Branka Raunig (1 January 1935 - 13 June 2008) was a Bosnian archaeologist, prehistorian and museum curator.
Branka Raunig | |
---|---|
Born | 1 January 1935 |
Died | 13 June 2008 |
Alma mater | University of Belgrade |
Occupation(s) | Archaeologist; Museum Director. |
Raunig was born in Sarajevo on 1 January 1935.[1] Her early life was spent in Kraljevo.[2] From 1954 to 1958 she studied archaeology at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade.[2] One of her tutors was Branko Gavela.[2]
After graduation, Raunig moved to Bosnia Herzegovina, where she was employed at Pounje Museum in Bihać.[2] It was working there, on the archaeological material relating to the Japodi, that a lifelong academic interest began.[2][3] In 1963, Raunig moved to Museum of the Đakovo Region where she continued her work on the Japodi, with a focus on the Pounje area.[2] Material from that region became the subject of her Masters dissertation, which she was awarded in 1971.[2] From 1987 Raunig was director of the Pounje Museum, until her retirement in 1998.[2] In 1992 she defended and was subsequently awarded a PhD on the art and religion of the Japodi tribe.[4]
During her career she led excavations and published widely on a number of important sites in the region, including: Crkvina Golubić, Vranduk, Pod, Gradina and Sojeničko and a site near Gradiška.[2] She studied the funerary archaeology at Đakovo and was instrumental in recognising the presence of a Roman site there.[5][6] She also supervised excavations which discovered a mosque there.[7] Raunig was interested in many aspects of material cultures and made a study of ceramic material at the important site of Krčana where La Tene pottery was excavated.[8] She studied prehistoric weapons excavated in the region.[9] Whilst Raunig's main interest lay with Bosnian prehistory, she also worked on medieval sites.[10]
Raunig died in Bihać of pneumonia on 13 June 2008.[11]