Veres László - Viga Gyula szerk.: A Herman Ottó Múzeum műkincsei (Miskolc, 1999)
A HERMAN OTTÓ MÚZEUM 1899-1999
of rescue works the famous Center find was discovered. In the vicinity of the village Center two cremation graves were unearthed. In the third grave three anthropomorphic urns were found. Two of them is 55 cm and the third one is 22 cm high. Because of their special significance the urns enriched the collection of the Hungarian National Museum. According to some opinions the anthropomorphic urns depict a goddess who is waiting for the dead with risen arms. Others think that they symbolise the dead standing in a worshipping position. Before 1945, 80 small and large exhibitions were arranged in the museum of Miskolc. The number of exhibitions was the same between 1950-1960. The party and state leadership of this time requicred this large number of exhibitions and the increase of the visitors by any means. The few museologists of the institution were obliged in the interests of poplarization to read an average of 200 lectures annually in the villages. The most memorable moment of the life of the museum being under state leadership was the start of the scientific periodica. In 1955 the A miskolci Herman Ottó Múzeum Közleményei (Reports of the Herman Ottó Museum of Miskolc) and in 1957 the Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve (Annual of the Herman Ottó Museum) have been started. Both editions have been published annually up to our days. In I96I the museum had 68.579 individually inventoried objects. It can be seen that the number of museum objects decreased after the Second World War. The main reason for that is that the collection of natural history was liquidated and the collection of documents was given to the State Archives. The increase of objects started only after I962. In July I962 the Herman Ottó Museum became independent from the state supervision. From this time on it has been maintained by the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County's Council. That was the time when it was decided to form the Organization of the County Museums. By I969 already 9 institutions belonged to the museum organization led financially and professionally by the Herman Ottó Museum. After 1962 the number of specialist increased and, due to it, by 1970 more than 100.000 objects belonged to the collection. It was mainly the more and more intensive archaeological research work that mainly resulted the widening of the collection. Between 1962 and 1970 the archaeologists of the museum - among other sites - unearthed the castle of Boldogkő, started the excavation of the fortified settlements (earthworks) of the Bronze and Early Iron Age in the county. In the course of these excavations a cemetery of the Árpád Age (10 lh-ll th cent.) in Ároktő-Dongóhalom, an Avarian cemetery in Sály and a cemetery of the
