at U.S. and British universities, and joint projects in Slovenia and elsewhere. These developments have also provided something of a counterpart and a challenge to the mainstream culture-history approach.

At the same time, the scholars who came from Gabrovec’s school of prehistoric archaeology—Biba Teržan, Mitja Guštin (from the University of Ljubljana), and Janez Dular (from the Institute of Archaeology)—decisively contributed to the further development of a distinctive school of prehistoric research that is well respected on an international level.

In the 1980s and 1990s other fields of archaeological research also gained recognition on the international level. In numismatics, for example, A. Globočnik and P. Kos, after less than four decades of systematic work, were able to present rich collections on an exemplary level. Šašel’s work became a reference for the epigraphy and ancient history of Roman Pannonia, Noricum, Dalmatia, and Venetia et Histria, and the very high standards he set are continued in the work of M. Šašel Kos.

Slavonic archaeology was established in a proper sense only after 1945, and in its first years it was beset by political problems arising from World War II, as well as conceptual disputes with historians about its interpretative potentials. Yet, despite all these constraints, it has matured admirably in recent decades and become a respected discipline with a developed critical apparatus.

Predrag Novakovic

See also

Most na Soči

References

Gabrovec, S. 1971. “Stopetdeset let archeologije v Narodnem muzeju” [One-hundred and fifty years of archaeology in the National Museum]. Argo 10: 35–48.

Kastelic, J., S. Gabrovec, and T. Knific. 1987. “Arheologija” [Archaeology]. In Enciklopedija Slovenije I, Mladinska knjiga–Ljubljana, 100–105.

Petru, P. 1971. “Misli ob stopetdesetletnici Narodnega muzeja” [Some thoughts on the occasion of the one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the National Museum]. Argo 10: 3–34.

Slapšak, B., and P. Novaković. 1996. “Is There National Archaeology without Nationalism? Archaeological Tradition in Slovenia.” In Nationalism and Archaeology in Europe, 256–293. Ed. M. Díaz Andreu and T. Champion. London: UCL Press.

Smith, Sir Grafton Elliot

(1871–1937)

Born in Grafton, New South Wales, Australia, Smith graduated with a degree in medicine from the University of Sydney in 1895. He won a scholarship and traveled to Cambridge to further his anatomical research. In 1900 he became professor of anatomy in Cairo, Egypt, and returned to England in 1909 as anatomy professor at Manchester University. In 1919 he became professor of anatomy at University College London. He received a Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1907, a Royal Medal in 1912, and a knighthood in 1934.

During his time in Cairo, Smith was a major participant in the planning and completion of the Archaeological Survey of nubia. The creation of the Aswan Dam in 1902 had caused widespread flooding, which had destroyed many monuments and sites. When the Egyptian government decided the water level of the dam had to be raised another 7 meters, it was decided that this time they would record all threatened antiquities and examine and photograph all burials that would be destroyed by the new water levels—hence the survey. More than 10,000 burials were recovered and studied, the largest sample of burials ever excavated from an archaeological site. This was also the largest skeletal population ever studied and it revealed the prevalence of many interesting diseases and provided a detailed picture of everyday life and death in Egypt. The methods Elliot Smith and his colleagues developed during these studies changed the nature and significance of paleopathology forever.

Smith also contributed to the ongoing debate about primate evolution, believing that it was characterized by an increase in neurological sensory development in the areas of sight and hearing. He examined the Piltdown skull and declared it “the most primitive and most simian of human brains so far recorded,” lending some credibility to this scientific hoax at the time of its perpetration.