Croatian Archaeologists Get Professional Acclaim

Awards were presented to the most distinguished Croatian archaeologists for their life achievement and contribution to Croatia's renown.

The lifetime achievement award "Don Frane Bulic was presented by the Croatian Archaeology Society to Janko Belosevic for his research on old Croatian clans' skeleton graveyard in Stankovci and for his work on the Kulica location in Smilcic and Przina location near Biljani Donji, among other things. His most important accomplishment is certainly his systematic archaeological research of the monument complex of the early medieval church Sv. Kriz (St. Cross) in the heart of the historical town of Nin.

"I would especially like to thank the Society's president and to all the other members and colleagues who have supported me," said Janko Belosevic upon receiving the award.

The name of professor Janko Belosevic is a famous and esteemed one in Croatian archaeology as well as abroad, one that has been present on the science scene of Croatian archaeology of the early Middle Ages for decades and left a clear and binding legacy to the younger generations that he himself has successfully taught," said Zeljko Tomicic of the awarded professor.

Two "Josip Burnsmid" awards are given for contribution to the renown of Croatia in the world and, this year, they were presented to Bozidar Cecuk and Dinko Radic for their research in Vela Spila (Big Cave) and to Ivan Radman Livaja for the book on one of the largest collections of material remains of the Roman military equipment in Croatia.

A systematic 30-year research of the prehistoric site Vela Spila near Vela Luka on the island of Korcula was crowned with an impressive monograph on the site.

The monograph was published by the Centre for Culture of Vela Luka and it consists of a total of three hundred pages with three maps, 18 charts, and 44 photographs that describe the history of the research and animal bones found in Vela Spila in the course of the many years of the research led by Bozidar Cecuk and Dinko Radic.

The book Vela Spila is a significant gain for Croatian historical archaeology, says Aleksandar Durman, head of the Department of Archaeology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. "This kind of an extensive and detailed presentation of the overall findings, accompanied by detailed stratigraphic data and archaeological context, will no doubt serve as a foundation for all future deliberation and syntheses of individual prehistoric periods in the eastern Adriatic area."

The book by Ivan Radman Livaja is an extended Master's Thesis that analyses 541 samples of the random findings of military equipment in Sisak.

"This work has provided the archaeological foundation for the presence of the Roman army in Siscia, as well as its role in the wider area of north Croatia," said Branka Migotti, member of the Anthropology Department at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU), about the impact of the book.

Honorary membership for the contribution of her work was awarded to Teodora Tomasevic Buck. In the course of her career, she has published many scientific and professional texts and participated at many international archaeologists' conventions.