A VIEW OF VINČA FROM CAMBRIDGE: MINNS’ REVIEWS OF THE 1930s PUBLICATIONS BY VASIĆ
Keywords:
Miloje M. Vasić, Vinča, Neolithic, Ellis Hovell Minns, history of archaeology, archaeological theory
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by Russian and Eastern European studies expert and Cambridge-based archaeologist Sir Ellis Hovell Minns, including his unpublished notes and annotations of the volumes that are kept in the Cambridge University Library.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 interpretation 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.
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References
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______. Grci i drugi: antička percepcija i percepcija antike, Beograd: Klio, 2008. (Serbian Cyrillic)
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Bogdanović, M. Preispitivanja u praistoriji Srbije / The Prehistory of Serbia Reviewed. Kragujevac, 2012.
Borić, D. ‘Places that created time in the Danube Gorges and beyond, c. 9000–5500 cal. BC’, Documenta Praehistorica, 26, 1999, 47–70.
______. ‘The Lepenski Vir conundrum: Reinterpretation of the Mesolithic and Neolithic sequences in the Danube Gorges’, Antiquity, 76, 2002, 1026–1039.
______. ‘Mesolithic-Neolithic Interactions in the Danube Gorges’, in J. K. Kozlowski and M. Nowak (eds.), Mesolithic-Neolithic Interactions in the Danube Basin. BAR, Int. Ser. 1726. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2007, 31–45.
______. ‘Kultura Lepenskog vira u svetlu novih istraživanja (Lepenski Vir Culture in the Light of New Research)’, Journal of the Serbian Archaeological Society, 24, 2008, 9–44. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. ‘Ljubinka Babović, Sanctuaries of Lepenski Vir: Location, position and function. Archaeological monographs 17. Belgrade 2006: National Museum. Book Review’, Glasnik Srpskog arheološkog društva, 24, 2008b, 467–477.
______. ‘Absolute dating of metallurgical innovations in the Vinča Culture of the Balkans,’ in T. K. Kienlin and B. W. Roberts (eds.), Metals and Societies. Studies in honour of Barbara S. Ottaway. Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie. Bonn: Habelt, 2009, 191–245.
______. Deathways at Lepenski Vir: Patterns in Mortuary Practice, Belgrade: Serbian Archaeological Society, 2016.
Borić, D. and Dimitrijević, V. ‘Apsolutna hronologija i stratigrafija Lepenskog Vira (Absolute Chronology and Stratigraphy of Lepenski Vir)’, Starinar, 57/2007, 2009, 9–55.
Bintliff, J. and Pearce, M. (eds.) The Death of Archaeological Theory? Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2011.
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______. ‘Cucuteni’, MAN, 33 (November), 1933, 184.
Clark, G. ‘Obituaries. Sir Ellis Hovell Minns’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 71, 1985, 597–602.
Ehrich, R.W. ‘Starčevo Revisited’, in V. Markotić (ed.), Ancient Europe and the Mediterranean, Warminster, England: Aris and Phillips, Ltd, 1977, 59–67.
Fewkes, V. ‘Neolithic sites in the Moravo-Danubian area (eastern Yugolsavia)’, Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research 12 (May), 1936, 5–81.
Gačić, D. Miodrag Grbić (1901–1969). Život i delo, Sremski Karlovci: Zavičajna zbirka Sremski Karlovci, 2005. (Serbian Cyrillic)
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______. ‘Uvod’, in S. Ćelić (ed.), Vinča u praistoriji i srednjem veku, Beograd: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1984, 5–10. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Garašanin, M. and Radovanović, I. ‘A Pot in House 54 at Lepenski Vir I’, Antiquity, 75, 2001, 118–125.
Gavela, B. ‘Vinčin kulturni i hronološki kompleks’, Zbornik Filozofskog fakulteta, 8–1, 1965, 9–25. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Gimbutas, M. The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe, San Francisco: Harper, 1991.
Grbić, M. ‘Miloje M. Vasić: Preistoriska Vinča I. Industrija cinabarita i kosmetika u Vinči’, Starinar, treća serija 8/9, 1933–1934, 322–326. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. ‘Neolit i hronologija,’ Starinar, n. s. 20, 1969, 141. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Härke, H. ‘The Hun is a methodological chap: Reflections on the German tradition of pre– and proto–history’, in P. J. Ucko (ed.), Theory in Archaeology. A world perspective. London: Routledge, 1995, 47–61.
Hill, E. ‘Obituaries. Sir Ellis Hovell Minns (1874–1953)’, Slavonic and East European Review, 32(78), 1953, 236–238.
Hodder, I. ‘Always momentary, fluid and flexible’: Towards a reflexive excavation methodology’, Antiquity 71, 1997, 691–700.
Korošec, J., Benac, A., Garašanin, M. and Garašanin, D. ‘Oko “problematike” Vinče’, Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Sarajevu, 6, 1951, 5–32.
Maddrell, A. Complex Locations: Women’s Geographical Work in the UK 1850-1970. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Mihajlović, V. D. ‘„Globalno” vs. „lokalno”: dva čitanja teorijsko-metodoloških pozicija Branka Gavele’, Etnoantropološki problemi, 9/3, 2014, 647–668.
Milisauskas, S. European Prehistory, New York: Academic Press, 1978.
Minns, E. H. Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to the Caucasus, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913.
______. ‘Parchments of the Parthian Period from Avromian in Kurdistan’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 35, 1915, 22–65.
______. ‘The Art of the Northern Nomads’, Proceedings of the British Academy 28, London: Humphrey Milford, 1942.
______.‘Preistoriska Vinča I’, MAN, 33 (November), 1933, 183.
______.‘Preistoriska Vinča II’, MAN, 37 (April), 1937a, 67–68.
______. ‘Preistoriska Vinča IV: Keramika’, MAN 37 (November), 1937b, 180.
Nikolić, D. and Vuković, J. ‘Od prvih nalaza do metropole kasnog neolita; otkriće Vinče i prva istraživanja’, in D. Nikolić (ed.), Vinča, praistorijska metropola, Beograd: Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu – Narodni muzej u Beogradu –Muzej grada Beograda – SANU, 2008, 39–86.
Palavestra, A. ‘U službi kontinuiteta. Etnoarheologija u Srbiji’, Etnoantropološki problemi, 6(3), 2011, 580–594. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______A. ‘Vasić pre Vinče (1900–1908)’, Etnoantropološki problemi, 7(3), 2012, 649–679. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. ‘Čitanja Miloja M. Vasića u srpskoj arheologiji’ Etnoantropološki problemi 8(3), 2013, 681–715. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Palavestra, A. and Babić, S. ‘False analogy: Transfer of theories and methods in archaeology (the case of Serbia)’, European Journal of Archaeology, 19(2), 2016, 316–334.
Perić, S. and Nikolić, D. ‘A Contribution to Understanding Stratigraphy of Lepenski Vir’, Starinar, 55, 2011, 33–59.
Piggott, S. Ancient Europe, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1965.
Phillips, E. D. ‘In memoriam Ellis Hovell Minns’, Artibus Asiae, 17(2), 1954, 168–173.
Radovanović, I. The Iron Gates Mesolithic, Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeological Series 11, 1996.
Radivojević, M., Rehren, T., Kuzmanović-Cvetković, J., Jovanović, M. and Northover, J. P. ‘Tainted ores and the rise of tin bronzes in Eurasia, c. 6500 years ago’, Antiquity 87, 2013, 1030–1045.
Renfrew, C. Before Civilization, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1976.
Šljivar, D. and Borić, D. ‘Context is everything: Comments on Radivojević et al.’, Antiquity, 88 (342), 2014, 1310–1315.
Srejović, D. Lepenski Vir. Nova praistorijska kultura u Podunavlju, Beograd: Srpska književna zadruga, 1969. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Europe’s First Monumental Sculpture: New Discoveries at Lepenski Vir, London: Thames & Hudson, 1972.
______. ‘Miloje M. Vasić, tvorac srpske arheološke nauke’, in V. Jović (ed.), Iskustva prošlosti, Beograd: Ars libri–Kremen, 2001, 213–218. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Vasić, M. M. Preistoriska Vinča I. Industrija cinabarita i kosmetika u Vinči, Beograd: Izdanje i štampa Državne štamparije Kraljevine Jugoslavije, 1932. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Preistoriska Vinča II. Oblici grobova. – Mistične oči. – Igra na tabli. – Datovanje Vinče, Beograd: Izdanje i štampa Državne štamparije Kraljevine Jugoslavije, 1936a. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Preistoriska Vinča III: Plastika, Beograd: Izdanje i štampa Državne štamparije Kraljevine Jugoslavije, 1936b. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Preistoriska Vinča IV: Keramika, Beograd: Izdanje i štampa Državne štamparije Kraljevine Jugoslavije, 1936c. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Grci i drugi: antička percepcija i percepcija antike, Beograd: Klio, 2008. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Babić, S. and M. Tomović, Milutin Garašanin – Razgovori o argeologiji, Beograd: 3T, 1996.
Babović, Lj. Sanctuaries of Lepenski Vir: Location, position and function. Archaeological monographs 17. Belgrade: National Museum, 2006.
Bogdanović, M. Preispitivanja u praistoriji Srbije / The Prehistory of Serbia Reviewed. Kragujevac, 2012.
Borić, D. ‘Places that created time in the Danube Gorges and beyond, c. 9000–5500 cal. BC’, Documenta Praehistorica, 26, 1999, 47–70.
______. ‘The Lepenski Vir conundrum: Reinterpretation of the Mesolithic and Neolithic sequences in the Danube Gorges’, Antiquity, 76, 2002, 1026–1039.
______. ‘Mesolithic-Neolithic Interactions in the Danube Gorges’, in J. K. Kozlowski and M. Nowak (eds.), Mesolithic-Neolithic Interactions in the Danube Basin. BAR, Int. Ser. 1726. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2007, 31–45.
______. ‘Kultura Lepenskog vira u svetlu novih istraživanja (Lepenski Vir Culture in the Light of New Research)’, Journal of the Serbian Archaeological Society, 24, 2008, 9–44. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. ‘Ljubinka Babović, Sanctuaries of Lepenski Vir: Location, position and function. Archaeological monographs 17. Belgrade 2006: National Museum. Book Review’, Glasnik Srpskog arheološkog društva, 24, 2008b, 467–477.
______. ‘Absolute dating of metallurgical innovations in the Vinča Culture of the Balkans,’ in T. K. Kienlin and B. W. Roberts (eds.), Metals and Societies. Studies in honour of Barbara S. Ottaway. Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie. Bonn: Habelt, 2009, 191–245.
______. Deathways at Lepenski Vir: Patterns in Mortuary Practice, Belgrade: Serbian Archaeological Society, 2016.
Borić, D. and Dimitrijević, V. ‘Apsolutna hronologija i stratigrafija Lepenskog Vira (Absolute Chronology and Stratigraphy of Lepenski Vir)’, Starinar, 57/2007, 2009, 9–55.
Bintliff, J. and Pearce, M. (eds.) The Death of Archaeological Theory? Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2011.
Childe, V. G. The Danube in Prehistory, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929.
______. ‘Cucuteni’, MAN, 33 (November), 1933, 184.
Clark, G. ‘Obituaries. Sir Ellis Hovell Minns’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 71, 1985, 597–602.
Ehrich, R.W. ‘Starčevo Revisited’, in V. Markotić (ed.), Ancient Europe and the Mediterranean, Warminster, England: Aris and Phillips, Ltd, 1977, 59–67.
Fewkes, V. ‘Neolithic sites in the Moravo-Danubian area (eastern Yugolsavia)’, Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research 12 (May), 1936, 5–81.
Gačić, D. Miodrag Grbić (1901–1969). Život i delo, Sremski Karlovci: Zavičajna zbirka Sremski Karlovci, 2005. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Gamble, C. Origins and revolutions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Garašanin, M. ‘Naselje i stan prvobitnog čoveka u Srbiji. Neolitsko doba u Srbiji’, Istorijski glasnik, 2, 1949, 38–67. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. ‘Uvod’, in S. Ćelić (ed.), Vinča u praistoriji i srednjem veku, Beograd: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1984, 5–10. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Garašanin, M. and Radovanović, I. ‘A Pot in House 54 at Lepenski Vir I’, Antiquity, 75, 2001, 118–125.
Gavela, B. ‘Vinčin kulturni i hronološki kompleks’, Zbornik Filozofskog fakulteta, 8–1, 1965, 9–25. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Gimbutas, M. The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe, San Francisco: Harper, 1991.
Grbić, M. ‘Miloje M. Vasić: Preistoriska Vinča I. Industrija cinabarita i kosmetika u Vinči’, Starinar, treća serija 8/9, 1933–1934, 322–326. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. ‘Neolit i hronologija,’ Starinar, n. s. 20, 1969, 141. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Härke, H. ‘The Hun is a methodological chap: Reflections on the German tradition of pre– and proto–history’, in P. J. Ucko (ed.), Theory in Archaeology. A world perspective. London: Routledge, 1995, 47–61.
Hill, E. ‘Obituaries. Sir Ellis Hovell Minns (1874–1953)’, Slavonic and East European Review, 32(78), 1953, 236–238.
Hodder, I. ‘Always momentary, fluid and flexible’: Towards a reflexive excavation methodology’, Antiquity 71, 1997, 691–700.
Korošec, J., Benac, A., Garašanin, M. and Garašanin, D. ‘Oko “problematike” Vinče’, Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Sarajevu, 6, 1951, 5–32.
Maddrell, A. Complex Locations: Women’s Geographical Work in the UK 1850-1970. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Mihajlović, V. D. ‘„Globalno” vs. „lokalno”: dva čitanja teorijsko-metodoloških pozicija Branka Gavele’, Etnoantropološki problemi, 9/3, 2014, 647–668.
Milisauskas, S. European Prehistory, New York: Academic Press, 1978.
Minns, E. H. Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to the Caucasus, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913.
______. ‘Parchments of the Parthian Period from Avromian in Kurdistan’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 35, 1915, 22–65.
______. ‘The Art of the Northern Nomads’, Proceedings of the British Academy 28, London: Humphrey Milford, 1942.
______.‘Preistoriska Vinča I’, MAN, 33 (November), 1933, 183.
______.‘Preistoriska Vinča II’, MAN, 37 (April), 1937a, 67–68.
______. ‘Preistoriska Vinča IV: Keramika’, MAN 37 (November), 1937b, 180.
Nikolić, D. and Vuković, J. ‘Od prvih nalaza do metropole kasnog neolita; otkriće Vinče i prva istraživanja’, in D. Nikolić (ed.), Vinča, praistorijska metropola, Beograd: Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu – Narodni muzej u Beogradu –Muzej grada Beograda – SANU, 2008, 39–86.
Palavestra, A. ‘U službi kontinuiteta. Etnoarheologija u Srbiji’, Etnoantropološki problemi, 6(3), 2011, 580–594. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______A. ‘Vasić pre Vinče (1900–1908)’, Etnoantropološki problemi, 7(3), 2012, 649–679. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. ‘Čitanja Miloja M. Vasića u srpskoj arheologiji’ Etnoantropološki problemi 8(3), 2013, 681–715. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Palavestra, A. and Babić, S. ‘False analogy: Transfer of theories and methods in archaeology (the case of Serbia)’, European Journal of Archaeology, 19(2), 2016, 316–334.
Perić, S. and Nikolić, D. ‘A Contribution to Understanding Stratigraphy of Lepenski Vir’, Starinar, 55, 2011, 33–59.
Piggott, S. Ancient Europe, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1965.
Phillips, E. D. ‘In memoriam Ellis Hovell Minns’, Artibus Asiae, 17(2), 1954, 168–173.
Radovanović, I. The Iron Gates Mesolithic, Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeological Series 11, 1996.
Radivojević, M., Rehren, T., Kuzmanović-Cvetković, J., Jovanović, M. and Northover, J. P. ‘Tainted ores and the rise of tin bronzes in Eurasia, c. 6500 years ago’, Antiquity 87, 2013, 1030–1045.
Renfrew, C. Before Civilization, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1976.
Šljivar, D. and Borić, D. ‘Context is everything: Comments on Radivojević et al.’, Antiquity, 88 (342), 2014, 1310–1315.
Srejović, D. Lepenski Vir. Nova praistorijska kultura u Podunavlju, Beograd: Srpska književna zadruga, 1969. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Europe’s First Monumental Sculpture: New Discoveries at Lepenski Vir, London: Thames & Hudson, 1972.
______. ‘Miloje M. Vasić, tvorac srpske arheološke nauke’, in V. Jović (ed.), Iskustva prošlosti, Beograd: Ars libri–Kremen, 2001, 213–218. (Serbian Cyrillic)
Vasić, M. M. Preistoriska Vinča I. Industrija cinabarita i kosmetika u Vinči, Beograd: Izdanje i štampa Državne štamparije Kraljevine Jugoslavije, 1932. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Preistoriska Vinča II. Oblici grobova. – Mistične oči. – Igra na tabli. – Datovanje Vinče, Beograd: Izdanje i štampa Državne štamparije Kraljevine Jugoslavije, 1936a. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Preistoriska Vinča III: Plastika, Beograd: Izdanje i štampa Državne štamparije Kraljevine Jugoslavije, 1936b. (Serbian Cyrillic)
______. Preistoriska Vinča IV: Keramika, Beograd: Izdanje i štampa Državne štamparije Kraljevine Jugoslavije, 1936c. (Serbian Cyrillic)
