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Department of Ancient History

Phone: 
(+48) 22 55 24 513 (room 101), 22 55 24 514 (room 102)
Email: 
antyk.ih@uw.edu.pl

History

1922 was marked by the establishment of the Chair of Ancient History with Prof. Tadeusz Wałek-Czernecki (d. Brighton in 1949) becoming its first incumbent. After the war the rebuilding of the academic life in the Institute of History was undertaken by Iza Bieżuńska-Małowist, who in 1947 began working at the Institute as senior assistant lecturer. In 1952 she became Chair of Ancient History and in 1969 head of the Department of Ancient History, a position she held until her retirement in 1987. Then the reins of the Department of Ancient History went to Prof. Ewa Wipszycka-Bravo (currently professor emeritus of the Institute Archaeology, University of Warsaw). In 1996-2008 the position was held by Prof. Włodzimierz Lengauer. Since 2009 the Department has been headed by Prof. Adam Ziółkowski.

Activity

The Department of Ancient History of the University of Warsaw is the biggest and one of the most important institutions of this kind in Poland. Its staff include scholars of Greek and Roman Antiquity as well as specialists in the history of the civilisation of the ancient Middle East. Today, the most important studies conducted here concern, on the one hand, social and political history (B. Bravo, W. Lengauer, R. Kulesza, J. Rzepka, M. Węcowski, A. Wolicki), as well as religious (B. Bravo,  W. Lengauer) and intellectual history (B. Bravo, M. Węcowski, A. Wolicki) of the Greek world until the end of the Hellenistic Period, and on the other – history of late Antiquity, the early Byzantine Empire (P. Janiszewski, K. Stebnicka, R. Wiśniewski, E. Szabat, A. Izdebski) and the ancient Church (P. Janiszewski, R. Wiśniewski). Research interests of the Department staff include also other areas of Antiquity – from the history of Sumer (M. Stępień), through history and religions of the peoples of Palestine (Ł. Niesiołowski-Spanò, K. Stebnicka), to the history of Rome and topography of the City (A. Ziółkowski). Many scholars working at the Department study the history of ancient historiography – Greek (B. Bravo, M. Węcowski, A. Wolicki), Roman (A. Ziółkowski, K. Stebnicka,  P. Janiszewski) as well as Biblical (Ł. Niesiołowski-Spanò). Members of the Department staff head research groups working on projects financed by the Ministry of Science (P. Janiszewski, J. Rzepka). Among them are editors of two journals published by the Institute of History, University of Warsaw, and devoted to Antiquity: Palamedes. A Journal on Ancient History and U schyłku starożytności. Studia źródłoznawcze, as well as the Akme. Studia Historica series.