What the Serbs knew about the Earth from the 7th to the 17th century

If we use the historical division of Geology into periods: pre-scientific, embryonic, as part of Natural History, independent, evolutionary, neo-catastrophic and mobility periods 1 ; at that time, from the 7th to the 17th century, the Serbs had knowledge about the Earth at the level of the first two periods. During the 7th and 8th century they were pagans, so they had empirical knowledge originating from various activities (agriculture, mining, construction, ceramics, brickmaking, quarrying, etc.). Theoretically, they only knew how god Svarog created the Earth and everything on it. In the 9th century, they adopted Christianity and immediately learned about the origin of the Earth from the Holy Scriptures. Since they also became literate at the same time, they began to translate books into their own language. They learned details about the “creation of the Earth” and its properties from these books. In this regard, the most important writings were the “Hexaemerons” (= Six Days), especially the one written by Basil the Great (translated into Serbian in the mid-14th century). It was the only book dedicated entirely to the Earth. Such knowledge, along with the advancement of empirical knowledge, remained until the 12th century. Between the 12th and 15th centuries, three processes took place: (1) the disintegration of the Serbian state began; (2) empirical knowledge about the Earth greatly advanced with the intensification of mining under the the rule of the Nemanjić dynasty and in the Despotate; and (3) a gradual transition to the next period was achieved. The restoration of the Hilandar Monastery played a major role in this. The fragmented territory of the Serbian state (Hungarians and Venetians from the 12th century), the Turks (from the 14th century) and the Austrians (from the 16th century) destroyed the homogeneity of the Serbian people. This significantly influenced the differentiation of the entire national culture and even the conditions for the beginning of embryonic geology. The only thing that was common was the knowledge from the «SixDays» of Basil the Great. For the Serbs under the Turks, it remained so until liberation in the 19th century Only in the Hilandar Monastery book copies were made with varying intensity In the territories of the Hungarians, Venetians and Austrians, however, information from the West was available (about Copernicus, Columbus’ discoveries, Magellan’s expedition, the Great Geographical Discoveries, about minerals, rocks, about (theories of the Earth», the progress of agriculture, etc.). All this influenced the completion and correction of primitive knowledge from the «Six Days» of Basil the Great (written in the 4th century) and the expansion of the horizons of those Serbs until the end of the period. They did not have their own experts for studying the Earth and its rocks. Schools were open, but Serbs in those countries could only be soldiers, priests and lawyers. That is why the «help» of two excellent Italian geologists was useful: Marsiglia (1699-1726) on the Danube and Fortis (1774) in Dalmatia. The transition to the next period took place between 1794 and 1811. That is, from the introduction of Geognosy to the Gymnasium in Sremski Karlovci and the appearance of the famous (but abridged due to the Church Slavonic language) «Estestvoznanije» byP. Kengelech. That time was marked by the appearance of Serbian books with geological content (within the framework of other natural sciences) and a significant enrichment of empirical knowledge.