Lubor Niederle

Significance

Lubor Niederle (1865–1944) was a Czech archaeologist, anthropologist, Slavist and ethnologist; Czech Wikipedia calls him the founder of modern Czech archaeology. [NID02] His best-known work is Slavic Antiquities (Slovanské starožitnosti). For the Ukrainian context he matters chiefly because, according to the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine (ESU), he proposed the Vistula-Dnieper theory of the Slavic homeland, visited Kyiv and corresponded with Ukrainian scholars. [NID01]

Life

Niederle was born on 20 September 1865 in Klatovy and died on 14 June 1944 in Prague. [NID01; NID02] According to ESU he graduated from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in 1887, took his doctorate in 1888 and studied in Munich and Paris (in Paris in 1889–1890). In 1891 he became a docent of anthropology and prehistoric archaeology, and in 1898 professor of prehistoric archaeology and ethnology. [NID01] Czech Wikipedia also dates his professorship to 1898 and his rectorships to 1907–1908 and 1927–1928. [NID02] He was the first director of the State Archaeological Institute, according to ESU in 1919–1924. [NID01; NID02] He founded the journal Český lid (ESU dates this to 1892; Czech Wikipedia speaks of co-founding it with Čeněk Zíbrt). [NID01; NID02]

Ukrainian connection

According to ESU, Niederle proposed the Vistula-Dnieper theory: the original homeland of the Slavs covered eastern Poland, Polissia, Podillia, Volhynia and the right bank of the middle Dnieper. The article adds that most Slavists still support it; this is the assessment of the entry's author, and Czech Wikipedia contains no such statement. [NID01; NID02] ESU also attributes to him the thesis that Rusyn (Ukrainian) settlement in Transcarpathia began as early as the 5th century. [NID01]

He visited Kyiv twice: in 1893 on a research trip to study archaeological collections and in 1899 as a participant of the 11th Archaeological Congress. [NID01] He met Fedir Vovk in Paris (1889–1890) and kept corresponding with him; he corresponded with Mykhailo Hrushevsky from 1898. [NID01] Among his students ESU names Ya. Pasternak and I. Borkovsky, to whom he entrusted excavations at Hradčany in Prague. [NID01]

Disagreements in the sources

All the Ukrainian links given here rest on a single ESU article (2021). Czech Wikipedia does not speak about Ukraine: its only mention is the link to the Ukrainian-language version of the page. The correspondence with Vovk and Hrushevsky, the trips to Kyiv and the Vistula-Dnieper theory are therefore presented in this dossier as ESU's statements. [NID01; NID02]

Posts: ESU gives a deanship at the Faculty of Arts in 1907–1908, whereas Czech Wikipedia gives a rectorship in the same years (and in 1927–1928). Publication of Slavic Antiquities: ESU gives volumes 1–4 for 1902–1927, Czech Wikipedia volumes I–III with parts from 1901–1934. [NID01; NID02]

The ESU article states that Hrushevsky, while valuing Niederle's scholarship highly, did not share his political views on the leading role of the Russian Empire in the Slavic world; it names no other disputes. [NID01]