MINING THE PAST – LANDSCAPES OF THE FUTURE
The seminar “Mining the Past, Landscapes of the Future,” held in 2025 at the Palace of Science, emerged from the need to revisit the places that shaped us but that we now push to the margins—industrial complexes, mines, factories, and landscapes of labor that are slowly disappearing from collective memory. The seminar was realized with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Through conversations, lectures, and meetings, we sought to understand how the past does not remain behind us but constantly refracts through the present. We explored what landscapes of former mining, exploitation, and industrialization look like today, as well as how the same problems reappear through contemporary mining and construction activities. The idea was to show that the distant past is not so distant, and that questions of resources, pollution, technocracy, and power remain present in the society in which we live.
The seminar brought together students from a wide range of fields, including archaeology, geology, chemistry, biology, geography, forestry, art history, and ethnology. On the first day, we discussed the archaeological and historical mining of the past, from prehistory to the Middle Ages. Lectures were delivered by eminent experts from UCL College, the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade, the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, and the National Museum in Belgrade. We spoke about mining as a historical process, but also as a contemporary practice that continues to shape landscapes, communities, and lives. Topics included the discovery of metals, the earliest mining activities in the Balkans, Roman conquests driven by mineral wealth, and the rich mining centers of the medieval period. We also learned how forests, labor, and landscapes disappeared in the past, influencing population displacement and migration. On the second day, we turned to the present and the modern challenges of resource exploitation, addressing issues of globalization, colonization, and environmental destruction. Lecturers joined us from the Faculty of Forestry, the Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, and the Faculties of Biology and Geography.
The Palace of Science became a meeting point for these diverse voices and experiences—a space where we attempted to connect past and present, personal stories and broader social processes. The second part of the seminar was dedicated to a visit to the National Museum of Serbia, where students were introduced to movable cultural heritage originating from mining contexts, from prehistoric Vinča to the medieval mines of Kosovo and Metohija. We paid special attention to the Kosmaj collection, which includes a major Roman mining center that we also visited during a small excursion thanks to our collaborator and curator, Dr. Adam Crnobrnja.
On Mount Kosmaj, we visited sites of ancient Roman mining that remain present in the landscape even a thousand years later. We saw the locations of Roman mining shafts, a fortress, and a cemetery, as well as areas where metal was smelted during the Roman period and where the landscape remains “scorched” to this day. The landscapes and social issues we see and live with today are not neutral—they are the result of repeated histories, decisions, policies, and struggles. Understanding this past is the first step toward a different future and a healthier environment.
