This is not a laudatio. Benefiting from the understanding of the editors of the present volume, I set out to write a few thoughts – both the good and the bad – about Professor Florin Drașovean as I have known him throughout the 35 years since we first met. We were close, then we grew apart, came close again and grew apart yet again, sailing on the troubled professional and spiritual waters that brought us here. Those aware of the ups and the more notorious downs of our relationship may wonder why I wanted to write this. The answer is simple: because there is a story to tell.

[1] He graduated from the History and Philosophy Faculty of the University of Cluj-Napoca in 1980, with Professor Hadrian Daicoviciu as the supervisor of his undergraduate thesis (Florin Draşovean, “Cultura Starcevo-Criş în bazinul Mureşului mijlociu,” in Apulum XIX (1981): 33-45). Subsequently, he taught at General School No. 9 in Hunedoara until 1984.

[2] Florin Draşovean, Aşezarea vinciană de la Hodoni (Timişoara: Muzeul Banatului, 1991); Florin Draşovean, Dumitru Ţeicu and Marius Munteanu, Hodoni. Locuirile neolitice târzii şi necropola medievală timpurie (Reşiţa: Muzeul de Istorie al Județului Caraş-Severin, 1996); Florin Draşovean, Dumitru Ţeicu and Marius Munteanu, “Câteva clarificări ale unor “Clarificări privind cercetările de la Hodoni (Jud. Timiş) din anii 1959-1960” … şi câte ceva despre un op,” in Analele Banatului VI (1998): 701-706.

[3] The methods were innovative for Romanian research at that time, continuing and improving upon the models put forward by Professor Lazarovici: Florin Draşovean, “Aşezarea neolitică de la Hunedoara – “Dealul Sânpetru,” in Sargetia XX (1986-1987): 12-17; Florin Draşovean, “Observaţii pe baza unor materiale inedite privind raporturile dintre culturile Starcevo-Criş, Vinča A şi ceramica liniară în nordul Banatului,” in Apulum XXVI (1989): 9-48.

[4] Florin Draşovean, Florin Gogâltan and Petru Rogozea, “Româneşti, „Peştera cu Apă”, com. Tomeşti, jud. Timiş,” in Situri arheologice cercetate în perioada 1983-1992, I, ed. Valeriu Sîrbu (Brăila: Muzeul Brăilei, 1996), 96-97; Petru Rogozea, “New archaeological finds in the cave from Româneşti, Timiş county,” in The Early Hallstatt Period (1200-700 B.C.) in South-Eastern Europe, eds. Horia Ciugudean and Nikolaus Boroffka (Alba Iulia: Muzeul Național al Unirii, 1994), 155-166; M. Gumă, Epoca bronzului în Banat. Orizonturi cronologice şi manifestări culturale. The Bronze Age in Banat. Chronological levels and cultural entities (Timişoara: Mirton, 1997), 64, Pl. LXXI-LXXIII.

[5] Florin Draşovean, Cultura Vinča târzie (faza C) în Banat. Die späte Vinča Kultur (Stufe C) im Banat (Timişoara: Mirton, 1996); Viorica Aghiţoaie and Florin Draşovean, “Date despre impresiunea unei ţesături descoperită în aşezarea neolitică târzie de la Foeni-“Cimitirul Ortodox,” in Patrimonium Banaticum III (2004): 47-49; Florin Draşovean, “Zona thessalo-macedoneană şi Dunărea mijlocie la sfârşitul mileniului al VI-lea şi la începutul mileniului al V-lea în. Chr.” In Apulum XLII (2005): 11-26; Florin Draşovean, “Înmormântările din arealul grupului cultural Foeni,” in Analele Banatului XIV (2006): 129-134.

[6] Florin Gogâltan, “Foeni, eine frühbronzezeitliche Siedlung aus dem Südwesten Rumäniens. Vorläufiger Bericht,” in Thraco-Dacica XIV (1993): 51-64.

[7] Florin Draşovean, “Connections between Vinča C and Tisa, Herpaly, Petreşti Cultures in northern Banat,” in Banatica 11 (1991): 209-212; Florin Draşovean, “Die Stufe Vinca C im Banat,” in Germania. Anzeiger der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission des deutschen Archäologischen Institut 72, 2 (1994): 409-425; Florin Draşovean, “Relations of the Vinca Culture, phase C with the Transylvanian region,” in The Vinca Culture, its Role and Cultural Connections: International Symposium on the Vinca Culture, Its Role and Cultural Connections, Timișoara, Romania, October 1995, ed. Florin Draşovean (Timişoara: Mirton, 1996), 269-279; Florin Draşovean, “Die Petreşti-Kultur im Banat,” in Praehistorische Zeitschrift 72 (1997): 54-80.

[8] Florin Gogâltan, “Die Frühe Bronzezeit in Südwesten Rumäniens. Stand der Forschung,” in Thraco-Dacica XVI (1995): 55-79; Florin Gogâltan, “About the Early Bronze Age in the Romanian Banat,” in The Yugoslav Danube Basin and the Neighbouring Regions in the 2^nd Millenium B.C., ed. Nicola Tasić (Belgrade-Vršac: Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Institute for Balkan Studies, 1996), 43-67.

[9] Haskel J. Greenfield and Florin Draşovean, “Preliminary report on the 1992 excavations at Foeni-Salaş: an early Neolithic Starčevo-Criş settlement in the Romanian Banat,” in Analele Banatului III (1994): 45-85; Florin Gogâltan, “Foeni, jud. Timiş,” in Cronica cercetărilor arheologice. Campania 1993. A XXVIII-a sesiune naţională de rapoarte arheologice, Satu Mare, 12-15 mai 1994 (Satu Mare: Muzeul Județean Satu Mare, 1994), 24; Florin Draşovean, “Regional aspects in the process of Neolithisation of the Banat (south-western Romania): the settlement of Foeni-Sălaş,” in A Short Walk to The Balkans: The First Farmers of the Carpathian Bassin and the Adjacent Regions: Proceedings of the Conference Held at the Institute of Archaeology UCL on June 20th-22nd, 2005, eds. Michela Spataro and Paolo Biagi (Trieste: Società per la preistoria e protostoria della regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 2007), 67-76.

[10] Florin Draşovean and Alexandru Fota, “Noi descoperiri arheologice pe teritoriul satului Cruceni (com. Foeni, jud. Timiş),” in Patrimonium Banaticum II (2003): 55-67; Florin Draşovean, “Contribuții la repertoriul arheologic al județului Timiș. Topografia arheologică a comunei Foeni,” in Patrimonium Banaticum VIII (2018): 103-138.

[11] Florin Draşovean, “Aşezarea neolitică de la Satchinez,” in Cultura Vinča în România, Eds. Gheorghe Lazarovici and Florin Draşovean (Timișoara: Muzeul Banatului, 1991), 24-26; Florin Draşovean, “Aşezarea neolitică de la Satchinez,” in Analele Banatului II (1993): 25-48.

[12] Florin Draşovean and Florentina Marțiș, “A Clay Tablet Discovered in the Late Neolithic Settlement from Sânandrei (Timiş County, South-West of Romania),” in Fifty Years of Tărtăria Excavations: papers presented at the International Symposium "50 Years of Tărtăria Excavations", Coronini-Pescari, Romania, 1-5 September, 2011. Festschrift in honor of Gheorghe Lazarovici on the occasion of his 73rd birthday, Ed. John Marler (Sebastopol: Institute of Archaeomythology and Suceava: Lidana, 2014), 67-72; Florin Draşovean, “A Spondylus Gaederopus Linnaeus, 1753 spiny oyster pendant from the Neolithic settlement of Sânandrei-Ocsăplaț (Timiş County, western Romania),” in Studii de Preistorie 15 (2018): 29-50.

[13] Florin Draşovean, Cultura Petreşti în Banat (Timişoara: Orizonturi Universitare, 1999); Florin Draşovean, “Cultural Relationships in the Late Neolithic of the Banat,” in Ten Years After: The Neolithic of the Balkans, as uncovered by the last decade of reseach. Proceedings of the Conference Held at the Museum of Banat on November 9th - 10th, 2007, Eds. Florin Draşovean, Dan Leopold Ciobotaru and Margaret Maddison (Timişoara: Marineasa, 2009), 259-274.

[14] Florin Gogâltan, “Un oggetto di argento appartenendo alla fine di Hallstatt nei collezioni di Museo di Timişoara,” in Ephemeris Napocensis IV (1994): 17-22; Florin Gogâltan, “Bronzul mijlociu în Banat. Opinii privind grupul Corneşti-Crvenka,” in Festschrift für Florin Medeleţ. Zum 60. Geburtstag, Eds. Petru Rogozea and Valentin Cedică (Timişoara: Mirton, 2004), 79-153.

[15] Florin Draşovean, Dan Leopold Ciubotaru, and Alexandru Szentmiklosi, “Foeni, jud. Timiş,” in Cronica cercetărilor arheologice. Campania 1996. A XXXI-a sesiune naţională de rapoarte arheologice Bucureşti, 12-15 iunie 1996, red. Cornelia Stoica (Bucureşti: CIMEC-Institutul de Memorie Culturală, 1997): 17.

[16] Florin Draşovean, Valentin Cedică, and Dan Leopold Ciubotaru and Florin Gogâltan, “Foeni, com. Foeni, jud. Timiş. Punct: Cimitirul ortodox. Cod sit: 157013.01,” in Cronica cercetărilor arheologice. Campania 1999. A XXXIV-a sesiune naţională de rapoarte arheologice Deva, 24-28 mai 2000, red. Corina Borș, Irina Oberländer-Târnoveanu, Florela Vasilescu and Tiberiu Vasilescu (Bucureşti: CIMEC-Institutul de Memorie Culturală, 2000), 37.

[17] Since then, 57 volumes have been published in this series, of which six have received awards from the Romanian Academy!

[18] Florin Gogâltan, Bronzul timpuriu şi mijlociu în Banatul românesc şi pe cursul inferior al Mureşului. I. Cronologia şi descoperirile de metal (Timişoara: Orizonturi Universitare, 1999).

[19] Florin Draşovean, “Neolithic settlements from Hunedoara-“Cimitirul Reformat” and “Grădina Castelului” and a position concerning some opinions regarding the neo-eneolithic facts from the south-west of Transylvania,” in Patrimonium Banaticum I (2002): 43-76.

[20] Wolfram Schier and Florin Draşovean, “Vorbericht über die rumänisch-deutschen Prospektionen und Ausgrabungen in der befestigten Tellsiedlung von Uivar, Kreis Timiş, Rumänien (1998-2002),” inPraehistorische Zeitschrift 79, 2 (2004): 145-230; Florin Draşovean and Wolfram Schier, “The Neolithic tell sites of Parţa and Uivar (Romanian Banat). A comparison of their architectural sequence and organization of social space,” in Leben auf dem Tell als soziale Praxis, Beiträge des Internationalen Symposiums in Berlin vom 26.–27. Februar 2007, Ed. Svend Hansen (Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, 2010), 165-188; Florin Draşovean, Wolfram Schier, Alex Bayliss, Bisserka Gaydarska and Alasdair Whittle, “The lives of houses: duration, contexts and histories at Neolithic Uivar,” in European Journal of Archaeology 20, 4 (2017): 636-662.

[21] Gheorghe Lazarovici, Florin Draşovean, and Zoia Maxim, Parţa. Monografie arheologică (Timişoara: Waldpress, 2001).

[22] Gheorghe Lazarovici, Zoia Kalmar, Florin Draşovean, and Sabin Adrian Luca, “Complexul neolitic de la Parţa,” in Banatica 8 (1985): 7-71; Florin Draşovean and Milan Topolovcici, “O piesă de cult descoperită la Parţa,” in Studii și Cercetări de Istorie Veche și Arheologie 40, 2 (1989): 199-201; Gheorghe Lazarovici, Florin Draşovean, and Liviu Tulbure, Sanctuarul neolitic de la Parţa (Timişoara: Muzeul Banatului, 1991); Gheorghe Lazarovici, Florin Draşovean and Zoia Kalmar, “Complexul neolitic de la Parţa,” in Analele Banatului II (1993): 49-60; Gheorghe Lazarovici, Florin Draşovean and Zoia Kalmar, “Complexul neolitic de la Parţa,” in Analele Banatului III (1994): 106-135; Gheorghe Lazarovici, Florin Draşovean, and Zoia Kalmar, “Săpăturile arheologice de la Parţa (campania arheologică 1990),” in Analele Banatului IV (1995): 3-44; Gheorghe Lazarovici, Florin Draşovean, and Zoia Kalmar, “Complexul neolitic de la Parţa (III),” in Analele Banatului IV (1995): 45-67.

[23] Florin Draşovean and Dan Ciobotaru, The Neolithic Art in Banat (Timişoara: Solness, 2001); Florin Draşovean and Wolfram Schier, “Masca de lut descoperită în tellul neolitic de la Uivar (jud. Timiş),” in Analele Banatului XII-XIII (2004-2005): 41-56; Florin Draşovean and Dragomir Nicolae Popovici, L’art neolithique en Roumanie/The Neolithic Art in Romania/Neolitische kunst in Rumänien (Milano: Arte’m, 2008).

[24] Florin Draşovean, “Transylvania and the Banat in the Late Neolithic. The Origins of the Petreşti Culture,” in Antaeus 27 (2004): 27–36; Florin Draşovean, “The Starčevo-Criş and Vinča transition in northern Banat,” in Current problems of the transition period from the Starčevo to the Vinča Culture (Zrenjanin: National Museum, 2006), 93-109; Florin Draşovean, “Nordgriechenland und der Mittlere Donauraum zum Ende des 6. und Begins des 5. Jahrtausend v. Chr.,” in Homage to Milutin Garašanin, Ed. Nicola Tasić (Belgrade: Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2006), 267-276; Ferencz Horváth and Florin Draşovean, “The Remarks on the connections between the Banat and Great Hungarian Plain at the beginning of the Middle Neolithic (Satchinez – Aföld Linear Pottery – Esztár – Vinča),” in Moments in Time, Papers Presented to Pal Raczky on His 60th Birthday, Eds. Alexandra Anders, Gabriella Kulcsár, Gábor Kalla, Viktória Kiss, and Gábor V. Szabó (Budapest: Prehistoric Society, Eötvös Loránd University, L’Harmattan, 2013), 113-132; Florin Draşovean, “On the Late Neolithic and Early Eneolithic Relative and Absolute Chronology of the Eastern Carpathian Basin. A Bayesian approach,” in The Neolithic and Eneolithic in Southeast Europe. New approaches to dating and cultural dynamics in the 6th to 4th millenium BC., Eds. Wolfram Schier and Florin Draşovean (Rahden/West.: Marie Leidorf GmbH, 2014), 129-169.

[25] Florin Draşovean, Doina Benea, Mircea Mare, Marius Muntean, Daniela Tănase, Mariana Crânguş, Florentina Chiu, Dorel Micle, Mariana Crânguş, Simona Regep-Vlaşcici, Alexandru Szentmiklosi, Atalia Ştefănescu, and Călin Timoc, Cercetările arheologice preventive de la Dumbrăviţa (jud. Timiş) (Timişoara: Waldpres, 2004); Florin Draşovean, Mircea Mare, Petru Rogozea, and Florentina Marţiş, “Raport de cercetare arheologică preventivă derulată în piața Timișoara 700,” in Patrimonium Banaticum V (2006): 61-68; Florin Draşovean, Costin Feneşan, Alexandru Flutur, Alexandru Szentmiklosi, Georgeta El Susi, Zsuzsanna Kopeczny, Hedy M-Kiss, Raul Septilici, and Niculina Dinu, Timişoara în amurgul Evului Mediu (Timişoara: Mirton, 2007); Mircea Mare, Daniela Tănase, Florin Draşovean, Georgeta El Susi, and Szilárd S. Gál, Timișoara-Freidorf. Cercetările arheologice preventive din 2006 (Cluj-Napoca: Mega, 2011); Florin Draşovean and Sorin Tincu, “Păru. Unravelling the secrets of the dead in the Romanian’s largest Bronze Age cemetery,” in Current World Archaeology 64 (2014): 28-31.

[26] Alexandru Szentmiklosi and Florin Draşovean, Arta prelucrării bronzului în Banat (mileniul al doilea în. Chr.) (Timişoara: Muzeul Banatului, 2004; Wolfram Schier and Florin Draşovean, Masken, Menschen, Rituale. Alltag und Kult vor 7000 Jahren in der prähistorischen Siedlung von Uivar, Rumänien. Katalog zur Sonderausstellung, 21. April - 10. Juli 2005 (Würzburg: Würzburg Lehrstuhl für Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Institut für Altertumswissenschaften der Universität Würzburg, 2005).

[27] Florin Draşovean, Cosmin Ioan Suciu, and Dragoș Diaconescu, “Cercetările arheologice preventive din Piaţa Sfântul Gheorghe (2015),” in Patrimonium Banaticum VI (2016), 139-160.

[28] Florin Draşovean, “In regards to certain Late Neolithic-Eary Eneolithic synchronism from Banat and Transylvania. A Bayesian approach to published absolute dates,” in Studii de Preistorie 10 (2013): 13-48; Alasdair Whittle, Alex Bayliss, Alistair Barclay, Bisserka Gaydarska, Eszter Bánffy, Dušan Borić, Florin Drașovean, János Jakucs, Miroslav Marić, David Orton, Ivana Pantović, Wolfram Schier, Nenad Tasić, and Marc Vander Linden, “A Vinča potscape: formal chronological models for the use and development of Vinča ceramics in south-east Europe,” in Documenta Praehistorica XLIII (2016): 1-60; Florin Draşovean, Wolfram Schier, Alex Bayliss, Bisserka Gaydarska, and Alasdair Whittle, “The lives of houses: duration, contexts and histories at Neolithic Uivar,” in European Journal of Archaeology 20, 4 (2017): 636-662; Dragomir Nicolae Popovici and Florin Draşovean, “Despre evoluţia culturilor Precucuteni și Cucuteni. Analiza bayesiană a datelor ¹⁴C vs. crono-tipologie,” in Cercetări Arheologice XXVII (2020): 331-386.

[29] Michael D. Glascock, Alex W. Barker, and Florin Draşovean, “Sourcing Obsidian Artifacts from Archaeological Sites in Banat (Southwest Romania) by X-ray Fluorescence,” in Analele Banatului XXIII (2015): 45-50; Michael D. Glascock, Alex W. Barker, Sanda Băcueţ Crişan, Florin Draşovean, Mihai Gligor, and Dimitrie Negrei, “Sourcing Obsidian Artifacts from Archaeological Sites in Central and Western Romania by X-ray Fluorescence,” in Analele Banatului XXIV (2016): 75-85; Michael D. Glascock, Alex W. Barker, Ioan Alexandru Bărbat, Bogdan Bobână, Florin Drașovean, and Cristian Virag, “Sourcing Obsidian Artifacts from Archaeological Sites in Central and Northwestern Romania by X-ray Fluorescence,” in Ephemeris Napocensis XXVII (2017): 175-186.

[30] Florin Draşovean, Zsuzsanna Kopeczny, Georgeta El Susi, Florentina Marţiş, and Alexandru Flutur, O contribuţie la istoria Timişoarei medievale. Cercetările arheologice preventive efectuate pe strada Emanuil Ungureanu nr. 2 (Timișoara: Mega, 2018).

[31] Adrian Ardeț, Florin Drașovean, and Petru Urdea, “Complexul megalitic de la Muntele Mic,” in Tibiscum. Arheologie 6 (2018): 15-36.

[32] Florin Draşovean, “Despre unele practici de magie neagră din neoliticul bănăţean. O abordare etno-arheologică,” in Analele Banatului VI (2005): 5-12.

[33] Florin Gogâltan and Florin Draşovean, “Piese preistorice din cupru şi bronz din România aflate în colecţiile British Museum, Londra. I,” in Analele Banatului XXIII (2015): 119-150.

[34] See Facebook Florin Drașovean, 13 august 2020.

Fig. 1. Foeni-Cimitirul Ortodox (1993 – personal archive).

Fig. 2. Foeni-Cimitirul Ortodox (2000 – personal archive).