A view of Vinča from Cambridge: Minns' reviews of the 1930s publications by Vasić

Boric, Dusan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0166-627X 2016. A view of Vinča from Cambridge: Minns' reviews of the 1930s publications by Vasić. Istraživanja - Journal of Historical Researches 27 , pp. 7-32. 10.19090/i.2016.27.7-32

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

The article provides close readings of a series of book reviews of Vasić’s Vinča publications in the journal MAN of the Royal Anthropological Institute in Britain written in the 1930s by Russian and Eastern European studies expert and Cambridge-based archaeologist Sir Ellis Hovell Minns, including his unpublished notes and annotations of the volumes that are kept in the Cambridge University Library. In three installments, first in 1933 and then twice in 1937, Minns reviewed Miloje Vasić’s seminal four volumes of Preistoriska Vinča I-IV, which were published in 1932 and 1936. In these reviews Minns gives his own interp retation of the dating and significance of the site of Vinča -Belo Brdo near Belgrade, but also echoes the majority opinion of leading experts about the finds at the time. The reviews, which have not previously been discussed in literature, provide penetrating glimpses for the history of archaeological thought, especially in Serbia, and reveal important aspects of the international reception of Vasić’s works and his erroneous dating of the site. The purpose of this piece is to contribute to a critical evaluation of foundational figures in Serbian archaeology and can be seen as an extension of a conversation started by Palavestra and Babić in several previously published articles. The article ends by asking to what extent these early omissions in Serbian archaeology set the tone for structuring tropes and persistent traditions that have endured in this regional archaeological school ever since.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Miloje M. Vasić, Vinča, neolit, Elis Hovel Mins, istorija arheologije, arheološka teorija
Publisher:	Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
ISSN:	0350-2112
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	13 February 2018
Date of Acceptance:	23 October 2016
Last Modified:	07 May 2023 09:18
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/96535

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item