Nada Miletić (1925 - 2002Fekeža, Lidija
"Nada Miletić (1925-2002)."
''Godišnjak Centra za balkanološka ispitivanja'' 34 (2005): 309-310.) was a Bosnian medievalist, art historian and archaeologist, who was a scientific expert at the

National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: ''Zemaljski muzej Bosne i Hercegovine'' / Земаљски музеј Босне и Херцеговине) is located in central Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and ...

and founded the study of the Migration Period in Bosnian archaeology.

Career

Medieval_tombstones_around_National_Museum_of_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina

Miletić worked at the

throughout her career. As an archaeologist she established the study of the

Migration Period The Migration Period ( 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories ...

and Early Slav period in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

, expanding the collections held by the museum. As a medievalist, she worked on the history of medieval jewellery and art, and had a particular focus on the medieval tombstones known as

stećak Stećak (plural stećci; Cyrillic стећак, стећци) is the name for monumental medieval tombstones, that lie scattered across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the border parts of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. An estimated 60,000 are found w ...

. As part of the 75th anniversary celebrations of the museum, one of the special exhibitions made showcased Miletić's work on medieval jewellery. Miletić wrote the chapter on Bosnia in the Early Middle Ages for ''Kulturna istorija Bosne i Hercegovine od najstarijih vremena do pada ovih zemalja pod osmansku vlast,'' a foundational work that included contributions from historians of the region, such as,

Alojz Benac Alojz Benac (20 October 1914 – 6 March 1992) was a Bosnian and Yugoslav archaeologist and historian. Biography Benac studied classical philology and archaeology in Belgrade's Philosophy Faculty (1937), and received his doctorate from Ljubljan ...

, Đuro Basler, Borivoj Čović, Esad Pašalić and

Pavao Anđelić Pavao Anđelić (1920-1985) was a Bosnian Croat and Yugoslav lawyer, archaeologist and historian. He mainly studied the history of medieval Bosnia and is noted for archeological work done at Mile and historically rich areal surrounding modern t ...

. She was also an expert on

bogomilism Bogomilism (; ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", bogumilstvo, богумилство) was a Christian neo-Gnostic, dualist sect founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar Peter I in the 10th century. It ...

, a tenth century Slavic sect. As an excavator, she worked on many sites, including: the 800 graves from the Čipuljić site near

Bugojno Bugojno ( sr-cyrl, Бугојно) is a town and municipality in the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the river Vrbas, to the northwest of Sarajevo. Accord ...

, at Glasinac, and worked on the site of Brijesnica, and led excavations at Gomjenica. Miletić died aged 78 in 2002. In her obituary, Lidija Fekeža described her as a member of "an exceptional generation of archaeologists".

Legacy

In 2016

Stećak Stećak (plural stećci; Cyrillic стећак, стећци) is the name for monumental medieval tombstones, that lie scattered across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the border parts of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. An estimated 60,000 are found w ...

was placed on UNESCO List of World Heritage.

Historiography

For Miletić the Middle Ages, began in the sixth century - dating that subsequent historians, such as Đuro Basler, have countered. She and Alojz Benac dated the phenomenon of the stećak to the thirteenth century, but this dating has been debated, in particular by

Šefik Bešlagić Šefik Bešlagić (6 April 1908 – 19 November 1990) was a cultural historian from Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslav republic. Biography Šefik Bešlagić was born in the town of Gornja Tuzla in 1908. He was born in Bosniak family, and ...

and

Dubravko Lovrenović Dubravko Lovrenović (30 August 1956 – 17 January 2017) was a Bosnian and Herzegovinian medievalist, author and essayist, who worked at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Sarajevo, Department of History, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herz ...

, who date the tombstones to the mid-twelfth century.

Selected works

* ''Umjetnost stećaka'' (Zemaljski muze, 1965) * ''Nekropola u selu Mihaljevićima kod Rajlovca'' * Miletić, Nada. "Reljefna ploča iz Carevog polja kod Jajca." ''Godišnjak Centra za balkanološka ispitivanja'' 32 (2002): 493–507.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miletić, Nada 1925 births 2002 deaths Bosnia and Herzegovina women archaeologists Women medievalists Bosnia and Herzegovina art historians Bosnia and Herzegovina curators Bosnia and Herzegovina women curators 20th-century Bosnia and Herzegovina historians