Mirko Malez

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Mirko Malez in 1976

Mirko Malez (born November 5, 1924 in Ivanec , † August 23, 1990 in Zagreb ) was an important Yugoslav paleontologist , cave explorer and geoscientist from today's Croatia . He is considered a pioneer of Yugoslav speleology. His focus was on mammals of the Pleistocene , but he also worked on human prehistory at the central sites of northern Yugoslavia . He also campaigned in the field of nature conservation.

life and work

Mirko Malez was the first of six children of the barber and amateur photographer Slavko Malez and Matilda Polak. As early as 1935, the eleven-year-old student was fascinated by an exhibition by the archaeologist Stjepan Vuković on the Vindija Cave - in 1931, Vuković was the first in Yugoslavia to use experimental archeology. Malez graduated from school in 1939, but because his family was probably unable to finance a visit to the local grammar school, he started an apprenticeship as an electrician in the local lignite mine. He also worked there during the Second World War , but could not finish his training. In 1945 he was taken prisoner by the partisans because he was associated with the Ustaše . But he worked on the repair of a local power station until he was released from captivity.

After his release from prison he returned to his hometown, where he made up his Abitur in 1948. Malez 'daughter Vesna Malez, who was born in 1949, worked as a paleo-ornithologist in Zagreb .

Malez came into contact with Stjepan Vuković , who between 1928 and 1969 repeatedly worked on the Vindija cave near Ivanec. Malez, who loved being in nature, soon worked with Vuković and visited the prehistoric sites of Ivanščica , Ravna Gora and Vindija. He soon published his first articles in the magazines Srednjoškolac and Varaždinske vijesti and decided to study geology and paleontology. In 1953 he obtained his bachelor's degree , published his first excavation report that same year, and in 1963 he received his doctorate in both subjects with a thesis on the stratigraphy and paleontology of the Veternica cave Medvednica near Zagreb.

From 1946, Malez worked as a cave explorer and published his results from 1952 to 1974 mainly in Ljetopis JAZU . In 1953 he was one of the founders of the journal Speleolog , the first speleological journal in Yugoslavia. In 1958 he was one of the organizers of the first specialist congress in Split, as well as the 9th congress of speleologists in Karlovac in 1984 .

The entrance to the Vindija cave

On June 6, 1953, Malez took up his assistant position at the Geological-Paleontological Collection and the Karst Laboratory of JAZU, the Yugoslav Academy of Art and Science. Malez became the director of what was now the Institute for Quaternary Paleontology and Geology. From 1978 he became director of an affiliated research institute, which he headed until March 1990. In the course of international collaborations, he traveled to Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, as well as Mexico, China and East Africa. In addition to numerous investigations into palaeofauna - his team discovered the remains of a fossil elephant between Rab, Laganj and Pag - he mainly worked in the Šandalja cave near Pula, where he primarily devoted himself to the Gravettienstraten . 1974 to 1986 he worked in the Vindija cave.

He published about 430 scientific articles. In 1966 he received the Ruđer Bošković Prize, was a member of the Speleological Society of Croatia, the Croatian Natural History Society, the Croatian Anthropological and Geographical Society. He also worked in the German Quaternary Association , the Hugo Obermaier Society . In 1978 he participated in the overview work The Prehistory of the Yugoslav Countries . Most recently he published a biography of the Croatian-Argentinian scientist Luka Kraljević .

Skeleton of a Mammuthus meridionalis , National Museum of Natural History, Paris
Participants in the conference Krapinski pračovjek i evolucija hominida , which took place on September 17, 1976 on the occasion of the 120th birthday of Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger and the 75th anniversary of the discovery of the Neanderthal remains in Krapina (from left to right: Mirko Malez, Stjepan Nežmahen and Juraj Kallay. Es. Juraj Kallay reads Ljudevit Barić).

Four new species were named after Malez, namely Dalmatichthys malezi (Radovčić 1975), a species of ray fins , Ilyocypris malezi (Sokač 1978), Mimomys malezi (Rabeder 1983) and Vaccinites malezi (Slišković 1991).

Works (selection)

Conference in honor of Mirko Malez in 2010
  • First finding of the upper diluvial man in the Dinaric Karst , in: Bulletin scientifique 3.2 (1956) 47-49.
  • Paleontološka i speleološka istraživanja u 1960. godini , Ljetopis JAZU 67 (1960) 250-269.
  • Discovery of the first Paleolithic site in Dalmatia , in: Bulletin scientifique 5,4 (1960).
  • Šandalja near Pula - a new and important palaeolithic site in Istria , in: Bulletin scientifique 9,6 (1964) 154 f.
  • Paleolitska nalazišta Hrvatske , in: Arheološki vestnik 18 (1967) 255-284.
  • Gornjopleistocenska fauna Crvene stijene, in: Glaznik Zemalskog Muz. Bosne Hercegovine NS 21/22 (1967) 67-80.
  • Šandalja near Pula - an important settlement of the Upper Palaeolithic hunters in Istria , in: International Congress for Speleology , Vol. 3, Stuttgart 1969.
  • (Ed.): Krapina 1899-1969 , Zagreb 1970.
  • The Vindija cave - a new site of fossil hominids in Croatia , in: Bulletin scientifique. Conseil des Academies des Sciences et des Arts de la RSF de Yugoslavie 20: 5-6 (1975) 139-141.
  • Stratigrafski, paleofaunski i paleolitski odnosi krapinskog nalazišta , in: Ders. (Ed.): Krapinski pračovjek i evolucija hominida , 1978, pp. 61-91.
  • (Ed.): Krapinski pračovjek i evolucija hominida: zbornik predavanja održanih na Znanstvenom skupu "Krapinski pračovjek i evolucija hominida" u Krapini dne 17. rujna 1976. Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti i umjetnosti i umjetnosti 1978
  • Nalazišta paleolitskog i mezolitskog doba u Hrvatskoj , in: Alojz Benac (ed.): Praistorija jugoslavenskih zemalja , Vol. I, Sarajevo 1979, pp. 227-276.
  • Spilja Vindija kao kultno mjesto neandertalaca , in: Godišnjak Gradskog muzeja u Varaždinu 7 (1985) 31-47.
  • On the possibility of the existence of 'a skull cult' in Neanderthals from the Vindija cave (Croatia, Yugoslavia) , in: Collegium Anthropologicum 9.2 (1985) 231-240.
  • Pregled paleolitičkih i mezolitičkih kultura na području Istre , in: Izdanja Hrvatskog arheološkog društva, br. 11 (1986) 3-47. (Overview of paleolithic and mesolithic cultures in Istria)

literature

  • K. Buršić-Matijašić: Malez, Mirko , Istvarska Encikloedija

Remarks

  1. ↑ Andrea Jerkušić: The History of Experimental Archeology in Croatia , in: Jodi Reeves Flores, Roeland Paardekooper (Ed.): Experiments Past. Histories of Experimental Archeology , Sidestone Press, 2014, p. 15.
  2. ↑ Mirko Malez, Jadranka Lenardić-Fabić: New subspecies of the southern elephant ( Mammuthus meridionalis adriacus n. Ssp.) From the bottom of the Adriatic Sea (Croatia, Yugoslavia) , in: Palaeontologia jugoslavica 37 (1988).
  3. ↑ Mirko Malez (ed.): Krapinski pračovjek i evolucija hominida: zbornik predavanja održanih na Znanstvenom skupu "Krapinski pračovjek i evolucija hominida" u Krapini dne 17th rujna 1976. Jugoslavenska academy i umjetnosti 1978, p. 21st.
  4. ↑ Gernot Rabeder: Mimomys malezi n. Sp., A new Arvicolide (Rodentia) from the Old Pleistocene of Dalmatia , in: Beitr. Paläont. Austrian 10: 1-13, Vienna 1983 (PDF).
personal data
SURNAME Malez, Mirko
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Yugoslav paleontologist and speleologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Ivanec
DATE OF DEATH 23rd August 1990
Place of death Zagreb