Jerzy Kolendo

Jerzy Władysław Kolendo (9 June 1933, Brest-on-the-Bug – 28 February 2014, Warsaw) was an acknowledged Polish authority on the history and archaeology of Ancient Rome. He was an exponent of the French Annales school, an epigraphist and specialist in the relations between the Barbaricum and the early Roman Empire.

Life He was the son of parents involved in education. His father died when he was young and the family moved from Brest-on-the-Bug to Białystok where he spent his schooldays. While his desire was to become an archaeologist, he feared his lack of drawing ability would discount his chances of gaining a university place, so he opted to study ancient history. Kolendo graduated from the University of Warsaw in 1955, going on to a masters and a doctoral degree at Warsaw in 1960. He completed his habilitation in history in 1968. He gained a professorship in 1979.

The burden of his archaeological research was into the Ancient Mediterranean Basin and into questions of epigraphy. He was focussed on the economic and social interactions between ancient Rome and the Barbaricum, with particular reference to the territory which would later become known as Poland. He remained a member of various institutes such as, Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie, correspondent of the Polska Akademia Umiejętności and honorary member of the Komitet Nauk o Kulturze Antycznej Polska Akademia Nauk. He continued writing for scientific journals, including, Archeologia, Meander, Dialogues d'histoire ancienne and Palamedes. A Journal of Ancient History. Kolendo was buried at Służew New Cemetery.

Legacy After World War II, thanks to academic exchanges, Kolendo and his friend, Bronisław Geremek, were greatly influenced by Fernand Braudel and the French l'École des Annales. Kolendo's work has widened understanding of Roman influence in the ancient world, of Roman Gaul, the Roman army, of emperor Nero, the references in Tacitus' writings and of Rome's foreign relations. His work also highlighted the nature of Slavery in ancient Rome. He reasoned that Roman Italy reached a plateau in its agricultural technology, a subject he developed in a monograph published in Italian. This led the eminent French historian Louis Robert to quip that the only people to know about the reasons behind the poor revenues from Roman agricultural estates were Koushchin from Moscow and Kolendo from Warsaw.

Memorial A volume in memory of Professor Kolendo was published by the University of Warsaw. It has 30 contributors from the fields of archaeology, history and epigraphy.

Selected publications He is the author of over 600 articles, books and monographs. Kolonat w Afryce rzymskiej w I–II wieku i jego geneza, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe 1962 (thèse de doctorat). Postęp techniczny a problem siły roboczej w rolnictwie starożytnej Italii, Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich Wydawnictwo PAN 1968. Le traité d'agronomie des Saserna, trad. par Janina Kasińska, Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich 1973. Centres et péripheries de la civilisation antique en Afrique du Nord, phénomène urbain (avec Tadeusz Kotula), San Francisco 1975. Le colonat en Afrique sous le Haut-Empire, Paris: Les Belles Lettres 1976. Inscriptions grecques et latines de Novae, Mésie inférieure. Bordeaux: Ausonius. 1977. Actes du colloque sur l'esclavage, Nieborów 2–6 XII 1975, réd. par Iza Bieżuńska-Małowist et Jerzy Kolendo, Varsovie: Éditions UW 1979. Deux amphithéâtres dans une seule ville. Le cas d'Aquincum et de Carnuntum. in: Archeologia. Rocznik Instytutu archeologii i etnologii Polskiej akademii nauk. vol. 30, 1979, pp. 39–55. À la recherche de l'ambre baltique l'expédition d'un chevalier romain sous Néron, Varsovie: Éditions Uniwersytet Warszawski 1981. Trigarium, lieu d'entraînement des auriges et des chevaux à Rome et à Thevestes. in: Archeologia. Rocznik Instytutu archeologii i etnologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, vol. 35, 1984, pp. 27–32. Roman acquaintance with the south-east Baltic coast. The Karbones of Ptolemy. dans: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde Barbaricum 2 (1992) pp. 186–90. Les recherches sur l'antiquité: menées par des Polonais en France au XIXe s., trad. Katarzyna Bartkiewicz, Warszawa: Upowszechnianie Nauki – Oświata "UN-O" 1997. Świat antyczny i barbarzyńcy: teksty, zabytki, refleksja nad przeszłością, t 1–2, Warszawa: IA UW 1998. Kolekcje numizmatyczne rodziny Lelewelów. in: Wiadomości Numizmatyczne. vol. 45, No. 1, 2001, , p. 45–60, (The numismatic collection of the Lelewel family). Teksty i pomniki: zarys epigrafiki łacińskiej okresu Cesarstwa Rzymskiego (with Jerzy Żelazowski), Warszawa: OBA Novae 2003. Antyczne korzenie koncepcji autochtonizmu i migracjonizmu, Poznań: Wydawnictwo Contact 2007. Antiquarian studies in Poland from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, Warszawa: Instytut Badań Interdyscyplinarnych "Artes Liberales" UW, Kraków: Wydział Filologiczny Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności 2011.

Collected works . Dzieje archeologii na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim, praca zbiorowa pod red. nauk. Stefana Karola Kozłowskiego i Jerzego Kolendo, Varsovie: Éditions Uniwersytet Warszawski 1993. Arcadiana: Arcadia in Poland: an 18th century antique garden and its famous sculptures, by Anna Jaskulska-Tschierse, Jerzy Kolendo, Tomasz Mikocki, ed. Tomasz Mikocki, Warsaw: Institute of Archeology Warsaw University 1998. Nowe znaleziska importów rzymskich z ziem Polski. 1 , pod red. Jerzego Kolendo, przy współpr. Jacka Andrzejowskiego, Aleksandra Bursche i Wojciecha Nowakowskiego, Warszawa: IA UW 1998. Nowe znaleziska importów rzymskich z ziem Polski. 2 , pod red. Jerzego Kolendo i Aleksandra Bursche, przy współpr. Borysa Paszkiewicza, Warszawa: IA UW 2001. A companion to the study of Novae: history of research, Novae in ancient sources, historical studies, geography, topography, and cartography, bibliography 1726–2008, ed. by Tomasz Derda, Piotr Dyczek, and Jerzy Kolendo with contributions by Renata Ciołek, Warszawa: Center for Research on the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe. University of Warsaw 2008.