When George met Slobodan: an important encounter in

the history of loess investigation

Ian Smalley
Giotto Loess Research Group, Geography Departrment,
Leicester University, Leicester L! "R#, U$
%i&s'(le)ac)u*+
,If you are coming do-n through the narro-s of the river $iang,
.lease let me *no- beforehand, /nd I -ill come out to meet you
/s far as 0ho1fu1sa)2 3ra .ound
4eetings are important) In the !567s $arl 0aesar von
Leonhard met 0harles Lyell in #eidelberg, and the study of
loess -as truly launched) $0vL had defined loess, and
given it status, by including it in his boo* 80hara*teristi*
der 9elsarten:%!5;'+) $0vL sho-ed the loess to Lyell, -ho
in turn, included it in his boo* 8.rinciples of Geology:) <he
8.rinciples: had -orld1-ide distribution, -as very
influential, and spread the -ord on loess)
In !==" George $u*la met Slobodan 4ar*ovic> a meeting
also -ith conse?uences) ach brought something
interesting to the encounter) $u*la -as a significant
pioneer in loess stratigraphy and had made the e@citing
connection bet-een the loess record and the data from
deep sea sediments) Slobodan, in effect, brought Serbia,
and thus smoothed access to -hat are arguably the best
loess deposits in urope) Serbian loess stratigraphy
became the benchmar* for uropean studies and provided
a useful impetus to the -holesale study of loess in the
Danube basin) $0vL A Lyell promoted Rhine loess> George
A Slobodan promoted Danube loess)
<here are other meetings that might usefully be
described1 that bet-een Bim Co-ler and Liu <ung1sheng,
and d Derbyshire and Wang Bing1tai) It must have been
close to the time of the launching of the IDEU/ Loess
0ommission that Bulius 9in* first encountered 4arton
.ecsi> a meeting of great loessic significance) <he ne@t
great meeting should perhaps be seen as an encounter
bet-een scholars of the 0hinese loess, scholars of the
uropean loess and scholars of the Dorth /merican loess1
the troi*a needs to drive together) 0orrelations need to be
made and a -orld1-ide loess stratigraphy established)
F.ersonal note> at the !="" IDEU/ 0ongress in
Cirmingham Ian Smalley of Leeds University met Dere*
4ilne of the De- Gealand Soil Cureau and e@pressed an
interest in the DG loess) 9rom such chance encounters
careers are shaped)H