Karl Frederik Kinch
Karl Frederik Kinch | |
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Born | Ribe, Denmark | 15 March 1853
Died | 26 August 1921 Copenhagen, Denmark | (aged 68)
Education | University of Copenhagen |
Occupation | Archaeologist |
Spouse |
Karl Frederik Kinch (15 March 1853 – 26 August 1921) was a Danish
Early life
Karl Frederik (K. F.) Kinch was born in 1853 in Ribe to his mother Bertine Kinch and his father Jakob Frederik Kinch , an author and historian. He had many siblings; his father had 15 children over two wives.[2] Karl Frederik received a good education at the University of Copenhagen and studied under Johan Louis Ussing , a professor of philology and archeology there. Kinch acquired his PhD in 1883 with a thesis on Quintus Curtius Rufus. Initially, he searched for a job that would put his philology to use and tutored Latin and French to children of wealthy families, but he couldn't find a permanent position. Instead, he traveled during the 1880s and early 1890s.[3]
Macedonian excursions
In particular, he visited the lands of the
Kinch was the first to describe and define Macedonian chamber tombs, distinguished by their vaulted roof, ornate façade, and Doric frieze above the entrance. Since his publications, around 100 other similar chamber tombs have been discovered by other archaeologists such as Alan Wace, all matching his description.[3] One find of particular importance was a tomb at Naousa, called "Kinch's Tomb". He was told about the tomb by villagers in 1887, and returned in 1889 and 1890 to make detailed study of it. There, he recorded a painting of a Macedonian cavalryman. The tomb was later greatly damaged by the opening of a railway line, leaving Kinch and his artist friend Oscar Willerup's recreation the only surviving record of the painting. Kinch presented the resulting picture to a philological meeting in 1892, but Kinch and Willerup's record did not receive wide awareness of its significance until it was published decades later in 1920.[4] Kinch remained on good terms with his former teacher, as Professor Ussing had also traveled Greece in his youth in the Thessaly region. Kinch wrote an article in a festschrift dedicated to Ussing on a small Byzantine village church near Thessaloniki. Kinch's findings were that the church had been constructed by Euthymius the Younger around 870 CE as an imitation of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.[3]
From 1895–98, Kinch returned to Denmark, where he worked as a director at Mariboe's School in Copenhagen.[6]
Excavations at Rhodes
Kinch worked with the
Kinch's work moved toward Vroulia on the southern end of Rhodes in 1907. One of the notable finds at Lindos was the Lindian Temple Chronicle. Kinch became a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 1913. The start of World War I seems to have prompted Kinch to return home, with him arriving in Copenhagen by 27 August 1914; Ottoman entry into World War I in November 1914 made the prospect of a return to the Aegean Sea region impossible. Kinch organized and published some of his findings from Denmark. Kinch's final years were troubled by illness, and he died on 26 August 1921. His wife Helvig considerably outlived him, surviving until 1956.[6]
Legacy
Kinch's efforts in the field led to him being called a "pioneering archaeologist" in one 2018 book on Macedonia.[3] Bente Kiilerich wrote that Kinch's analysis of the Arch of Galerius was pioneering and a "groundbreaking work".[1] However, in his own era, Kinch was not prominent. Kinch's career involved intensive and grueling field work. While he was published and eventually became a member of the expected learned societies, this was late in his life, and he never held a permanent university or museum position. The academic circles of his day do not appear to have considered him a significant scholar; his reputation only improved later, with Blinkenberg's publications of the Lindos findings. One of his most significant findings, the artwork he arranged of "Kinch's Tomb" with Oscar Willerup, was only widely available a year before his death with his 1920 journal article.[4]
While most of Kinch's writings were published in French and German so as to reach a wider audience, he also was one of the only scholars to publish a significant work in the Danish language on Macedonian history for many years in his 1891 work Erindringer fra Makedonien ("Memories from Macedonia").[3]
Selected works
- Quaestiones Curtianae criticae. (1883) (ebook)
- Observations Sur Les Noms Attribués a Des Graveurs De Monnaies Grecques (1889), in Revue Numismatique, pages 473-501 (ebook)
- L'arc de triomphe de Salonique (1890) (scan)
- Erindringer fra Makedonien (1891), in Tilskueren, pages 444–472 (scan)
- Beretning om en arkæologisk Rejse i Makedonien (1893), in Forhandlinger paa det fjerde Nordiske filologmøde i København den 18-21 juli 1892, pages 101–117 (ebook)
- De hellenske Kolonier paa den makedonske Halvø (1894), in Festskrift til Vilhelm Thomsen fra disciple (ebook)
- En Byzantiske Kirke in Festskrift til J.L. Ussing i anledning af hans 80-aarige fødselsdag, pages 144–156 (scan)
- Fouilles de Vroulia (Rhodes) (with Christian Blinkenberg) (1914) (PDF, HathiTrust scan)
- Le Tombeau De Niausta: Tombeau Macédonien (1920) (PDF)
- (posthumously, by Christian Blinkenberg) Lindos. Fouilles et recherches, 1902-1914. Volume 1: Les petits objets. (1931)
- (posthumously, by Christian Blinkenberg) Lindos. Fouilles et recherches, 1902-1914. Volume 2: Inscriptions. (1941)
- (posthumously, by Christian Blinkenberg, edited by Ejnar Dyggve) Lindos. Fouilles et recherches, 1902-1914. Volume 3: Le sanctuaire d'Athana Lindia et l'architecture lindienne. (1960)
Gallery
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A photograph of an elderly Kinch by Julie Laurberg and Franziska Gad
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A modern photograph of "Kinch's tomb" near Mieza where Kinch said he found the cavalryman painting
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Eschara VI 4563 , an eschara vessel found in Rhodes, and detailed in Kinch's 1914 work Fouilles de Vroulia (Rhodes). Probably dates to the 8th century BCE due to the late geometric style of pottery. Currently held at the Antikensammlung Berlin.
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An image of theArch of Galeriusin Kinch's 1890 monograph
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TheArch of Galeriusin 2018
Notes
- ^ Specifically, Kinch's Macedonian expeditions were in late 1885–August 1887, 1888, 1889, October 1891–April 1892, and 1893.[4]
- ^ Strictly speaking, Kinch was not the first to say that the Arch was dedicated to Galerius, but earlier suggestions it was to Galerius had left it as speculation; Kinch was the first to lay out the evidence and convincingly argue the case.[1]
References
- ^ hdl:1956/23717.
- ^ "Jacob Frederik Kinch" (in Danish). See also Kinch, Jakob Frederik in the Dansk Biografisk Leksikon.
- ^ OCLC 1328220687.
- ^ ISBN 978-960-8253-07-0.
- ^ Bartels, Jens (15 May 2016). "Pierre O. Juhel / ΠΑΝΤΕΛΗΣ Μ. ΝΙΓΔΕΔΗΣ: Un danois en Macédoine à la fin du 19e siècle. Karl Frederik Kinch et ses notes èpigraphiques". Sehepunkte (in German).
- ^ a b c d Johansen, Karsten Friis (18 July 2011). "K.F. Kinch". Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish) (3rd ed.). Retrieved 27 January 2024.
External links
- K.F. Kinch "15. Marts 1853 – 26. August 1921", pages 37–45, an obituary by Johan Ludvig Heiberg