Tibor Paluch

The word “explanation” has a bad ring to it. Still, it cannot be avoided, for an explanation is required to justify the publication of a catalogue thirty-five years after the opening of the exhibition and two years after its dismantling.
Tibor Kovács, a good friend of mine, has been urging me to write this catalogue for the past five years now, encouraging me with his optimistic remark that the costs of the publication can surely be covered from one of the many grants floating around. He was also fully aware of the fact that the archaeological exhibition of the Hódmezővásárhely museum represented a major milestone in the presentation of archaeological finds to the wider public both in Hungary and Europe, and that a catalogue would be a worthy commemoration of the exhibition, which in its time merited no more than the usual brief newspaper items and a few lengthier reviews.
Following the country’s devastation in 1944–45, Hungarian museology slowly woke from its slumber, coming wide-awake after the nationalisation in 1949.
The period between 1950 and 1955 was hallmarked by the exhibitions initiated by the National Committee of Museums and Monuments (MMOK), enlivened by the graphic art of Gyula László and Nándor Wagner. László Gyula’s works focused on various aspects of the life of ancient peoples and their crafts, which he brought to life by the findings of his archaeological research. Nándor Wagner’s imaginative interior designs accentuated the themes presented by this outstanding archaeologist.
The period marked by the activity of interior designer László Boreczky began in the late 1950s. The overall scholarly concept of most exhibitions remained the same for many decades: to present the region’s archaeological relics and history from early prehistory to the Hungarian Conquest period, and the outstanding items in the museum’s collections up to the present.
Thus, in spite of the imaginative installations, the museum-going public eventually had the impression that the exhibitions contained nothing but vessels, jewellery and weapons, and that there was precious little the ancient Greeks did not already know about. In my experience, very few visitors bother to read long exhibition texts; and even though teachers often read out these texts to their pupils, the latter are none too wiser after a museum visit.
I first met László Boreczky when I organised my very first exhibition in the late 1950s. I found him to be open to new approaches. The archaeological exhibition at Szeged created by us was the first, which had few texts longer than a couple of sentences, and which made use of colours and ingenious forms to guide visitors through the exhibition presenting the period from the Neolithic to the Hungarian Conquest period. This was the first exhibition to display reconstructions of Avar and ancient Hungarian weapon belts decorated with original mounts. A small catalogue to the exhibition was also published.
Ten years later, we had the opportunity to create five different exhibitions in the five museum of County Csongrád: “Huns, Avars, ancient Hungarians” (Csanád Bálint) in Szeged, “The Art of the Neolithic and Copper Age” (Katalin B. Nagy, József Korek, Ottó Trogmayer) in Hódmezővásárhely, “Ditch-diggers and shovel-men” (Klára Tóth) in Csongrád, “Sarmatians and Germanic peoples” (István Bóna) in Szentes, and an exhibition presenting the town’s post-medieval history in Makó (Ferenc Tóth). The actual creation of these exhibitions took over a decade, but they all were created in the end. It did not occur to me at the time that it was time to look for new themes, but Old Man Time was, as usual, wiser than we were and rectified our occasional poor judgement.
The idea for the exhibition came from a small exhibition organised by József Korek in the Hungarian National Museum. The exhibition was created by Katalin B. Nagy, an archaeologist working in the Tornyai János Museum of Hódmezővásárhely, József Korek, vice-director of the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, and the present author, working in the Móra Ferenc Museum of Szeged. Katalin B. Nagy and József Korek undertook the task of selecting the exhibits, while I worked on the exhibition concept, contributing a series of innovative ideas to ensure the success of the exhibition.
I have recounted the story of the stalagmite shaped showcases in the introduction to the guide to the new exhibition; here I shall quote from my old notes since there was no strict exhibition scenario and we improvised for the greater part.
“The reconstruction and detailed presentation of the history, the society and the events of such a long bygone age is in itself problematic. This is why we chose art as the focus, for in this perspective, ritual articles and artistic creations can both be presented.
Most of the items to be displayed were utilitarian objects in their own time, and not ceremonial vessels or objets d’art or in the modern sense of the word. Prehistoric communities tried to manipulate and control the world around them through these figurines and statuettes, or better said, through the mediation of the deities personified by them, in order to ensure a better life, security, fertility and prosperity.
In addition to their “functionality”, these artistically expressive creations are also beautiful objects in their own right, their beauty arising from their simple abstractness or, conversely, subtle puritanism and muted naturalism. We can delight in these several thousand years old vessels, whose proportions echo natural human proportions, and whose dynamic curves still have an appeal to the modern eye.
The aim of the exhibition is to provide a didactic feast for the eyes.”
This, then, was our intention with the exhibition, and it is my belief that we managed to fulfil the main objectives to the best of our abilities.
Since the focus of the exhibition was on Neolithic and Copper Age art and not merely on the prehistoric antiquities from County Csongrád, we loaned several items from the Hungarian National Museum and the Directorate of the Baranya County Museums.
Exhibited in front of the entrance to the main hall was a relief map of the Hódmezővásárhely area showing the main archaeological sites. Copies of outstanding pieces, which we could not exhibit for obvious reasons, such as the urns from Ózd–Center and the wagon model from Budakalász, were displayed in a separate case. A few years later, Katalin B. Nagy and Ágnes Szőke created another case in this area, in which visitors were shown the bone and stone artefacts of this period with a reconstruction of how they were used. These articles are not included in the catalogue because they can hardly be regarded as artistic creations. I must here thank Tibor Paluch, one of my former students, who refined and complemented my original descriptions of the exhibited items and thus became a co-author of this catalogue.
The drawings were made by Margit Koncz with genuine artistic humility and immense patience. I agree with the editors that an artistic drawing often reveals more about an object than even the best photograph – in an ideal case, though, a catalogue should include both a drawing and a photograph of each item, but this could not be realised.
I must again emphasise Katalin B. Nagy’s enthusiastic work in the preparation and organisation of the exhibition, who was expecting her first child at the time, and whose enthusiasm never waned. The terracotta pieces highlighting certain details of the exhibited items, made by painter Erzsébet Nagy, were her idea and they counterbalanced the sombreness of the dark walls. The exhibition wall was consciously painted in dark colours in order to set off the glow of these exceptional objects in the stalagmite shaped cases. There can be no doubt that the currently available exhibition techniques offer much better and a much wider range of display techniques, but at the time we could only make do with what we had.
The door between the prehistoric exhibition and the planned, but sadly never realised presentation of contemporary and 19th century ceramic art was covered with János Fekete’s bronze relief portraying a potter. The poster of the exhibition was designed by painter Ferenc Hézső.
The exhibited items were cleaned and restored by László Saliga and Ágnes Szőke.
The professional acclaim for the exhibition most certainly contributed to expanding the exhibition organised by József Korek in the Hungarian National Museum with the most important exhibits from Hódmezővásárhely  as part of the travelling exhibition “Idole” shown in Vienna, Linz, Munich and Hamburg.
A television film, “Ancestors, gods, craftsmen”, presented in 1975, was based on the pieces exhibited in Hódmezővásárhely, made by Imre Schuller (director and cameraman), Judit Osskó (editor) and the present author.
It is my hope that this catalogue will not be superfluous in spite of its late publication, seeing that it commemorates an initiative, which – in retrospect – has remained exemplary.

Szeged–Hódmezővásárhely–Budapest, Spring 2006

Ottó Trogmayer

Ancient DNA studies have established that Neolithic European populations were descended from Anatolian migrants who received a limited amount of admixture from resident hunter-gatherers. Many open questions remain, however, about the spatial and temporal dynamics of population interactions and admixture during the Neolithic period. Here we investigate the population dynamics of Neolithization across Europe using a high-resolution genome-wide ancient DNA dataset with a total of 180 samples, of which 130 are newly reported here, from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods of Hungary (6000-2900 bc, n = 100), Germany (5500-3000 bc, n = 42) and Spain (5500-2200 bc, n = 38). We find that genetic diversity was shaped predominantly by local processes, with varied sources and proportions of hunter-gatherer ancestry among the three regions and through time. Admixture between groups with different ancestry profiles was pervasive and resulted in observable population transformation across almos...

Test excavations and preventive excavations were carried out in the Szeged-Öthalom between April and December 2009. About 350 archaeological features were docu- mented in the excavated area and one of them belong to the Early Iron Age.
This new Prescythian grave from Öthalom strengthens the view based on the cemetery of Algyő and related finds (Öthalom, Lebő, Szőreg)

During the preventive excavations carried out along the track of the planned M43 motorway between Szeged and Makó, a shortly occupied, temporary settlement of the people of the Hunyadihalom group was found on the right side of the road between Maroslele and Hódmezővásárhely, in the northern vicinity of Maroslele, in an area called Pernyehát. Altogether 10 datable pits belong to this period. Ceramic decorations characteristic for the period can be observed in the material, such as rims decorated with finger impressions, cordons and knobs of various shapes and handles. The most important characteristic of the period among the finds from Maroslele is the presence of disc-shaped handles (“Scheibenhenkel”). Probably more features could belong to this period, but they did not contain any diagnostic pottery. Their contemporaneity is also indicated by the fact
that the Copper Age settlement was found in the SE corner of the excavated area, directly beside the modern road, clearly delineated from the features of other periods. The Copper Age settlement probably continues under the road and south of the excavated area. The published material, together with the excavated finds from Hódmezővásárhely-Kingéchalom and Hódmezővásárhely, Batida III sites will significantly improve our knowledge of the Early/Middle Copper Age occupations of the Tisza-Maros confluence and the Maros valley, and may help refine its internal chronology. Although the material published here is not suitable for the refinement of chronology, through its publication a new site can be placed on the distribution map of the Hunyadihalom