Zygmunt Mineyko (1840-1925) i poszukiwanie starożytnej Dodony

Abstract

Zygmunt Mineyko (1840 –1925) and the Discovery of Ancient Dodona The text is devoted to Zygmunt Mineyko – a participant of the 1863 January Uprising, who had to look for safety in Western Europe after the collapse of the patriotic insurrection and the resulting repressions. Having acquired relevant professional qualifications in France, Mineyko worked as a specialist in civil engineering in the vast territory of the Ottoman Empire. In the years 1875–1876, working in the north-western part of Greece (Epirus), he managed to identify the location of Dodona – the main ancient sanctuary of Zeus. Due to the shortage of funds, he accepted financial support from a rich Greek Konstantinos Karapanos. In 1878, Karapanos issued a publication in Paris in which he attributed the discovery of the sanctuary and the results of work entirely to himself, mentioning only briefly Mineyko as his assistant engineer. From that moment on, Mineyko started to strive for the acknowledgement of his rights as a discoverer. His actions were not always effective, but the essential argument still laid in his hands. The most important historic items still belonged to him, as they had been discovered already at the time when he carried on the search by himself. A particularly valuable group of these objects (the famous group of the “Dodona bronzes”) was sold to the Museum in Berlin via his eldest daughter and sonin-law Ludwik Karol Potocki only in 1904. The text quotes also archive materials from the collection of the Academy of Arts and Sciences that were drawn up in 1877; Mineyko tried to arouse interest in his discovery also by presenting it directly to Polish experts in ancient history. Within the scope of the activity of the Archaeological Commission, on the basis of materials submitted by Mineyko, Professor Marian Sokołowski prepared a long report, defending Mineyko’s rights to the discovery (the text was published in the subsequent year).