Franz Nopcsa, a Hungarian geologist, paleontologist, and ethnographer, was born. From 1903 to 1922, he visited the northern mountains of Albania several times. He was one of the candidates for the throne of Albania in 1913. Franc Nopça was engaged in studying the geological structure of Northern Albania. He laid the foundations of its stratigraphy and tectonic division as well as that of the Dinarides, supporting the hypothesis of major horizontal tectonic displacements. He published numerous valuable geological studies on the Albanian Alps region. His most comprehensive work (620 pages) “Geographie und Geologie Nordalbaniens”, Budapest, 1929 (“Geography and Geology of Northern Albania”) is accompanied by the first geological map at a scale of 1:200,000 of Northern Albania. Simultaneously, he collected rich ethnographic material and published the results of his studies in several articles and works, such as “Das Katholische Nordalbanien“, Budapest, 1907 (“Catholic Northern Albania”); “Aus Šala und Klementi” Sarajevo, 1910 (“From Shala and Kelmendi”); “Haus und Hausrat im katholischen Nordalbanien“, Sarajevo, 1912 (“House and Household in Catholic Northern Albania”); “Beitrage zur Vorgeschichte und Ethnologie Nordalbaniens“, Sarajevo, 1912 (“Contributions to the Prehistory and Ethnology of Northern Albania”); “Albanien – Bauten, Trachten und Gärete“, Berlin & Leipzig, 1925 (“Albania – Buildings, Costumes, and Utensils”), which is his main work in this field. He was among the first to include archaeological data in ethnographic studies for Albania. He used a comparative method for material culture objects with other Mediterranean and Near Eastern regions. In ethnographic studies, he was the first to rigorously apply the principles of diffusionist or cultural circle schools. (In the photo: Franz Nopça in Albanian costume, 1915.)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 1852.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Nopcsa
Graphic processing: AHCF
