The beginning of aerial archaeology in Poland dates back to 1928, when Professor Józef Kostrzewski, the founder of the Polish modern archaeology, asked military pilots to take aerial photos of the area of the Neolithic archaeological site he was examining at Rzucewo on the Baltic coast. Subsequent initiatives in the field of aerial archaeology included photographing strongholds in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) region in 1935 and, finally, aerial photography using various balloons and aircrafts of the excavation site of the famous Bronze Age and Early Iron Age defensive stronghold at Biskupin in 1935-1939.
After World War II, due to the fact that aerial photographs were subject to military secrecy, as well as due to the difficult availability of aircraft, this promising development of Polish aerial archaeology was stopped. This idea was returned in the years 1958-1969, when, on the initiative of Professor Zdzisław Rajewski, an action was taken to photograph Early Medieval strongholds from military helicopters.
These early experiments, however, did not lead to the development of real aerial archaeology because they involved aerial photography of known archaeological sites and excavated sites, and not the discovery of new, previously unknown objects.
It was only in the mid-1990s, thanks to the help of foreign specialists - Otto Braasch from Germany and Martin Gojda from the Czech Republic, that the development of real aerial archaeology began in Poland, which led to such spectacular discoveries as for example Neolithic “rondels”, previously unknown in Poland, as well as many ploughed strongholds or abandoned Medieval towns.
However, aerial archaeology is still being practiced in Poland by only a limited group of archaeologists in selected regions of the country, and there is no central database of aerial photos.
Faculty of Arts |
Katedra archeologie FF ZČU |
15. 05. 2024, 13:45 |
