M. Járó - L. Költő szerk.: Archaeometrical research in Hungary (Budapest, 1988)
Foreword
FOREWORD In Hungary, research work relating to investigation of museum objects is > performed not in a central institute for archaeometry but in several research institutes and university laboratories dispersed throughout the country. At one time, work of this nature was carried out in an isolated manner, and scientists working in the same field or on the same topic were often not informed about the work of their colleagues. At the 2nd Conference on Industrial Archaeology held in Veszprém, Hungary, 1982, the impossibility of this situation became obvious. Since, in the present circumstances there is no real chance of establishing a central institution for archaeometrical studies, I took the opportunity offered by the conference and proposed that an Archaeometry Working Group should be established in the framework of the Veszprém Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Subcommittee of Historical Studies. It was further proposed that the main aims of this Working Group should be: - To compile a list of specialists dealing with archaeometry in the institutes and laboratories in Hungary. - To create a forum for these scientists, to ensure the possibility for exchanging ideas and experience, and for discussing results. - To focus the attention of scientists on the most important problems of archaeology, history and history of art . - To organize and coordinate the development of the conventional methods and the elaboration of new ones. *-«- To make archaeometrical results more widely available and to present unpublished data. The results of the last five years have justified the estabUshment of the Working Group. The aims have been proved to be realistic and it has been possible to promote archaeometrical research in Hungary to a considerable extent . During the course of our work, we encountered the difficulty that we had not previously been aware of, viz. the results of archaeometrical investigations were unfortunately rarely published in the scientific journals and yearbooks of the museums. These research results are, in the best case, only mentioned in the research reports, thus their contribution to science remains hidden . It was with this in mind that we decided to publish a volume containing current research results and it was also decided to provide unpublished data dealing with former scientific investigations. The studies and reports are arranged in the following order: prospecting and exploration of archaeological sites, archaeological dating, and analysis. Furthermore, additional work in the form of summaries of earlier publications is presented. The majority of these examinations are based on the personal scientific interest of the experts involved, without official background. It has to be emphasized, however, that such examinations have always been supported by the directors of the various institutions and laboratories, to whom I should like to express my sincere thanks. We hope that our volume will provide a large survey of Hungarian archaeometrical research and will also be of help in the future work of Hungarian scientists; it would be a highly pleasing bonus if this publication also helped to international cooperation.
