Folia archeologica 49-50.

Kovács Tibor: A múltat idézve, előre tekintve emlékezzünk! 200 éves a Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum

14 lik. KOVÁCS TIBOR 1949 and 1963. The latter created a network a county museum organizations and placed the regional museums under the authority of the local councils. As a result, the Hungarian National Museum lost its right to select works of art and other objects of outstanding importance for its own collections, and - disregarding a few related institutions and castles - it found itself in a position in which it was practically no longer responsible for the archaeological (historical) relics lying in the ground (the few exceptions being the site of Campona, the Roman camp in the southern Budapest and the early medieval site of Zalavár—

Mosaburg near Lake Balaton). In practice this meant that while in earlier periods the outstanding and most distinctive relics of a given period found their way to the Hungarian National Museum - even if not automatically - during the past fifty years the enlargement of the museum's collections could only be planned to the extent permitted by the available funds and the current legislation. But there is also another aspect to this problem. It has since long been debated what types of sites the Hungarian National Museum should excavate and to what extent and how its core collections should be maintained and expanded. Other discussions centred on the determination of the amount and nature of the source material that should be housed in the Hungarian National Museum in order to optimally represent a given period. One possible, although rather simplistic answer to this question is that while earlier the primary aim of collection was the acquisition of unique and outstanding objects, today we are more concerned with the complete excavation of sites and monuments that have a scientific value. The latter has been our main concern for the past few decades and, seeing that the excavation of two major sites, the Copper Age settlement at Tiszavalk and the Avar cemetery at Tiszafüred has been completed, we may say that our efforts have been crowned with success. Other projects are also underway: these include a regional prehistoric research project in the Danube Bend and a micro-region project for the investigation of Conquest period and Arpádian Age settlement patterns in the Hajdúdorog area. These excavations and investigations are vital since the National Museum now receives less material from its regional partners for temporary exhibitions and for permanent exhibitions that are often on show for as many as ten to fifteen years. Another important priority is that the National Museum participate in the major archaeological project of these years, namely the excavations preceding the motorway constructions. The investigation of large areas has offered many new perspectives for archaeological research. We are in part already aware of and in part only anticipating the possible role of the National Museum in the near future and - seeing that we measure time in centuries at the time of a jubilee - in the 21st century. Our efforts are directed towards the realization of the following goals: - One of our main priorities is to raise the general level of professionalism and, also, to increase the quantitative and qualitative output of scholarly activity. In order to achieve this goal, many young professionals have received institutional support for their PhD training. Specialists working on their habilitation and academic doctoral dissertation too receive moral and financial support for their work. - Another important priority is the acceleration of providing access to the archaeological source material. This is all the more urgent since there is very little awareness of the need to combine the preparation of catalogues to existing collections (as a scientific goal) with the digitization of the artefacts and artworks (as a museological necessity). It follows from the above that the