Early life, education and social contacts of the Czech-born Egyptologist Jaroslav Černý (who identified himself as a citizen of Czechoslovakia in his lifetime) are shown in the context of his family history, social expectations and developing academic practices in Austria-Hungary and early Czechoslovakia. Černý’s family aspired to be considered middle class in terms of social interaction, although they lived in straitened circumstances exacerbated by the economic austerity of the First World War era. Černý himself trained as a Classical scholar and later as an Egyptologist at Prague University, but did not fit the role model combining a teaching career (which offered sustenance) with a university Privatdozent role (which offered participation in the academic community), which was the practice accepted in his teachers’ generation. Instead, he embarked on a career in financial services, alongside pursuit of his academic studies that soon encompassed major European museum collections with Egyptian exhibits and put him in contact with the international Egyptological community. His solution was appreciated by his sponsors, including major political and financier figures of the then Czechoslovakia, as being practical as well as showing single-minded determination. It is also suggested that the skills developed during his years in portfolio work were later applied to his research. Translated by Hana Navrátilová and Paul Sinclair and Překlad redumé: Hana Navrátilová and Paul Sinclair
Studie představuje složitý poválečný vývoj pražské egyptologie 1946-1951 prostřednictvím korespondence dvou důležitých aktérů. Korespondence významných českých egyptologů je jednak otiskem Černého osobnosti v dějinách pražského egyptologického pracoviště, ale také odrazem osobnosti Zbyňka Žáby, který byl pro institucionální vývoj a zajištění existence ústavu osobou klíčovou, ač rozporuplnou, což je patrné již od počátků jeho odborného působení. Studie tak prostřednictvím dvou rozdílných osudů vědců zachycuje období od poválečné obnovy výuky egyptologie na FF UK v Praze, po etablování Jaroslava Černého ve Velké Británii a Zbyňka Žáby v Praze., This study presents the complex post-war development of Prague Egyptology in 1946-1951 through the correspondence of two of its important practitioners, Jaroslav Černý and Zbyněk Žába. The correspondence of prominent Czech Egyptologists is marked both by Černý’s personality and its impact within the history of the Prague Egyptology department and by Zbyněk Žába’s, who was of key importance to ensuring the existence and the institutional development of the discipline, although he was a contradictory character, as was evident from the start of his professional activities. The character of the department-to-be was mainly philological in its beginnings in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The specialisation corresponded to the interests of the two protagonists, yet they both considered further developments, which eventually led to the establishment of a primarily archaeological institute. Hence this study uses the various fortunes of these two scholars to portray the period from the resumption of Egyptology tuition at the Charles University Faculty of Arts in Prague to the time Jaroslav Černý settled in Britain and Zbyněk Žába settled in Prague. It also includes Černý’s invisible college links in international Egyptology, and Překlad resumé: Melvyn Clarke
Příspěvek představuje edici korespondence egyptologů Jaroslava Černého a Františka Lexy doplněnou o úvodní studii. Působení Lexy a Černého položilo základy novodobé československé (a tedy též české) egyptologie, jejíž počátky závisely mnohem více na osobním nasazení dějinných aktérů, nežli na formování institucionálního základu. Korespondence, zejména dopisy, které zasílal J. Černý F. Lexovi v meziválečném období, tedy ve 20. a 30 letech, ilustruje dobře úsilí obou mužů, jejichž cílem bylo ustavit seminář, rozvinout metodologické základy oboru a zajistit přístup k archeologické práci v Egyptě. Posledně zmíněný krok se zdařil s pomocí prvního československého vyslance v Egyptě, Cyrilla Duška, a také díky zásadní pomoci a spolupráci Francouzského ústavu orientální archeologie v Káhiře. Černý také vybudoval síť mezinárodního kontaktů a zprostředkoval poznatky a praktiky mezinárodní egyptologie pro okruh Lexových studentů v Praze., This paper contains an edition of letters and an introductory essay concerning Egyptologists Jaroslav Černý and František Lexa. The careers of Egyptologists Lexa and Černý laid foundations for the history of modern Czechoslovak (and by extension Czech) Egyptology, which depended more on personal efforts than on an institutional background. The correspondence sent by Černý to Lexa during the interwar period (the 1920s to 1930s) illustrates well the efforts of the two men to institute a seminar, develop a methodology of their scholarship and establish a fieldwork position in Egypt. The latter was obtained with the help of the first Czechoslovak envoy in Egypt, Cyrill Dušek, and of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, the support of which was decisive. Černý developed a network of international contacts and mediated transmission of knowledge to Lexa and the circle of students in Prague., and Překlad resumé: Hana Navrátilová a Melvyn Clarke
The history of the Aswan High Dam project and the related salvage campaign in Lower and Upper Nubia simultaneously includes a portrait of political and economic strife and the exceptional effort made by archaeologists. As the Cold War and decolonisation impacted the Egyptian political and cultural concepts, institutions and individuals worked in a network of professional and political allegiances that contradict the applicability of a singular guiding narrative, including that of decolonisation or the Cold War, if studied in isolation. A case study of two Egyptologists of Czechoslovak origin attempts to tie the global setting of an international archaeological operation to more localised national and personal perspectives. and Překlad resumé: Hana Navrátilová a Melvyn Clarke