Although he was, by any measure, a minor painter, Wawrzeniecki was a majorly influential archaeologist, discovering not only the first obsidian artifacts on Polish lands but also early earthen shelters, ceramics, and steles. His pioneering work left its mark on his visual art, including one of the earliest paintings depicting an archaeological excavation. Rozkopany kurhan (“The Excavated Burial Mound”), painted between 1891 and 1892, is notable for how it takes up the conventions of history painting to depict not an idealized scene from the past, but rather the gulf separating those discovering prehistory from the fragmentary, quizzical remains of this long-ago time.