Scientific conference ‘Sir Arthur John Evans (1851-1941): ’Illyrian Explorations and the Serbian Question’
On the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the birth and 80 years since the death of Arthur J. Evans (1851-1941), one of the most prominent world archaeologists, a corresponding member of the Serbian Learned Society, and an honorary member of the Serbian Royal Academy, a scientific conference titled ’Sir Arthur John Evans (1851-1941): ’Illyrian Explorations and the Serbian Question’ will be held at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, on 7 December.
Later distinguished as a researcher of the Minoan culture, young Evans toured Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1870s, during and immediately after the 1875 Upraising, describing in his books and reports with heartfelt sympathy the plight and suffering of the rebelled Serbian people, to whom he tried to provide humanitarian help. Although Evans’ understanding of the then geopolitical situation in the Balkans was rather entrenched in the rigid framework of the British foreign policy, i.e. the fear of expanding Russia’s influence, it unquestionably justified the right and need of two Serbian principalities, Serbia and Montenegro, to populate the territory of the Old Serbia (as he called it) and southern Adriatic coast. In the early 1880s, Evans toured Kosovo and Metohija and in his newspaper articles (the Manchester Guardian, the Times) and reports to the Foreign Office, he painted a stark picture of oppression and intolerable position of Christians, especially Serbs, in the area. Evans parallel published the results of his archaeological, epigraphic, and ethnographic research in the region of the former Illyricum, delivering, among other things, data important for the study of medieval art of the old Serbian lands. As a president of the British Society of Antiquaries, he was a member of the Council of the Serbian Society of Great Britain (founded in 1916), and he actively participated in British endeavours to help Serbia in the First World War.
At a one-day scientific conference, a dozen of eminent experts will try, through their papers, to shed light on various aspects of Arthur J. Evans’ scientific, political, and humanitarian work related to the south-Slavic region and Serbian people.
The opening of the conference is at the SASA Grand Hall, at 10 a.m.
Live streaming of the conference is available at the SASA website: https://www.sanu.ac.rs/direktan-prenos/.
Директан пренос конференције може се пратити на сајту САНУ https://www.sanu.ac.rs/direktan-prenos/.