Tadeusz Sulimirski

Who was Tadeusz Sulimirski?

Tadeusz Sulimirski was a Polish historian and archaeologist, who emigrated to the United Kingdom soon after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. He is best known for his works on the ancient Sarmatians.

He studied in Lwow University, where he received his doctorate for his work in prehistory and anthropology. He was a lecturer of prehistory in Lwow University from 1933 to 1936, and then became professor of prehistoric archaeology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939 he left Poland and went into exile to the United Kingdom, where in 1941 he became secretary general in the Ministry of Education of the Polish government in exile. In that position he wrote a number of geopolitical propaganda articles calling for the expansion of Poland to the west through the annexation of German territory lying east of the Oder River, on the grounds that in early medieval times those territories had been part of the early Polish state.

From 1958 he was professor of Central and Eastern European archaeology in the Institute of Archaeology of the University of London. He gave lectures and seminars in many European countries in 1952-1965, and in a number of United States universities during a tour in 1968-1969. He continued to travel and lecture after retirement.