Karst Research in Serbia before the Time of Jovan Cvijić

Abstract

Although contributions by Jovan Cvijić are the most significant karstological work in the history of science in Serbia, the researchers of Serbian karst before the time of Cvijić are worth mentioning as well. Their karstological notes are usually parts of much more extensive works in the form of travel-records or landscape monographs. Most notes are related to caves, with only scarce mentioning of karst surface features. The descriptive character of the texts is dominant, although there are also some general remarks on hydrological functioning of karst (ponor-spring connections, role of water in formation of speleothem, etc.). Several authors can be singled out: foreign travellers and scientists Otto von Pirch, Ami Boué and Felix Kanitz, while among the Serbian authors, it is necessary to mention Milan Đ. Milićević, Jovan Žujović and Cvijić’s teacher Vladimir Karić. All of them featured as an introduction to the scientific karstological work which followed at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.