Vladimir Georgievich Bok

Vladimir Georgievich Bok in Egypt, 1888/1889

Wladimir Georgijewitsch Bok ( Russian Владимир Георгиевич Бок , know transliteration Vladimir Georgievič Bok '' , also Wladimir / Vladimir Georgiewitsch / Georgievich von / de Bock / Bok) (born August 9, 1850 in Ujesd Chwalynsk ( May 16, 1899 ) in Saratow Governorate in Berlin ) was a Russian archaeologist and coptologist .

Life

Vladimir was a member of the noble family Bock adH Lachmes . He studied natural sciences at the University of St. Petersburg . Later he became an Imperial Russian Real Councilor of State. From 1886 he was curator for medieval and renaissance art at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, where he founded the collection of Coptic antiquities. He was also a curator at the Museum of the Russian Archaeological Society.

He was twice in Egypt to buy Coptic objects for the Russian museums and to study Coptic monuments. He first traveled to Egypt in 1888/1889, accompanied by the Egyptologist Vladimir Golenishchev (1856–1947). A second expedition is financed for him in 1897/98. During this time he created drawings, descriptions and photographs of the Coptic cemeteries of Naqada , Samaina and al-Bagawat (sink Kharga ) and monuments in Akhmim , Asyut , Athribis , Deir el-Chadad , Esna , Sohag ( White and Red Monastery ). He also made drawings of all the Coptic steles in the museums of Giza and Alexandria .

Its meaning

The art objects acquired by Vladimir Georgievich Bok, such as sculptures , tombstones, metal, bone, glass and ceramic products , papyri , ostraka and mummy labels today form the basis of the Coptic collection of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Even if he did not have the appropriate training, he devoted himself to research into Coptic art and handicrafts. He recognized the independent position of Coptic art. He presented his most important finds for the first time in 1890 at the 8th Archaeological Congress in a lecture and an exhibition in Moscow. He is therefore considered a pioneer of Russian research on Coptic culture and art.

Most of his publications appeared in the Notes of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society (ZIRAO). His major work, the MATERIAŁY po archeologīi christīanskago Egipta appeared bilingual posthumously 1901. focuses on the monuments in the Valley Kharga and Sohag .

Publications

• VG Bok: On Coptic Art . In: Transactions of the 8 ^th Archaeological Congress held in Moscow in 1890 , Volume 3, Moscow 1897, pages 218-245.
• В [ладимир] Г. Бокъ (Vladimir Georgievic Bok) = W. de Bock: Матеріалы по археологіи христіанскаго Египта: посмертное изданіе (Materialy po archeologīi christīanskago Egipta: posmertnoe izdanie) = Matériaux pour servir à l'archéologie de l'Egypte chrétienne: posthumous édition , St. Pétersbourg : Imprimerie Eugéne Thiele Succ., 1901 (bilingual: Russian and French).

literature

• Alexander Kakovkin: Vladimir de Bok (1850-1899) . In: Göttinger Miszellen , Volume 131, 1992, pp. 61–76 (with portrait photo and nine illustrations of exhibits from the Coptic collection in the Hermitage).
• Morris L. Bierbrier: Who was who in Egyptology , 3rd ed. The Egypt Exploration Society, London 1995, p. 52.