Marija Rudzinskaitė-Arcimavičienė’s contribution to Egyptology (in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the scholar’s birth)

Aldona Snitkuvienė

doi:10.15388/aov.2009.3664

Abstract

M.K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art The article is devoted to the contribution of Lithuania’s first professional Egyptologist, Marija Rudzinskaitė-Arcimavičienė (16 July 1885–4 May 1941), to the science of Egyptology. The discussion is centred around the formation of Rudzinskaitė-Arcimavičienė’s interest in Oriental studies, her academic activities at the University of Lithuania, her scholarly and popular publications, her scientific and organisational activities, her participation in international congresses of Orientalists, her collection of Egyptian antiquities, the most relevant trends in her scholarly research, and a general overview of her activities within the sphere of Egyptology.

Highlights

Interest in the history and culture of Ancient Egypt is deep-rooted in the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL)
When Orientalists commemorated the anniversary of deciphering Ancient Egyptian writing in 1922 and the tomb of Tutankhamen was discovered intact, the first Lithuanian Egyptologist Marija Rudzinskaitė-Arcimavičienė started to teach the history of Ancient Egypt and Egyptian hieroglyphics at the University of Lithuania in the temporary capital of Lithuania, the city of Kaunas
Rudzinskaitė-Arcimavičienė was the first scholar in Lithuania qualitatively meeting the standards of the science of Egyptology of the time

Summary

Complicated journey of life

Rudzinskaitė studied the culture of Ancient Egypt, occasionally taking teaching jobs, and was concurrently getting ready for state examinations at Moscow Imperial University (Faculty of History and Philology). Over the course of time, Rudzinskaitė-Arcimavičienė’s activities came to be associated with Kaunas and Vilnius universities. She taught at the University of Lithuania in 1922–39, with an interval due to her illness (1925–28). In the autumn of 1940, the Ministry of Education granted her permission to work throughout the 1940–41 academic year as senior research associate in the Department of World History of the Faculty of Humanities at Vilnius University.. Her contemporaries unanimously maintained that she was a devoted scholar, delving into her field and ready to speak about Egypt for hours on end

Journeys to the land of pyramids

The formation of a collection of antiquities and problems of exhibiting

The formation of professional Egyptology

Involvement in the activities of the international congresses of Orientalists

Conclusions

Translated from Lithuanian by Julija Korostenskaja