The Archaeological Museum of Kraków () is a historic museum in
Kraków
, officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
,
Lesser Poland Voivodeship
Lesser Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). Its capital and largest city is Kraków.
The province's name recalls the traditional name of a h ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
. It was established in 1850.
History
The Archaeological Museum in Kraków is the oldest
archaeological museum in Poland. It was founded as the Muzeum of Antiquity, by a group of intellectuals and academics who belonged to the Kraków Scientific Society (''Towarzystwo Naukowe Krakowskie'', TNK) during the
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...
. The foreign rule in the
Austrian Partition prohibited the existence of Polish patriotic organizations except for the learning societies like the TNK; which in turn, set up a museum as centre of Polish socio-cultural activities. The TNK society which sponsored the museum foundation, existed in Kraków since 1816. It has formed its own Division of Art and Archeology in 1848.
The founding act was signed on 18 February 1850 by the Committee which included such notable personalities as Director of the
Jagiellonian Library
The Jagiellonian Library (, popular nickname ''Jagiellonka'') is the library of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and with almost 6.7 million volumes, one of the largest libraries in Poland, serving as a public library, university library an ...
, Józef Muczkowski (President of the Committee), Karol Kremer (member of the Sejm of the
Free City of Kraków: ''Rzeczypospolita Krakowska''),
Wincenty Pol
Wincenty Pol (; 20 April 1807 – 2 December 1872) was a Polish poet and geographer.
Life
Pol was born in Lublin (then in Galicia), to Franz Pohl (or Poll), a German in the Austrian service, and his wife Eleonora Longchamps de Berier, from a ...
(Professor UJ, poet and explorer), as well as
Teofil Żebrawski (architect, city inspector). A series of documents including the museum mission statement were written for the administration, specifying the priority of the museum in obtaining archaeological finds from private donors. The first museum exhibit opened in 1857 at the Lubomirski Palace at 17 św. Jana Street. The collection originated mostly from private donations by numerous noble Polish families, including the statue of
Zbruch Idol (''Åšwiatowid ze Zbrucza''), which is the symbol of the museum.
The museum is divided into five major permanent exhibitions: Gods of the
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
, Prehistoric Pottery, The Garden of Ceramics, The Prehistory and Early
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
of
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name ''Małopolska'' (; ), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a separate cult ...
, and The Carts of Bronocice, which includes the
Bronocice Pot (3635–3370
BC) - a
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...
vase incised with the earliest known image of what may be a
wheel
A wheel is a rotating component (typically circular in shape) that is intended to turn on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machin ...
ed vehicle.
Gallery
File:Garden at the Archeological Museum of Krakow.jpg, Museum Gardens with a view of the Wawel Hill
File:0854 Ein Krug aus Bronocice, 3.550 v. Chr..JPG, The Bronocice Pot, ca. 3,500 BCE
File:Muzeum Archeologiczne Kraków2.JPG, Egyptian mummy
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...
File:O98 Idol von Sbrutsch mit Darstellung von Unterwelt, Erde und des Himmels, zirka 10. Jh. n. Chr..JPG, The Zbruch Idol, 9th century CE
File:Muzeum Archeologiczne Kraków.JPG, Interior of the museum
File:000 Ostgotische Funde (eine Gruppe aus Greutungen) ausserhalb des Ostgotenreiches in der Raum zwischen Don und Dnjepr in der Zeit vom 2 bis zum 5. Jahrhundert.JPG, Ostrogothic
The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...
pottery
File:072 Wikingerschwert (9.-10. Jh.) aus dem Archäologische Museum Krakau..JPG, Viking
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9â ...
swords
See also
*
Museums in Poland
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archaeological Museum of Krakow
Museums in Kraków
Museums established in 1850
Archaeological museums in Poland
Registered museums in Poland
1850 establishments in Europe