Valstybės archeologijos komisijai 100 metų

LTStraipsnis skiriamas Garbingai VAK sukakčiai.

ENOn 28 May 1919 in the cabinet of the Minister of Education Mr. Juozas Tūbelis a meeting was held in which the decision to set up the National Committe e for Archaeology (NCA) was made. Tadas Daugirdas, an archaeologist and artist, wa s appointed as the chairman and Valerijonas Verbickas, an architect, together with Vladas Nagevičius, a surgeon, were appointed as members of the Committee. The Committee wa s subject to the Ministry of Education. Shortly after its establishment, historian Konstantinas Jablonskis and academi c Eduardas Volteris wer e invited to join the Committee. The Law on the NCA, signed on 18 August 1919, stated that the goal of the Committee wa s to collect, preserve and research the heritage of Lithuania's past as well as to take care of the restitution of the exported cultural objects. Committee's primary concern wa s to protect various documents and institutional archives that were left without supervision due to the World War One . For this purpose the Central State Archive was established. Works for saving the most important buildings that were damaged during the war were begun. Due to the efforts of the NCA , the collections of archives, libraries and artworks from several abandoned manor houses wer e placed in State storage facilities. The most valuable buildings in Kaunas underwent measurement and planning; drawings as well as photographs of these buildings were made, archaeological diggings of the devastated archaeological monuments were conducted, etc. Absence of permanent staff members in the Committee , shortage of funds and failure to adopt a Law on protection of ancient monuments resulted in the resignation of all members of the Committee in November 1925. Only in 1930 a new NCA was formed. The Committee took care of ethnographic researches and collection of the information on public museums.It also began preparatory work for the recording of cultural mo ­ numents. At the beginning of 1934 the Ministry of Education established the Office for Protection of Ancient Monuments which wa s run by Vlada s Pryšmantas. The latter had to participate in NCA meetings. The Committee resigned in 1934. Vladas Pryšmantas wa s appointed the head of a newly formed National Committee for Archaeology. About 600 associates, mostly teachers and surveyors, participated in the activities of the reformed NCA Office, which launched the recording of cultural monuments. Local authorities helped to obtain signed obligations from the owners not to cause any harm to the objects recorded on their land. The protection of cultural monuments was consigned to the Vytautas the Great Museum of Culture. By that time, through the efforts of the NCA Office, 3577 objects, mainly archaeological and architectural monuments, were recorded and 2527 pledges to protect them were received.