Dragoljub P. Antic
On the Source of Culture and Science: A Monograph
The Monograph “On the Source of Culture and Science” is composed of
the contributions made by participants of the International Scientific
Conference held in Belgrade from the 21st to the 23rd of September,
2012. The first day of the conference took place in the “Sava Centre,”
the second day in the formal hall of University of Belgrade’s rectory
while the third day took place at the Archeological Site “Vinca” and
“Lepenski Vir” with the last session being held in the “Lepenski Vir”
Hotel in Donji Milanovac. The organizers of this complex manifesta-
tion were: Vinca Neolithic: Belgrade, an association for conserving
and nurturing of the Vincha culture; the Association of Milutin Mi-
lankovic: Belgrade; “Cirilica Beograd”, a social organization for the
fostering of the Cyrillic alphabet; the Regional-Social Organization for
the Unification of Serbs: Moscow; the Regional-Social Organization
“Serbskoje Zemljacestvo Moskva”; the Medical Chamber of Serbia and
“KoloBenija Beograd”. The conference was held with the support of the
Ministry of Culture and Information of Serbia, the township of
Grocka, the city of Pancevo, the archeological park of Starcevo,
“Dveri Srpske” organization, touristic organizations of Belgrade and
“Ilustrovana Politika.” The conference was also accompanied by the
following events: an exhibition at the “Progres” gallery; concerts of
ancient music and songs from parts of the “Iliad” played to the sounds
of “gusle” by young “gusla” players Milan Kovacevic and Nikola Je-
knic (for the first time, after more than 3000 years of the formation
of this epoch, as judged by the writings in ancient Serbian language, as
well as in decasyllabic form); a great number of performances given by
many folklore dance groups on the street of “Knez Mihajlo” in Belgrade,
as well as on the plateau by the archeological site in Vinca. As many as
sixty-four authors, eleven of which were from abroad (Russia, United
States of America, Great Britain, Montenegro and Macedonia) were
a part of this conference. The credentials of the participants speaks
to the quality of the discussions and their contributions: thirteen
academics coming from ten academies of science; eleven University
professors; nine Doctors of Science; two master students and around
twenty researchers of various profiles (historians, art historians, ethno-
logists, engineers, philologists, doctors and writers). The work presen-
ted at this conference can be categorized into over twenty disciplines
(anthropology, archeology, archaeogenetics, architecture, enology,
ethnology, ethnomusicology, history, history of mathematics and astro-
nomy, history of literacy, history of mining and metallurgy, history of
law, history of the arts, linguistics, mythology, law, sociology, Serbian
studies, physics). With this, the conference completely satisfied the
expectation that the formation of civilization, culture and science
and its continuity and conservation of heritage may be considered
through multidisciplinary enlightenment covering a period as long
as ten millennia.
The Monograph “On the Source of Culture and Science” unifies
texts which consider the earliest appearances and continuity of growth
of tame animals and agricultures, the formation of mining and metal-
lurgy, of trades, of artistic and symbolic expression, as well as the spaw-
ning of literacy, of mathematical, astronomical and calendar know-
ledge, the shaping of societies and the first characteristics of organized
community, the formation of mythology, faith and other ethnological
characteristics, essential customs, the formation of medicine and
the first shapes of law, architecture and urbanization, early forms of
transport and trade, etc. The conference compared the formation and
development of the aforementioned characteristics of civilization on
the Balkan Peninsula with other civilization formation cores in the
world and considered the link between the two, while discussing the
temporal relation between the two as well. The great cultural heritage
we have today stands as proof of the permanence of this original
civilization
Significant members from abroad gave the conference a special
tone. Anatolij Aleksejevich Kljosov is a biochemist and one of today’s
leading world experts in the production of special biomaterial, an
academic of the Russian Academy “DNK-Genealogy” from Moscow
who has been a professor at the Lomonosov University in Moscow for
many years and who has also taught biology at Harvard. At the con-
ference, his works (in the area of DNK-genealogy) proved that ancient
Europeans sprung during Neolithic time in the area of Lepensi Vir and
Vinca and that some 6000 years ago they began to spread to the wider
Eurasian area, returning in a wave-like fashion. With this argument,
he proves the results of anthropologist Srboljub Zivanovic, as well as
the results of the formation and widening of the European pre-nations
and literacy analyzed by Jovan Deretic and Dragoljub Antic. Moreover,
Andrej Aleksandrovich Tjunjajev, an academic of the Russian Academy
of Science and the chief editor of the periodical “Prezident” was yet
another significant member of the conference who came up with
similar results albeit through different means. Giancarlo Tomatsoli,
an Italian who interprets 4000 years of old writing from Crete proved
that there are ancient roots of the Slavs found in the Balkans. Jelena
Mironova, another Russian points to probable cultural linkage in the
time of the Neolithic culture to the wider areas of Europe and Asia. A
few more works were devoted to ancient literacy: Aristotel Tentov and
Tome Bosevski from Macedonia by means of decryption of text of the
famous “Rosetta Stone” (Kamen Rozeta); Radomir Djordjevic with his
code from Sadro; Miroslava Petrovic with a display of decryption of
the letters and language of Svetlislav Bilbija. Bozidar Mitrovic focused
on the ancient roots of mathematics from the time of the Vinca culture
as well as on the roots of law and solar symbolism from the Neolithic
period which are found in the civilization and heritage of the Serbs
and Orthodoxy.
The archeological traces of this first European civilization were
shown by Radmilo Petrovic, Dragan Jacanovic, Dusan Raskovic and
Gordana Cadjenovic while Ivan Kuljancic enlightened the conference
with the roots of vine and wine growing and the cult of Bakizm. The
deep roots of ethnic music and its relation to the Neolithic times
were presented by Mirjana Zakic and Svetlana Svetic-Vukosavljevic.
Dragan Jacanovic provided proof concerning the knowledge of the
calendar and descriptions of jewelry, clothes and funeral rituals from
the Bronze and Iron Age found in Serbian Epic poetry. On the basis
of Milutin Jacimovic’s and Novak Andesilic’s analyses, Slobodan
Jarcevic sang the “Iliad” in decasyllabic form after which he came
across numerous verifications of Jacimovic’s analyses that Homer’s
Troy was located on the fortress Skadar, while also coming across
other numerous facts which confirm the Serbian character of the par-
ticipants of the Trojan war. More works of historians, art historians,
ethnologists, philologists, sociologists, and other researchers showed a
vast continuity of the first European civilizations up to today focusing
on its integration within the Serbian cultural heritage and indicating
and stressing the essential ways of nurturing and upholding this
cultural heritage (Zivojin Andrejic, Vida Tomic, Slobodan Filipovic,
Antonije I Ivan Skokljev, Momir Jovic, Miodrag Milanovic, Milan
Stevancevic, Radmilo Marojevic, Mile Medic, Rade Rajic et al). A last
special block of the Conference was dedicated to the fostering of the
Cyrillic alphabet with about 15 works focusing on this subject.
As discussed during the closing session, the conference, which was
made up of various scientific disciplines and perspectives, proved that
the first European civilization was founded in the time and space of
the culture of “Lepenski Vir,” “Starcevo” and “Vinca” and its conti-
nuity is visible today. The conference adopted many important conclu-
sions and launched further initiative for the alteration of scholarly
history textbooks, strengthened cooperation within Slavic nations as
well as strengthening the conservation of the Cyrillic alphabet. The
Monograph “On the Source of Culture and Science” gives a comple-te
display of this great scientific gathering and provides great opportu-
nities to researchers of various profiles to engage in these explorations.
Translated by: Ivana Dobrilovic, Toronto
Bozidar T. Mitrovic
Abstract
The word KULTuRA / Culture (as well as culture itself) originated
from the Serbian/ancient Russian word KOLO, which was transformed
from KVLV into CVLT/Kult, (it is even recorded in the Latin language
that the word culture originated from the word (cult) COLLO/KOLO).
The earliest world view (mirovozrenje) of the ancient Slavs/SloVena,
who used to call themselves KoloVeni, was ingeniously simple –
“Everything is Kolo/Circle” (the unity of the movement of the Earth
round the Sun, nature and man) – on which basis they discovered that
this Kolo (Circle) of interdependence within the cyclical movement
was materialized in the cross section of wood in the form of a growth
ring – in Serbian: God (Godovi). This allowed the people of Lepenski
Vir to specify a period of one year (Godina is the Serbian/Russian word
for “year”) as the time of resurrection of nature. Through this finding
they were able to change their nomadic way of life into a sedentary
one (which also accounts for the beginning of culture) and to start
building houses of (divine) wood in Vinča, plant crops in furrows and
to harvest crops at the same location.
This simple world view/мировозрења of the ancient SloVena/Сло-
Вена/Slavs gave birth to architecture, law and medicine (med-Isina/
медИсина), which account for the very origins of culture, although
the origins of law, medicine and architecture have unreasonably and
arbitrarily been attributed to Rome or Greece.
Dragoljub P. Antic
Abstract
From the point of view of historical processes, this analysis sheds light
on the issue of environmental conditions in the last millennium and
on the validity of the “historical truth” about the emergence of the
first European civilization based on the grounds of actual technical
and physical aspects. The problem was approached starting with the
pre-conditions necessary for the emergence of civilization, thus po-
tential areas with long-term stable conditions were identified. Then
all the sites were analyzed from the standpoint of physical, linguistic
and cultural continuity. The analysis was further strengthened by
comprising numerous records from historians from the Classical Pe-
riod, the Middle Ages and later centuries. The conclusion formed is
that the most favorable conditions in the last 40 million years were in
the area of the Hem peninsula, part of Asia Minor, and in the general
area of the northern Black Sea: places of origin of the first European
civilization. Similarly, European ancestors had characteristics that are
visible today mostly in Serbs, Russians and other Slavs. New genetic
analysis has fully confirmed this scenario and the paths of European
ancestors and their other migrations.
Keywords: natural sciences, physical and technical conditions, histo-
rical processes, civilization, continuity
Radoje Radojević
When Serbia Sailed the High Seas
It is a little known fact that once upon a time when steam shipping was
in its heyday and the main mode of intercontinental travel, one of the
top luxury ocean liners bore the name SS Servia. The story that follows
is an attempt to salvage from oblivion this great vessel that brought
Serbia much favourable publicity over the years as it battled the savage
waves of the North Atlantic.
The story begins with the Cunard Line, one of the leading ope-
rators of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century, and
the only shipping company to operate a scheduled passenger service
between Europe and North America to this day. The company was
founded by a Canadian, Samuel Cunard of Nova Scotia.1) In 1839 Cu-
nard was awarded the first British transatlantic steamship mail con-
tract, and the next year formed the British and North American Royal
Mail Steam-Packet Company to operate the line’s four pioneer paddle
steamers on the Liverpool-Halifax-Boston route. For most of the next
30 years, Cunard held the Blue Riband2) for the fastest Atlantic voyage.
However, in the 1870s Cunard experienced stern competition from
its rivals, the White Star Line and the Inman Line and began to falter
financially. To meet this challenge, in 1879 the firm was reorganized as
Cunard Steamship Company, Ltd. to raise capital. With the injection
of fresh capital the company immediately proceeded to place an order
for a new super vessel. The contract was award to J & G Thomson (later
John Brown & Company), a shipbuilding yard in Clydebank near
Glasgow, Scotland.
Thompson designed and built a vessel introducing many inno-
vations. With a double bottom, subdivided into 16 water-tight com-
partments, the ship was practically unsinkable. As long as at least two
of its compartments remained intact, the ship could stay afloat. She
was the first large ocean liner to be built of steel instead of iron, and
the first Cunard ship lit by electric incandescent lamps which had
been just invented by Thomas Edison. For these and other reasons,
maritime historians often consider her to be the first “modern” ocean
liner.3) With the length of 515 feet and a width of 52.1 feet she was the
second largest ocean liner of the time, surpassed only by Brunel’s SS
Great Eastern. With her design and construction guided by Admiralty
specifications, she had many features that satisfied the requirements
for her to be placed high on the Admiralty’s reserve list of the armed
auxiliary cruisers, where she could be called into service in times of
war. She had 5 decks, one of which was the promenade deck. She was
propelled by 3 expansion engines with a total horsepower of 10,300
IHP. When first tested she attained a top speed of 17.5 Kts and the best
average speed of 16.7 Kts, though she never attained the Blue Riband.
She was serviced by a crew of 298 and had passenger capacity of 480 1st
class and 750 steerage. It cost £256,903 to be built.
This ship was christened SS Servia and launched on March 1, 1881.
Its “godmother” was Elodie Lawton Mijatović. Servia is what English-
speaking people used to call Serbia before World War I. It was changed
by British journalists into Serbia at some point between August 1914
and April 1915. Servia smacked too much of servility, reminded the
English readers of “serfs” and was disrespectful for a valiant ally.4)
Elodie Lawton was a British author who lived in Boston in the
1850s, where she was an advocate of the abolitionist movement. In
1864, while on a trip to Germany, she met Čedomilj Mijatović who was
completing his studies in economics at Leipzig and they ended up
getting married. In 1865 they settled in Belgrade where Čedomilj, at
the age of 23, became a professor of political economy at the Belgrade
Velika Škola, the highest educational institution in Serbia at that time,
the predecessor of University of Belgrade. Over the next 40 years Čedo-
milj will leave an important imprint on Serbian history as a Serbian
statesman, economist, historian, writer, politician, and diplomat. He
was six times minister of Finance in the Principality/Kingdom of Serbia,
three times minister of foreign affairs and minister plenipotentiary of
Serbia to the Court of St. James’s (1884–1885; 1895–1900, and 1902/1903),
to Romania (1894), and the Ottoman Empire (1900). Elodie, meanwhile,
after mastering the Serbian language became the first English-spea-
king female historian in Serbia. In 1872 she published The History of
Modern Serbia (London: William Tweedie) and in 1874, Serbian Folk-
lore (London: W. Isbister & Co). She translated Serbian national poems
of the Kosovo cycle into English and tried to organise them into one
national ballad: Kosovo: an Attempt to bring Serbian National Songs,
about the Fall of the Serbian Empire at the Battle of Kosovo, into one
Poem (London: W. Isbister, 1881).
Under his wife’s influence, Čedomilj became Serbia’s greatest all-
time Anglophile. Together, through their writings and publications,
they contributed a lot to the promotion of Serbia’s history and culture
throughout the English-speaking world, while his translations of
important English works into Serbian made those works available to
the Serbian reading public. Indeed, he was probably the most active
and influential Serbian translator from English during the 19th
century. The bibliography of his translations includes about a dozen
titles. Most of them dealt with religious topics. That was his effort to
contribute to religious revival of the Serbian people. His translations
into Serbian include sermons of well-known British preachers such as
Dr. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Canon Henry Parry Liddon and Dr.
Macduff. He also translated John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and
Dr. David Brown’s
Commentaries to the Gospels. His translation of Henry Thomas
Buckle’s book History of Civilisation in England, was published in Ser-
bian in 1871 and influenced several generations of pro-Western Serbs.
Mijatović also published several of his own original works in
English: Constantine, the Last Emperor of the Greeks or the Conquest
of Constantinople by the Turks (A.D. 1453 (London: Sampson Low,
Marston & Company, 1892); A Royal Tragedy. Being the Story of the
Assassination of King Alexander and Queen Draga of Servia (London:
Eveleigh Nash, 1906); Servia and the Servians (London: Sir Isaac Pitman
& Sons, 1908); he co-authored with Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace,
Prince Kropotkin, and J. D. Bourchier A Short History of Russia and
the Balkan States (London: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company,
1914), and in 1917 he published The Memoirs of a Balkan Diplomatist
(London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne: Cassel and Co.). His
book Servia and the Servians together with his entries on Serbia in the
Tenth and Eleventh editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica served a
very important purpose of offering a favourable view of Serbia to the
Anglo-American public at the beginning of the twentieth century in a
very turbulent and decisive period in her history.
With Čedomilj always being close to the seat of power in Serbia,
the couple easily attracted and befriended many important and
influential Britons, some of whom left an inerasable mark on Serbia’s
history and society.
One of such friends was the wealthy Scottish philanthropist
Francis Mackenzie. Mackenzie was a Scottish member of the Plymouth
Brethren, a Nazarene group. He travelled to Belgrade in 1876 to start
work for the British and Foreign Bible Society to foster religiosity
among the Serbian people. He stayed in Belgrade from 1876 till 1895
and became a prominent figure in Belgrade society. Over the years
he befriended many Serbian politicians and other prominent Belgrade
residents. While in Belgrade he managed to enlarge his already sizeable
wealth. He correctly predicted that Belgrade’s city limits would spread
eastwards. In 1879, he bought a large piece of agricultural and swampy
land named, “Simić’s Majur”, from the son of Stojan Simic, president/
chairman of the Serbian Parliament for 7500 gold ducats. He parceled
this land out into building lots and sold them one by one. Out of the
money he earned, he built a large Peace Hall which was renowned for
political events.
He financed the publishing of Hrišćanski Vesnik (Christian Mess-
enger) the first monthly journal dedicated to religious revival in Serbia
which had been founded by Mijatović and Aleksa Ilić, a Belgrade priest.
____________________
1) The Cunard Line is no longer owned by Canadians. It is now a British-
American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in
Southampton, England, and operated by Carnival UK.
2) The Blue Riband is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner
crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest
speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely
used until after 1910. Under the unwritten rules, the record is based on
average speed rather than passage time because ships follow different
routes. Traditionally, a ship is considered a “record breaker” if it wins the
eastbound speed record, but is not credited with the Blue Riband unless it
wins the more difficult westbound record against the Gulf Stream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Riband
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Servia
4) Paul Fussel, The Great War and Modern Memory, London 1975, p. 175