Edi Shukriu

Edi M. Shukriu (22 October 1950 – January 2023) was a Kosovan political figure, archaeologist, and writer. She wrote seven books of poetry. She was awarded the Dea Dardanciae award by the Kosovan Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, and won the Beqir Musliu Literary Award, the Award of the Writers' Association of Kosovo, and the scientific book of the year award in 1996.

Biography A native of Prizren, Shukriu was born on 22 October 1950.She earned a master's degree in archaeology from the University of Belgrade in 1972; in October 1990 she finished her doctorate in the same discipline at the University of Pristina. First employed by the Kosovo Museum, she then taught archaeology in Pristina.

As an archeologist, Shukriu has been called the 'founder of Dardanology". Shukriu was responsible for the discovery of the Goddess on the Throne (Hyjnesha në Fron), a terracotta figure which has become a symbol of the culture of Kosovo Albanians. Among the first Kosovar women to publish poetry in Albanian, she graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2005. Shukriu died in January 2023, at the age of 72.