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Pasko Kuzman

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Pasko Kuzman
Паско Кузман
Pasko Kuzman with Macedonian president Gjorge Ivanov
Director of Cultural Heritage Protection Office
In office
2006–2013
PresidentGjorge Ivanov
Prime MinisterNikola Gruevski
Personal details
Born (1947-10-15) October 15, 1947 (age 77)
Vapila, Socialist Republic of Macedonia
CitizenshipMacedonian
ProfessionArchaeologist
Websitewww.paskokuzman.com

Pasko Kuzman (Macedonian: Паско Кузман; born 1947) is a Macedonian archaeologist who was the director of the Cultural Heritage Protection Office.

Work

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Pasko Kuzman was born in the village of Vapila in the Ohrid region, SR Macedonia, SFR Yugoslavia (now North Macedonia), on October 15, 1947. He graduated in archaeology in Belgrade. As an archaeologist specialising in prehistoric archaeology and protohistoric archaeology, he started working at the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and the National Museum of Ohrid from 1979 and was also its director from 1999 to 2004. From 1980 to 1990, he was the president of the Macedonian Archaeological Scientific Society.[1] Kuzman also authored two poetry books called Romans (Macedonian: Римјани; 1987) and Balsamara (Macedonian: Балсамара; 1990).[2][3]

Kuzman had excavated various places,[1] such as 3,000-year-old submerged sites of Lychnidos, and some remains in the area of the Samuil's Fortress, which were built probably at the time of Philip II.[4][5][6] He became the director of the Cultural Heritage Protection Office in 2006.[1] During his tenure, he was one of the main proponents of the myth of historical continuity between ancient Macedonians and modern Macedonians (antiquisation).[7][8][9] He supported the construction of a church-museum on the site of the Skopje Fortress in 2011, which caused a dispute between Albanians and Macedonians.[10] After Macedonian and Albanian protesters injured each other in a protest in February, a spokesperson of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia demanded his resignation.[11] As a solution to the dispute, he suggested the reconstruction of an Ottoman-era tower.[12] The construction of the church-museum ceased in the same year.[13]

In 2013 he was arrested and charged with illegally issuing digging permits, and placed under house arrest for 30 days.[14] His term as director of the Cultural Heritage Protection Office ended in the same year.[15] A year later he was found guilty of aiding a criminal ring in excavating and selling off valuable archaeological artefacts, and was sentenced to three years in prison.[16] In 2018, he was charged with misuse of his position as director by the financial police on the basis that he caused harm to the budget through a deal he made with a contractor of a construction company.[17]

Personal life and views

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Kuzman is married and has four daughters, as well as a grandchild.[18]

Kuzman is a self-proclaimed time traveller. He wears three watches on his left wrist, which he said help him travel through time: one takes him back to the Bronze and Neolithic Age, one takes him to the future, and the third is the "archaeological watch," which alerts him to the presence of artefacts.[6]

Kuzman believes that the archaeological mystery of the tomb of Alexander the Great is hidden in southeastern parts of Macedonia, and pledged in an interview in late 2012 that he will never stop searching for the tomb.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Makedonska enciklopedija: A-LJ. MANU. 2009. p. 770. ISBN 9786082030234.
  2. ^ Asen Grupče (1998). Ohrid: kulturniot život i tvoreštvo vo Ohrid i Ohridsko vo 20. vek: pregled na poistaknati ličnosti od 20. vek (in Macedonian). Matica makedonska. p. 79. ISBN 9789989481765.
  3. ^ "К". Друштво на писатели на Македонија (in Macedonian). Archived from the original on May 28, 2009.
  4. ^ "Samuel's Fortress in Ohrid and its hidden secrets to Macedonia's ancient past". Macedonia Times. 12 April 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Macedonia's 'Indiana Jones' Scorns Retiring at 65". Balkan Insight. 2012-11-17. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  6. ^ a b Richard Bangs (2007). Adventures with Purpose: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Earth. Menasha Ridge Press. p. 297. ISBN 9780897327367.
  7. ^ Claudia Lichnofsky; Enriketa Pandelejmoni; Darko Stojanov, eds. (2017). Myths and Mythical Spaces: Conditions and Challenges for History Textbooks in Albania and South-Eastern Europe. V&R unipress GmbH. p. 88. ISBN 9783737008112.
  8. ^ Naoum Kaytchev (2014). "Being Macedonian: Different Types of Ethnic Identifications in the Contemporary Republic of Macedonia". Politeja. 11 (4): 125–126. doi:10.12797/Politeja.11.2014.30.13.
  9. ^ Aneta Cekikj; Klaudia Koxha; Reinhard Heinisch, eds. (2024). "Chapter 11: Populists in Government: The Case of IMRO-DPMNU's Rule in North Macedonia 2006-2016". Perspectives on Populism: Diverse Voices from the European "Periphery". Nomos. p. 290. ISBN 978-3-7489-1728-1.
  10. ^ Ljupčo Risteski (2016). "Monuments And Urban Nationalism. The Skopje 2014 Project". Antropologija (3): 57.
  11. ^ "Меѓу-национален инцидент на Кале". Radio Free Europe (in Macedonian). February 13, 2011.
  12. ^ "News Bid to Defuse Row Over Skopje Fortress". Balkan Insight. August 26, 2011.
  13. ^ Rozita Dimova (2013). Ethno-Baroque: Materiality, Aesthetics and Conflict in Modern-Day Macedonia. Berghahn Books. p. 134. ISBN 9781782380412.
  14. ^ "Macedonia Puts Top Archaeologist Under House Arrest". Balkan insight. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  15. ^ "Виктор Лилчиќ ќе седне во фотелјата на Паско Кузман". Faktor (in Macedonian). 31 July 2013.
  16. ^ "Macedonia Jails its Top Archaeologist". Balkan Insight. 2014-07-25. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
  17. ^ "Паско Кузман заработи кривична пријава од финансиската полиција - го оштетил буџетот за 34 милиони денари". Sitel (in Macedonian). 22 March 2018.
  18. ^ "Паско Кузман стана дедо". Vecer (in Macedonian). 29 December 2009. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011.
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