Josef Hilarius Nowalski de Lilia

Nowalski de Lilia around 1920

Nowalski at work

Josef Hilarius Nowalski de Lilia (born January 3, 1857 in Krasne , Lithuania , † November 10, 1928 in Vienna ) was an Austrian archaeologist who from 1895 carried out numerous archaeological studies on the Roman past ( Vindobona ) in Vienna and also on the foundation of the Museum Vindobonense was significantly involved. In 1901 he became inspector of the city excavations.

Life

Nowalski grew up as the son of a Lithuanian landowner and devoted himself to studying classical archeology , ethnography and epigraphy . However, it is suspected on the part of academia that he also studied at the Cracow Art Academy , especially since the numerous sketches and plans he left behind testify to a special artistic quality.

Archaeological career

Nowalski took his first archaeological steps of his great career in Austria between 1892 and 1897 while excavating in Carnuntum .

Kenner and Nowalski

The archaeologist and numismatist Friedrich von Kenner (1834-1922) had been a key member of the Vienna Antiquities Association, founded on March 3, 1852, since 1865. In 1876 his 42 year long service career began with this association, where he also served as its president from 1902 to 1918. Before that he was already active in the service of the highest imperial family, where he was responsible for the collection of coins, medals and antiquities from 1854 until he was promoted to director himself in 1883.

In 1897, Kenner also took on the role of first chairman of the newly established Limes Commission, which was dedicated to researching Roman border fortifications. In 1875, the kk Central Commission for the research and preservation of art and historical monuments, which as a state institution was tied to the Ministry of Education, was appointed conservator for Vienna's ancient and prehistoric art monuments. The task of this institution was to preserve, document and conserve monuments from all crown lands for posterity.

The most important basis for archaeological research in the urban area of ​​Vienna was the brisk construction activity in the inner city . In 1892 a list was drawn up by the Vienna City Council, which listed a total of 1264 buildings that were approved for demolition. During the demolition of the buildings, people began to search intensively for antiquities and to salvage them as well as possible. In the course of the numerous house demolitions, the Central Commission decided on November 29, 1895 to entrust two further members of the Imperial and Royal Central Commission with the observation of the construction sites due to the incurring rescue work of the possible found objects. Those who were entrusted with the supervision of the construction sites were also authorized to pay out bonuses to the construction workers and to the foremen to encourage them to pay particular attention to objects found during demolition work. Over time, Kenner also recognized the need to commission someone to supervise the large construction sites. His choice fell on Nowalski, who stood out as one of the most ardent reporters of Kenners, and thus he became the inspector of the Roman excavations in Vienna from 1895.

This resulted in a real division of labor between Kenner and Nowalski, with Nowalski being responsible for procuring the found material and recording the news of the find, while Kenner then published these results. In the period that followed, Nowalski documented all the construction sites he saw. In 1897 he had observed at least 48 different construction sites, some of them at the same time. In 1901 Nowalski was officially appointed inspector of the city excavations. From now on, excavations taking place were reported either to the committee set up specifically for the archaeological research of Vienna or to Nowalski personally. Nowalski also documented all construction sites in his find files, whereby he also used a photographic apparatus - which was quite innovative for the time. Nowalsi regularly visited various construction sites. He motivated the workers and foremen to continue their work with small gifts of money and cigars and not, as is often the case, to sell found pieces through art dealers. As a result of Nowalski's tireless work, which is based on his sketching work and the recording of finds, Kenner, who was mainly responsible for the publication of the finds, succeeded in obtaining a comprehensive picture of Roman Vienna including its border positions. The final evidence that the legionary camp can be located in downtown Vienna can be traced back to Kenner's publication “The archaeological finds from Roman times”, which was published as an article in the first volume of the “History of the City of Vienna”.

Vindobonense Museum

In 1887 the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna was established in the recently opened City Hall of Vienna . However, due to the exhausted contingent of storage capacity for the constantly increasing archaeological collection, the search for more suitable premises began as early as 1900. They finally found what they were looking for: the premises of the girls' elementary school Rainergasse, located in Vienna's fourth district, were adapted and finally converted into the Vindobonense Museum in 1903. Special pieces from Roman Vienna were presented here. However, basic research was continued on the part of the kk Central Commission, the results of which were published by Kenner. Nowalski also took care of the gluing, restoration and inventory of finds, should this still have been missing a certain systematic for the find management, as can be seen from Erich Polaschek's marginal remarks, which from 1912 also for the find protocols as well as the finds including their subject catalogs was responsible. It is thanks to the First World War that the archaeological research was put on hold from then on, which subsequently also required the closure of the municipal council committee set up especially for urban archeology in 1921. This also signals the end of Nowalski's archaeological career. Josef Hilarius Nowalski de Lilia died on November 10, 1928. He received an honorary grave from the City of Vienna at Hietzinger Friedhof (group 29, number 6).

During the Second World War, the Vindobonense Museum was bombed by the air force, which resulted in the loss of a considerable collection of valuable archaeological objects. Unfortunately, it should also be mentioned that the starving population also got tired of the Vindobonense Museum and plundered it. Today this collection forms the basis of the archaeological collection of the Wien Museum .

Publications by Nowalski

Basically, it is clear that Nowalski was never able to speak German with any degree of fluency, which is why most of the find reports and reports were published by connoisseurs. But it is precisely this division of labor that often led to errors, as connoisseurs often also copied the find diaries without consulting Nowalski, which resulted in some transcription errors. There is also the fact that connoisseurs never visited excavations themselves, which means that manuscripts and publications often have different house numbers. In fact, Nowalski has contributed as an autonomous author to a German-language joint article on the Roman aqueduct in Vienna and published a stone sarcophagus discovered near Carnuntum in a contribution. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to assume that Nowalski's written work was linguistically corrected.

Honors

After his death he was given an honorary grave at the Hietzingen cemetery. In 1959 Nowalskigasse in Vienna- Simmering (11th district) was named after him.

literature

• Felix Czeike: Historical Lexicon Vienna . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992–1997.
• Walther Killy, Rudolf Vierhaus: German Biographical Encyclopedia . Saur, Munich [et al.] 1995-1999.
• Michaela Kronberger: The ravaged rubble cover. The exploration of the Roman Vindobona in times of urban upheaval. In: W. Kos - Ch. Rapp (Ed.): Alt-Wien. The city that never was. Catalog of the 316th special exhibition of the Wien Museum in the Künstlerhaus , November 25, 2004 - March 28, 2005. Vienna 2005, 86–92; 399-402.
• Ute Stipanits: Over 100 years of handwritten found reports and their computer-aided recording. Vienna 1 (1998) 67-72.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Digitization of findings - Stadtarchäologie Wien ; accessed on 7 Sep. 2010