In honorem et memoriam Esada Pašalića

Esad Pašalić, born in 1915, was one of the most prominent historians and archaeologists in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through his work, research and  archaeological excavations, professor Pašalić has indebted the future generations of scholars, not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but in a much wider region. Although  his professional career lasted relatively briefly, we cannot say the same for his scholarly work abundant in contributions, articles, studies and one monography in the  span of about fifteen years. He spent his entire career at the Faculty of Philosophy  in Sarajevo, starting at the position of Senior Teaching Assistant to finally reaching  the position of Full Time Professor. During his work at the Faculty of Philosophy,  on two occasions he acted as the Dean of this Faculty. His social and scholarly work  was never limited within the walls of this institutions. Instead, he was active in numerous historical and archaeological societies such as the Association of University  Teachers and Scholars in Sarajevo, the Alliance of Historical Societies of Yugoslavia,  the Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia; he was the member of the Editorial Board  of the Yearbook of the Centre for Balkan Studies, the member of Inter-academic  Board of Scientific and Research Project Tabula Imperii Romani. We should also  mention that he was the international member of the Archaeological Institute in  Berlin, which shows how his work was recognized outside the Yugoslavian borders.  Although he wrote papers about different areas of history and archaeology in the  Roman period, his field of activity can roughly be divided into three groups: settlements and roads, the economy with a special focus on mining, and military-political history. Moreover, Pašalić lead archaeological excavations at two sites, and their  findings and results aided better understanding of circumstances in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Roman period. The first excavation was conducted  in the territory of present-day Ilidža under the auspices of the Museum of Sarajevo  from 1955 to 1963. Pašalić published a detailed report about the findings of this  excavation up to 1959. The second excavation took place in the territory of a mining district in north-western Bosnia in the valley of the Japra River from 1962 to the  end of 1967. During his intellectual peak, when the best and most fruitful years lied  ahead of him, Pašalić suddenly had apoplexy (stroke) and died several days later, on  10 June 1967, at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade.