REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

Viktor CSÁNYI: The Brief History of the Tornyai János Museum … 29
Archaeological researches in Hódmezıvásárhely after 1945
Unfortunately, I cannot detail every archaeological excavation in Hódmezıvásárhely
and its environment executed for 50 years, so I would like to emphasize the significant
excavations and the published monographs.
The excavations between 1945 and 1955 were summarized by Gyula Gazdapusztai in
his manuscript. 8
The funds of the Roman Empire on the Great Plain, and the artefacts of the Sarmatians
were processed by Mihály Párducz in his monograph of three volumes, published
between 1943 and 1950 (PÁRDUCZ 1942; 1946 and 1950).
The summary of the funds of the period of the Hungarian Conquest of the Carpathian
Basin were made by István Dienes in 1954. 9
In the 1960’s the central task of the Hungarian archaeology was determined by the 71 st
paragraph of the Coordination Committee: it was the research of the medieval villages of
the Great Plain. As a result – thanks to the discovery of the villages from the medieval
and the Bronze Age at the site of Hódmezıvásárhely-Barczi rét (meadow) – the
archaeological collection of the museum increased by 400 objects (DÖMÖTÖR 2004,
p.51).
In the 1950’s and 1960’s a significant settlement and a cemetery of the Copper age
was under discovery near the barrack in the South of Hódmezıvásárhely. In that very
territory Elemér Zalotai found pits and graves from the Sarmatian Age 10 in 1951, and
graves from the Copper Age were discovered by Gyula Gazdapusztai in 1963
(BOGNÁR-KUTZIÁN 1972, 202). Later in the Ipoly Str. Katalin B. Nagy registered four
graves from the Middle Copper Age. 11 These four graves supposedly, belonged to the
same cemetery, which was used from the Early Copper Age and extended also for the
Middle Copper Age (KOREK 1984, p. 156). The latest excavation on the site was
executed by Katalin Tóth in 2001 and 2002. She discovered another male deceased in
foetal position, and some further objects of the Sarmatian settlement and cemetery from
the period of the Roman Empire. She also found the part of a settlement from the Early
Neolithic Period (Körös Culture), another one from the Early Copper Age (Tiszapolgár
Culture), a further one from the Protoboleraz horizon and the last one from the Árpádian-
Period (TÓTH 2008). 12
Between 1966 and 1969 István Bóna and Margit Nagy uncovered 92 graves of a
Gepidian cemetery from the 6 th century in the sand-mine of the Lenin Tsz in
Hódmezıvásárhely-Kishomok. These graves gave many interesting data about the burial
customs of the Gepids (BÓNA-NAGY 2002, 34-189). 13
The most important archaeological excavations of the period in question were the
Gorzsa Cukormajor site under the leadership of Ferenc Horváth, and the Székkutas-
Kápolnadőlı site under the leadership of Katalin Bokorné Nagy.
8 More data for the ancient history of Hódmezıvásárhely (The excavations of the Tornyai János
Museum between 1945 and 1955). Manuscript. TJM RégAd.: pages 390-2010.
9 TJM RégAd.: pages 6-90.
10 TJM RégAd.: 11-90.
11 TJM RégAd.: 142-2001.
12 TJM RégAd.: 174-2002> 175-2002.
13 TJM RégAd.: 128-131-2000.