Florin Curta (born January 15, 1965[1]) is a Romanian-born American archaeologist and historian who is a professor of medieval history and archaeology at the University of Florida.
[2] Curta's first book, The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, was named a 2002 Choice Outstanding Academic Title and won the Herbert Baxter Adams Award of the American Historical Association in 2003.
[4] Being inspired by Reinhard Wenskus and the Vienna School of History, Curta's work since The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region (2001) is known for his usage of post-processual and post-structuralist approach in explaining Slavic ethnogenesis and migrations (especially regarding Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe), arguing against the mainstream view and primordial culture-historical approach in archaeology and historiography.
Instead, Curta advances an alternative, "revisionist"[10][11] hypothesis which considers the Slavs as an "ethno-political category" invented by the Byzantines which was formed by political instrumentation and interaction on the Roman Danubian frontier where barbarian elite culture flourished.
[29] Curta's claim that the Common Slavic is "an artificial, scholarly construct not attested by any piece of hard evidence" (2015[30]) was criticized by Jouko Lindstedt that "only shows his ignorance of the historical-comparative method.
[10] Others criticized his "very cursory and selective analysis of sources concerning the history of Byzantium",[32] inadequate argumentation and contradicting information given by ancient Byzantine historiographers such as Theophylact Simocatta,[10][24] or arbitrary evulation and citation of Jordanes.
[35] Although Curta's work found partial support by those who use a similar approach, like Walter Pohl and Danijel Džino,[19][36] and sparked new scientific debate (with some importance for archaeology[9]),[16] the migrationist model remains in the view of many as the most acceptable and possible to explain the spread of the Slavs as well as Slavic culture (including language).