VLADISLAV ŠKORPIL (SHKORPIL)

5 November 1853, Vysoké Mýto

27 December 1918, Kerch

Archaeologist, philologist, member of the Russian Imperial Archaeological Commission in St. Petersburg and the Odessa Archaeological Society, fellow of the Russian Archaeological Institute of Constantinople, and director of the Museum of Antiquities in Kerch.

Vladislav Škorpil was the third son of thirteen children born to Václav Škorpil and Anna Škorpilová (née Jirečková). After attending secondary school in Litomyšl and Prague, he read classical philology and Slavic studies at the Faculty of Arts of what was then called Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. There he joined the Slávia student movement. He received a scholarship to continue for another three years at the Russian Classical Philological Seminary in Leipzig, completing his studies in 1878. After a short period teaching at a lyceum for the children of noble families in St. Petersburg and later at a lyceum in Yalta, where he married in 1883, he made Crimea his home base. In 1886 he settled in Kerch, where he taught at the lyceum until he was pensioned in 1912. Meanwhile, he started to focus on archaeological research into the Bosporan Kingdom of antiquity and to study findings from the Crimean coast, especially from the area around Theodosia, Phanagoria, and Panticapaeum. He first reports of his finds were published in the Journal of the Ministry of National Enlightenment, Notes of the Historical and Archaeological Society in Odessa, and the Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences. In cooperation with Aleksey Uvarov, Praskovya Uvarova, and the Russian Archaeological Institute of Constantinople, he published a topography of the city from antiquity. In 1889, 1895 through 1897, and 1901, Vladislav Škorpil took part in official digs led by Karl Dumberg. He also undertook much archaeological work independently. His publication of the stamps inscribed on Greek wine and oil transport amphorae, which listed the names of the producers and the officials who oversaw the exports, represented a major contribution to the field, improving the accuracy of pottery dating. His monumental Russian-Czech dictionary is also of international importance. In 1901 he became the director of the Museum of Antiquities in Kerch (Kerchenskiy muzey drevnostey). He consulted his research with his brothers, Karel and Hermenegild, who worked in Bulgaria, and with Josef, the director of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Pilsen. Consequently, with the permission of the Russian authorities, the Pilsen museum acquired a large number of important ancient artefacts. For his contributions to archaeology, Vladislav Škorpil was awarded several Russian decorations. In the wake of the chaos enveloping Russia in 1918, the circumstances of his death remain unclear. It is believed he died in a violent assault on 27 December 1918. (DB)