins and medals6.

In the National Museum in Warsaw is housed the breast plate of a Greek cuirass7, sent to Warsaw before 1905 by Jozef Czaki (1857-1936), doctor of medicine, and a surgeon in Odessa. The history of his life as well as his collection presented here can be reconstructed based only on very scanty evidence8.

The date of Jozef Czaki's arrival in Odessa is unknown9. After studying medicine at Warsaw University, he practiced in Warsaw in 1884-1886. From 1895 he was physician to the merchant fleet in Odessa, and later also one year (?) in Vladivostok. During this time he travelled in the Far East. In 1905 he was in Harbin. From 1906 he lived in Japan and the USA. He died in Brazil in 1946.

Jozef Czaki was interested in different disciplines: archaeology, history, ethnography, zoology and entomology (this interest is evidently connected with the Brazilian period of his life). In all these fields of interest he displayed an avid interest in collecting. The most important collection was formed in Odessa.

He successively presented the objects in his possession to different museums in Poland. The wonderful entomological collection, formed in Brazil10, he has donated to the Entomological Society. He sent his zoological collection to the Zoological Museum in Warsaw.

Jozef Czaki donated his collection of corals from Ceylon, and shells from the Indian Ocean, assembled during his trip to the Far East, to the Museum of Industry and Agriculture11, as he did his ethnographical assemblage from Manchuria (probably an effect of his stay in Vladivostok), a variety of objects from Bukhara and Merv, and also from Persia12, arms from the Caucasus, as well as the collection of ancient arms and armour assembled by him in Odessa.

The Museum of Industry and Agriculture was founded in 1866. It received its statute in 1875 and opened in 1905. The museum was an important institution: Maria Sklodowska worked in the Physics laboratory of the museum.

J. Czaki made his first donations to the museum in 1902 and 190313. What exactly he donated in these first years we do not know. In the 1920s, in a museum exhibition were presented ... arms from Bukhara, arms and armour from the Caucasus, which in effect of their antiquity and wonderful elaboration were especially interesting...14 Among ancient arms and armour donated to the Museum of Industry and Agriculture by J. Czaki was a Greek cuirass, described as `found in the Volga river'. No more precise evidence exists. During World War II, in the first days of September 1939 the museum building of was bombed, and the collections (over 10,000 items), documents and library were all destroyed. The museum was officially closed in 1951.

The cuirass donated by J. Czaki still exists, as in 1920 it was “relocated” from the Museum of Industry and Agriculture to the National Museum in Warsaw by B. Gembarzewski, than director of the National Museum and the member of Council of the Museum of Industry and

Agriculture. On the archival inventory card15 of the National Museum the following information is written: Breast-plate of cuirass of the Greek type, from the Volga river. In the form of man's breast. Some years later the cuirass was re-located a second time, and was transferred to the newly organized Army Museum (from 1933 onwards the Polish Army Museum), which was organized by B. Gambarzewski from 1920 onwards.

Finds of Greek defensive armour are very rare in the North Pontic region. This feature alone makes the cuirass from the J. Czaki collection worthy of note. The information that the cuirass was found `in the Volga river' has no support apart from the published opinion. Of course, given the lack of any verifiable history in relation to the cuirass, the possibility that this information could have been either accidentally or deliberately falsified always exists. Dr. Czaki has been described as a collector with “enormous knowledge”. The history of Czaki's collection enables one to suggest that the breast-plate was more probably found in the lower Volga region. The authenticity of the object has never been questioned. The manner of execution of the cuirass, as well as its present state of preservation, argue in support of the opinion expressed above.

The form of the breast-plate indicates that should be dated on the second half of the 4th century BC (or maybe the early 3rd century BC)16. A similar example, found in Apulia, is dated to the 4th century BC as well. The cuirass “found in the Volga region” would be a further such find in the region. Worthy of attention is a cuirass discovered in kurgan no. 1 near Prokhorovka, Orenburg district. The specimen treated as an import, and is dated to the 4th-3rd century BC17.

I would like once more express my words of thanks and gratitude to the Odessa friends from Archaeological Museum of NANU for fruitful cooperation.

Literature

1. M. Mielczarek, Polish interest in the Ancient Northern Black Sea coast. An outline, (in:) M. Mielczarek, S. B. Okhotnikov, N. V. Sekunda (eds.), Nikonion. An Ancient City on the Lower Dniester, Torun 1997, 36-41, idem, Polnische Forschungen zur Archдologie und antiken Numismatik der nцrdlichen Schwarzmeerkьste: Ein historischer Ьberblick, (in:) Das Silberne Pferd. Archдologische Schдtze zwischen Schwarzem Meer und Kaukasus, Berlin 2011, s. 51-74; idem, Z dziejow zainteresowan Polakow archeologiq i numizmatykq antycznego pцlnocnego wybrzeza Morza Czarnego, (in:) A. Kokowski, M. Wemhoff (eds,), Na srebrnym koniu. Archeologiczne skarby znad Morza Czarnego i Kaukazu, Lublin 2011, 97147.

2. Беккер П. В. Берег понта Эвксинского от Истра до Борисфена в отноении к древним его колониям // ЗООИД, 3, 1853. E. Orman, Nast^pstwa wojny krymskiej. Chlopskie rozruchy wiosnq 1855 r. w majqtkach polskiej i rosyjskiej szlachty w guberni kijowskiej, (in:) J. W. Borejsza, P. B^biak (eds.), Polacy i ziemie polskie w dobie wojny krymskiej, Warszawa 2008, 87 n.20.

3. A. Ryszard, Album numizmatyczne polskie, manuscript, 1880-1885; J. Strzalkowski, Zbiory polskich monet i medali, Lodz 1991.

4. S. Cynarski, Sarmatyzm - ideologia styl zycia, (in:) I. Tazbir (ed.), Polska XVII wieku. Panstwo-spoleczenstwo-kultura, Warszawa 1974, 269-295. And see also J. Bodzek, Monety rzymskie w zbiorze Emeryka Hutten-Czapskiego, „Notae Numismaticae/Zapiski Numizmatyczne” 1, 1996, 23-36.

5. M. Mielczarek, Grecki kirys "wydobyty z Wolgi", "Archeologia" [Warszawa], XLII, 1990 [1991], 67-71; idem, Armes grecques, scythes et sarmates du littoral septentrional de la Mer Noire dans la collection du Musйe de l'Armйe Polonaise а Varsovie, Torun 1995, 35-40.

6. Czy wiesz kto to jest?, Warszawa 1927, 116; W. Kietlicz-Wojnacki, Polskie osiqgniзcia naukowe na obczyznie. Od sredniowiecza do II wojny swiatowej, Lublin 1980, 236 and 259; W. i T. Slabczynscy, Slownik podrфznikфw polskich, Warszawa 1992, 67.

7. Worth of citatation is an opinion that: „Many write about Polish ingeneers and discverers. Polish physicians stay forgotten” - Z. Lukawski, Ludnosc polska w Rosji 1863-1914, Warszawa 1978, 110-111.

8. J. Leski, Zbiory Muzeum Przemyslu i Rolnictwa w Warszawie, Warszawa 1905; Pi^cdziesi^ciolecie Muzeum Przemyslu i Rolnictwa w Warszawie 1875-1925, Warszawa 1926.

9. Some military objects were donated by W. Poppe - at present is not possible to decide which ones.

10. Sprawozdanie z dzialalnosci i obrotu funduszow Muzeum Przemyslu i Rolnictwa w Warszawie za 1902 rok, Warszawa 1903, 29-31; Sprawozdanie z dzialalnosci i obrotu funduszow Muzeum Przemyslu i Rolnictwa za 1903 rok, Warszawa 1904, 33; E. Chwalewik, Zbiory polskie. Archiwa Biblioteki Gabinety Galerie Muzea i inne Zbiory Pamiqtek Przeszlosci w Ojczyznie i na Obczyznie, I-II Warszawa-Krakow 1926-1927, 355-356.

11. A. Hagemann, Griechische Panzerung. Eine entwicklunggeschichtliche Studie zur antiken Bewaffnung ..., 1, Teil, Der Metalharnisch, Vaihungen a.d. Enz (Wittbg.) 1919, 21 f.; C.C. Vermeule, Hellenistic and Roman cuirassed statues. The evidence of paintings and reliefs in the chronological development of cuirass types, „Berytus” 13.1, 1959-1960, 13 - A. 8, fig. 1.2; P. Jaeckel, Pergamenische Waffenreliefs, „Waffen und Kostьmkunde” 2, 1965 94, 103-104.

12. See also the find of elaborated Corithian helmet dated to the 2nd half of the 5th c. BC found in Nikol'skoe (obl. Astrakhan).

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