DR IVAN SMILJANIĆ ON HUNGER STONES AND THE HISTORY OF DROUGHTS
What can stones in riverbeds tell us about droughts of the past?
Our colleague Dr Ivan Smiljanić spoke to Svet24 about his research on hunger stones – rocks in riverbeds on which people carved dates and inscriptions during periods of exceptionally low water levels, preserving the memory of severe droughts.
In his research, he has documented four such examples in Slovenia. Particularly interesting is a stone in the Drava River near Maribor bearing the year 1834, a year of catastrophic drought, which reportedly reappeared during low water levels in 1921. Its existence and location have not yet been confirmed today, but divers from Maribor have announced plans to search for it.
Hunger stones are not merely records of extreme weather events. They also reveal how communities preserved memories of natural disasters and how these unusual monuments acquired new meanings over time.
Read more in the Svet24 article:
https://svet24.si/novice/slovenija/kamen-lakote-maribor-zidani-most-1918925
You can also learn more about the topic in Vpogledi 28 – Suše v zgodovini in njihov vpliv na okolje, družbo in prebivalstvo, which includes Dr Ivan Smiljanić’s article »Če me vidiš, jokaj.« Kamni lakote kot znanilci suše v srednji Evropi.
The publication is available in open access:
https://omp.inz.si/zalozba/sl/catalog/book/160
You are warmly invited to reading!