Pamiętać, upamiętniać, wspominać - nasz obowiązek wobec pokoleń minionych i przyszłych

Abstract

Jubilees and anniversaries usually are the reason to look back, at times and events, but also at people, predecessors of what we are now a part of. It should not surprise then that while in 2019 the Adam Mickiewicz University celebrated its centenary, several new ideas emerged to commemorate previous generations of University people. The Archaeology Faculty of AMU, being of the same age, also incorporated a few ones, including jubilee editions, conferences, and displays. One of the ideas that appeared at that time was to commemorate, in form of exhibitions, some particular alumni, who devoted their lives to archaeology and the University. There have been five such displays presented since then, the first, dedicated to Professor Wojciech Kóčka (1911–1965), opened on November 13th 2021. The article, referring to the display, presents Kóčka’s life and career, illustrating how interesting figure he was. The subjects discussed herein include Sorbian issues, second world war conspiracy, history of archaeology and anthropology, experiencing of air photography in archaeology in pre-war Poland, and the beginning of excavations at Biskupin, to mention the most important. The article, however, is meant to be just the beginning of a discussion, and the hope is expressed at its end that the future brings a monograph devoted to Kóčka.