Ivan Borkovský

Ivan Borkovský (born Ivan Borkovskyy-Dunin; 8 September 1897 – 17 March 1976) was a Czechoslovakian archaeologist. He spent his early career as a soldier fighting for the Austro-Hungarian Army against the Russians in the First World War. He later served in the Ukrainian War of Independence and fought for both the White and Red Armies in the Russian Civil War. Borkovský fled to Czechoslovakia in 1920 and, after a period in internment camps, settled there. He graduated with a degree in archaeology from Prague's Charles University and headed up excavations at Prague Castle as well as at Czernin Palace.

Borkovský's discovery of the Prague Castle skeleton led to conflict with German occupying forces during the Second World War who were keen to find evidence of early German involvement in the region. Under threat of being sent to a concentration camp Borkovský was forced to issue a paper identifying the skeleton as of Germanic origin and to withdraw a book publicising early Slavic pottery from the area. After the war he came under suspicion from Soviet forces for his pro-German interpretation and, after being spared from being sent to a gulag, issued a paper retracting his earlier interpretation and describing the skeleton as a Slav. After the war he carried out further excavations in Prague, including at the Levý Hradec, and served as chairman of the Archaeological Society of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Provided by Wikipedia