Banatica

The objective of the Banatica journal is to publish academic studies in the field of history, archaeology, but also interdisciplinary studies regarding the history of Romania, with a special focus on the Banat, and the history of Central and South-Eastern Europe.

It was in 1971, namely half a century ago when Banatica scientific journal was for the first time published by the former History Museum of the Caraș-Severin county, nowadays The Museum of Highland Banat (since 1997). The time we are referred to was an open one for scientific research and many new or reactivated journals were published, and so an older tradition was picked up. By the means of those reviews, the scientific research performed by museums in Romania took an institutionalized shape since then. Some of Banatica constant aspects during those more than 50 years are worthy of notice: its shape, logo, and name, with one issue a 2-3 years in 1971-2005, and annual issues since 2008, all of them proving its continuity and giving it respectability.

The absence of a historiographic academic school in Timișoara motivated the museum of Reșița to come closer to Cluj historical school. So, the first issue of Banatica in 1971 was initiated by Acad. Constantin Daicoviciu, and was published under his high scientific patronage. His article in the first number of Banatica tried to draw on a program in what concerned the archaeological research in the Banat and the way the archaeologists had to follow it. He was accompanied then by the younger historians Costin Feneșan and Volker Wollmann from the Institute of History and Archaeology Cluj. The cooption of I. I. Russu, the great historian of Roman Antiquity, to the editorial committee, beginning with 1973, once with the second issue of Banatica, confered the journal a certain scientific value and visibility within the landscape of historical publications in Romania. The editorial office, ensured by Volker Wollmann up to 1980, provided Banatica the nedeed scientific standards. The editorial committee was ensured by Ilie Uzum, Ioan Popa, Vasile M. Zaberca, Marian Gumă, and Gheorghe Lazarovici up to 1989.

A revival of the publishing activity of our museum, and Banatica implicitly, comes after 1990. Continuity of names, shape of the journal, and interest in reflecting the historiographic problems of the Banat region were ensured during that period of deep and radical changes visible also in the case of other Romanian historical reviews. Dumitru Țeicu, the new editor-in-chief, as well as the new editorial office ensured by Valeriu Leu and, later, by Adriana Radu and Carmen Albert, provided the journal the necessary opening to the national and European historical research, both in the shape and the content of Banatica. The trend of that European opening is probably better put in light by the issues from 1991 (N^o 11) and 1993 (N^o 13), with studies on Vinča culture, or on the Thraco-Illyrain-Helladic relations, developed in scientific international conferences. Banatica was a pioneer in the Banat, from that point of view concernig the integration into the European research, immediately after 1990. Due to the permanent increasing of scientific contributions the journal received, the editor decided the publication of two separate issues for some of the numbers (one for Archaeology, one for History), a trend which goes on today. The first “in the honor” issues also were initiated in the 90s, and so Banatica 11/ 1991 was dedicated to prof. dr. doc. Vladimir Dumitrescu (in memoriam), Banatica 12-I/ 1993, and 16-I/ 2003, to archaeologists Marius Moga and Gheorghe Lazarovici, respectively.

A reconfiguration of the editorial activity and policy, according to the new researching issues and editorial rules for scientific journals took place in 2008. Banatica has been annualy published since then, with two distinctive issues in certain years when the received contributions allowed it (20 I-II/2010, 24 I-II/2014, 26 I-II/2016 și 29 I-II/2019, 30 I-II/2020, 31 I-II/2021). Apart from the editorial board, ensured by Dumitru Țeicu, editor-in-chief, Ligia Boldea and Adrian Magina – in the editorial office, and other researchers or museographers/ curators working in our museum, or external ones (Livia Magina, Vasile Rămneanțu, Alexandru Szentmiklosi, Ana Hamat, Alexandru Simon, Florin Gogâltan, Călin Timoc), the Scientific Council was instituted by coopting well respected professors and historians from Bucharest, Cluj, Iași, Graz, Tübingen, London, Szeged, and Novi Sad; it is the expression of Banatica editorial policy to firmly enter the historic structures of Central and South-Eastern Europe. In view of the journal accuracy and scientific quality, they set deontological and making-up standars, and review criteria according to the new national and international tendencies in journals evaluation and listing. ERIH PLUS, EBSCO, and CEEOL are the present international listings of Banatica in research databases.

For the subjects, Banatica also substantially extended its researching horizon with national and Central-South-Eastern contributions, together with those concerning the Banat or Transylvania history. These have been some of the factors to facilitate the contributions from national and abroad university and academic centers, as the practice of publishing works from internationale conferences (Banatica 26-II/2016, on Medieval Research, Timișoara, October 2015) and of honoring Romanian and European personalities continued, and so the journal published scientific studies from Germany, France, U. K., Austria, Poland, Republic of Moldavia, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Russia, Kazahstan, USA, and Canada (Banatica 23/2013 dedicated to Acad. Victor Spinei; 25/2015 dedicated to prof. dr. dr. Harald Heppner; 27/2017 dedicated to prof. dr. Volker Wollmann). Such an editorial policy allowed us to cover the great historical eras (from pre-history to recent times), almost the each issue, with a various area of subjects in studies, articles, archaeological reports (on sistematic or preventive research), archaeological notes or unpublished restitutions. We also succedeed to publish part of the materials translated into a language of international use and to ensure so a better visibility of Banatica.