Page 11 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(1) (2024)

preteklosti. Verjamemo, da smo to uspešno pri- Their article, ‘House Urns in the Burial Prac-
kazali z naborom prispevkov v tej številki. Žal tices of the Western Necropolis of Romula
obseg revije ne omogoča objave vseh prejetih pri- (NW Pannonia)’, examines house-shaped urns
spevkov, zato za prihodnje leto napovedujemo še from the Ribnica site near Brežice. These urns,
eno tematsko številko s podobno tematiko. which have attracted considerable attention for
more than 200 years, are reanalyzed by the au-
Editorial thors, who offer new interpretations regarding
This year's first issue of Studia Universitatis He- their production. They also reconsider the eth-
reditati is entirely dedicated to disease and death nic identification and tradition of this material
in heritage studies. In this thematic issue, we culture in an ancient context and the character-
aimed to explore how pandemics, epidemics, and istics and significance of burial rituals associated
mortality have been shaped and reflected in cul- with house-shaped urns.
tural heritage, landscapes, and collective memo- The following article, ‘The Black Death 11
ry. We invited researchers from various fields to in the Light of (Bio)Archaeology’, written by
present the topic through diverse content, disci- Timotej Pavlin, delves into the period of the
plines, and research approaches. Our goal was to Black Death epidemic in the 14th century. In
provide a comprehensive and critical overview this comprehensive article, the author examines
of disease and death from the heritage perspec- archaeological, bioarchaeological, and genet-
tive and contribute to academic discourse, poli- ic research related to the medieval Yersinia pes-
cy formation, and practices in heritage research, tis epidemic, now known as the Black Death. In uvodnik • editorial • editoriale
preservation, and management. The collected ar- addition to reviewing the causes of the epidemic,
ticles offer various research possibilities on dis- the author presents an overview of mass graves
ease and death over time. We arranged the con- from 14th-century Central and Western Eu-
tributions chronologically, from prehistory to rope. Based on bioarchaeological research of the
the 20th century, based on the period in which remains, the article reveals the characteristics of
they studied disease or death, the related pro- the population most affected by the disease and,
cesses and customs, and their impact on socie- through a summary of genetic research, inter-
ty and policies. prets the causes of subsequent waves of the Black
The first article, authored by Martina Blečić Death.
Kavur and Boris Kavur, titled ‘Death in Osor: With the article ‘“The One Who Is Not from
Rituals and Practices of Prehistoric Burials’, dis- God is from the Devil, and thus Has His Own
cusses the archaeology of death in Osor, one of French Pox”: The Imagery of the “French Dis-
the most important sites on the northern Adri- ease” and Slovenian Literature of the 16th Cen-
atic during the Bronze and Iron Ages. The au- tury’, by Jonatan Vinkler, we continue the disease
thors compiled already published data and sup- theme. However, in this article, the archaeologi-
plemented it with lesser-known or unpublished cal focus of previous contributions is replaced by
data, presented through a topographical over- a complex and interdisciplinary analysis of the
view and chronological arrangement of graves, so-called French disease, or syphilis, in the 16th
typology of grave assemblages, and their classi- century. The author begins by analyzing the or-
fication in relation to the urban area. This ap- igin and perception of syphilis, presenting three
proach created a comprehensive interpretation hypotheses regarding its origin. He then dis-
of Bronze Age and Iron Age burial practices in cusses research on the existence of different var-
Osor and laid the foundation for further con- iations of syphilis in Europe. The article further
temporary research. explores the social response to syphilis, which
The research by Irena Lazar and Alen- carried a strong societal stigma in the early mod-
ka Tomaž takes us into Slovenian archaeology. ern period and was viewed as divine punishment