Antiquarism of the Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Ottoman Period Antiquaries between East and West

Abstract

The question about beginning of archaeology in Bosnia and Herzegovina throughout traditional archaeological discourse, used to be observed as product of Austro-Hungarian westernisation of Ottoman Bosnia. If we look deeper, and pay attention to works of early eighteenth century and further, it apparently becomes clear that something in that interpretation
went wrong. It could be discussed about antiquarianism and archaeology its self, referring to interpretation of the beginning, but however that definition is unsustainable, because both existed from eighteenth century, and indisputable evidences are left in travel writers works and autochthonous population, as also in some state laws. Writing down their observations
XIX century explorers and travelers as Evans, Giljferding, Baltić, Lozić, Boué, Jukić and others, left important proofs of the interest in history, existence of, so called collectors, and in extremis, about some excavations and researches done in eighteenth and nineteenth century in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Giljferding wrote about being convinced by the story of some peasants about the rock and old signs on it, so in his works he gave insight into the knowledge and awareness of those people about past and its importance. Baltić wrote about excavations in search of the treasure, where besides mere people, official army took participation in such events. On the other side Evans participated in investigations, and looked at every
detail to find out and write down everything about the reviewed, and left us even his drawings. From the other side, Jukić worked and lived in Bosnia, and was among the first ones to encourage people to look after antiquities and keep it well, and tried to influence their conscience about the importance of it trough his petitions, giving the idea of the foundation of the first
Bosnian Museum, starting from making his own collection repurchasing antiquities. Beside this works, at the same time government was bringing different laws about the protection of antiquities and monument in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of those was the law brought at the year 1869, consisting of 7 paragraphs about collecting, exploring and preserving antiquities,
that was brought independently, 4 years before Austro-Hungarian epoch, and 5 years before the official government in Ottoman empire. Parallel to it, founding pressrooms has provided people to easily get news about archaeology, and therefore to get more familiar and interested into the subject. At the and it is still intriguing, and probably will stay unsolved, the
fact about negligence of some very obvious witnesses of the existence of archaeology in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from early nineteenth century, the latest.