in 1830, and the museum was established there in 1893. Large excavations of the Roman cemeteries in the area took place in the first decade of the twentieth century.

In Search of a National Framework of Archaeology (1918–1945)

In 1918, after the collapse of the Austrian Empire, the regions of Upper and Inner Carniola, Lower Styria, southern Carinthia, and Prekmurje were united in Slovenia in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The Littoral, Istria, and the western parts of Carniola were annexed by italy, and central and northern Carinthia remained in Austria. Such a radical change left archaeology in Slovenia almost without any institutional framework; of the provincial museums, only the one in Ljubljana lay in the territory of Slovenia. A new framework had to be constituted almost from scratch, but in the newly formed state, with different traditions and priorities, this was not an easy task.

Nevertheless, the new state provided a political context for some decisive steps toward the national emancipation of the Slovenes. For the first time national institutions were established, and among those important for archaeology were the University of Ljubljana (1919), the national museum of slovenia (1921, formerly the Provincial Museum of Carniola), and the Slovene Academy of Arts and Sciences (1938).

Generally, the period from 1918 to 1945 was marked by a decline in archaeological research as compared to the “Austrian” period, and the National Museum was left without a professional archaeologist for the first ten years. The only notable exception in this regard during these years was Mihovil Abramić (1884–1962), the former director of the Archaeological Museum of Aquilea (from 1913 to 1919) who researched Poetovio in the 1920s and published the results in Poetovio: Führer durch die Denkmäler der römischen Stadt (Vienna 1925).

Archaeology was introduced into the university curriculum in 1924, and Vojeslav Mole (1886–1973) was appointed the professor of classical archaeology in Ljubljana. However, his role in archaeology was minor, and two years after his appointment he moved to Krakow University in poland.

The contributions of Balduin Saria (1893– 1974), a historian and epigrapher, the curator of the National Museum of Belgrade, and a professor at Belgrade University (1922–1926), were much more important. From 1926 to 1942 Saria was a professor of ancient history at Ljubljana University, and he published major works on Roman epigraphy and Roman military history: Antike Inschriften aus Jugoslawien, Noricum und Pannonia Superior (Zagreb 1938), and “Doneski k vojaški zgodovini naših krajev v rimski dobi” [Contributions to the Military History of Slovenia in the Roman period], Glasnik Muzejskega društva za Slovenijo 20, 115–151 (Ljubljana 1939). He was also very active in the organization of the Archaeological Map of Yugoslavia project, for which he designed criteria and standards. In 1936 he published a model map for the region of Ptuj (Archäologische Karte von Jugoslawien: Blatt Ptuj [Belgrade-Zagreb 1936]) and, together with josip klemenc, the map for the region of Rogatec (Blatt Rogatec [Belgrade-Zagreb 1938]).

In 1929 rajko lozar (1904–1985)) became the first archaeologist employed in the National Museum, twenty years after Schmid. Since he was the only professional archaeologist in Slovenia, he had to cover a vast array of activities, and it was only from the late 1930s that he succeeded in publishing some important works. Lozar, who was also an art historian, was the first to try to provide a conceptual framework for the history of archaeology as a national science in Slovenia, including the earlier (provincial) traditions within it, with an essay on history and conceptual issues in Slovene archaeology (“Razvoj in problemi slovenske arheološke vede,” Zbornik za Umetnostno Zgodovino 17: 107–148 [1941]). His study on Slavic and medieval pottery production (Staroslovansko in srednjeveško lončarstvo v Sloveniji, Glasnik Muzejskega društva za Slovenijo 20: 180–225 [1938]), also attempted to push forward this branch of archaeological research, which he considered the primary task of archaeology in Slovenia.

Although somewhat apart from major developments in central institutions in Ljubljana,