Ivana Pandzic, Museum of Republic of Srpska

Keywords: Archaeology in Republic of Srpska and Bosnia & Herzegovina; Kastel fortress site; Geophysics results

In this paper and presentation we want to show how political structure of one country can affect the state of culture and heritage and its development.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA) is located in Southeast Europe on Balkan Peninsula bordering with Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. It is one of ex-Yugoslav republics, formed as a state in 1995 after the Dayton Peace Accord. The capital city is Sarajevo and other larger centres are Banja Luka, Mostar, Trebinje and Tuzla. It consists of two entities Republic of Srpska and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Brčko District. Culture in BiH is decentralized, i.e. culture is within responsibility of the two entities, The Republic of Srpska and the Federation, which means each entity has its own cultural and heritage Ministry and each of them act in frame of their legal frames. There are 27 museums, galleries and collections of which 21 are in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The oldest is the National Museum in Sarajevo which was founded in 1888. In Republic of Srpska there are six museums of which the oldest is the Museum of the Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka established in 1930. The Museum of Republic of Srpska works in according with the Law on museums, proclaimed by the Government and adopted by the National parliament in 2008. The Law on museums is according to Dayton peace agreement, constitution of BA and constitution of Republic of Srpska.
In Banja Luka, the capital of Republic of Srpska part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is Kastel fortress, medieval fortress built on Roman remains but never fully researched by archaeologists. Found remains are dated from Palaeolithic period. The fortress is relatively well-preserved, and is one of Banja Luka’s main attractions, situated on the left bank of the Vrbas River in the very centre of town. Currently there are numerous work on walls reconstructions, while neither experts nor the scientific public has a complete archaeological image of Kastel. Society of Archaeologists of the Republic of Srpska in cooperation with the Museum of the Republic of Srpska Banja Luka and the Centre for New Technologies Viminacium Belgrade (Serbia) in 2019 will implement the project “Application of Contemporary Methodology in Archaeology (example Kastel Banja Luka site)” co-financed by the City of Banja Luka. The project involves geophysical recording of 10.000 m2 of Kastel site, with the aim of detecting remains of potential objects still uncovered. The recording will last for ten days, followed by processing and interpretation of the collected data and their presentation. The realization of the entire project was designed as a process of educating students, as well as people employed in republic and city institutions dealing with cultural heritage and non-governmental sector the importance of use of new technologies in archaeology.
In next two months we will have the results of geophysical recording as well as new project ongoing in cooperation with the city of Banja Luka and Touristic organisation of Banja Luka. We believe that until October, we will have new date to present on how an old archaeological site can be re-used for new researches and studies, as well as object for implementation of new methodologies and new ideas.