The origins of Czech Classical Archaeology: Archaeological activities of František Koller and Matěj Polák in Italy at the beginning of 19th century
Abstract
The origins of Czech Classical archaeology and especially the activities of Czech archaeologists (or, rather, pioneers of archaeology) in the "main" Classical countries - Greece, Italy and Turkey - have not been, unfortunately, properly studied and evaluated yet. This paper is dealing with the archaeological activities of Czech pioneers of Classical archaeology in the first half of 19th century, conducted on the territories of modern-day Italy. t is focusing on the research of two personalities: baron František Arnošt Koller (1767-1826) and Matěj (Milota Zdirad) Polák (1788-1856). A soldier and diplomat baron Koller acted as a commissary general in Naples in the years 1815-1818 and 1821-1826. On that occasion he conducted some small-scale excavations and also collected ancient artefacts from sites in Campania and other areas of the ancient world as well. Some of these excavations were recorded and described by his adjutant M. Polák in his book (travelogue) "A journey to Italy".
In this paper, all preserved relevant sources are discussed, and information are presented, on the basis of which their actual archaeological activities can be reconstructed. Koller and Polák were the first Czechs, who actively conducted archaeological excavation in Italy and Mediterranean in general. The sites of their excavations were Nola/Campo militare di Nola and most probably also Pompeii and St. Arcangelo. On the other hand, it is unlikely that Koller conducted his own excavations in Herculaneum.