The State Council for Preservation of Prehistoric Monuments was the first informal group dedicated to the protection of archaeological heritage in the history of Poland. The Council operated on the basis of the act on protection of monuments issued by the Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland on 31th October, 1918. After the legislative changes in 1928, the Council was dissolved and replaced by the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw. The article depicts the tumultuous history of those two institutions and the system of heritage protection during the interwar period.