Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok Értesítője 32/2. (2009) (Szombathely, 2009)

ILON Gábor: A RÉGÉSZETTUDOMÁNY MÚLTJA, JELENE ÉS LEHETSÉGES JÖVŐJE

A RÉGÉSZETTUDOMÁNY MÚLTJA, JELENE ÉS LEHETSÉGES JÖVŐJE Számvetés a centenárium jegyében ILON Gábor Kulturális Örökségvédelmi Szakszolgálat, Nyugat-Dunántúli Régió H-9704 Szombathely, Pf. 12. e-mail: gabor.ilon@kosz.gov.hu PAST, PRESENT AND POSSIBLE FUTURE OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE AN ACCOUNT ON BEHALF OF THE CENTENARY The legal predecessor of archaeological research underway in the county, but also of the Savaria Museum celebrating its one hundredth anniversary on 11 October 2008, as to the building, is the Vas County Archaeological Society founded in 1872. In the last one hundred years, it has developed from amateur archaeological activities to become a profession capable of solving professional, large scale excavations (e.g. bypass roads, residential parks). This process began with the practically one-man director-archaeology gallery watch-post of pioneer Baron Kálmán MISKE (1912-1943). And in the spring of 2008, 5 archaeologists and 4 archaeology technicians are active in the Archaeology Department, in addition to a surveyor, an object illustrator and an archivist. In the transformation, however, no small role was played by our director-archaeologist department managers: Tihamér SZENTLÉLEKY (1963-1973), the creator of the Savaria research concept and at the same time director of the Járdányi-Paulovics István Ruin Garden and the Iseum, in addition Gábor BANDI (1973-1985), by whose leadership research into the Bronze and Iron Age site of MISKE famous throughout Europe, the Velem Szent Vid, could be continued, and also the Sé Neolithic excavations could be launched. Later on, the modern, multidisciplinary investigations launched alongside anthropological definitions regarded as traditional (bronze, marble, granite, ceramics, archaeobotany, dendrochronology, radio-carbon, environmental archaeology - Velem, Gór, SzombathelyIseum, Szentgotthárd, Bucsu, Vát), geographic site-locations (Bajánsenye, Celldömölk, Vát) and systematic terrain studies (Ják, Magyarszecsőd) represented an unequivocal advance in parallel with the contemporary technical developments (acquisition of metal detectors, jeeps, computers, levelling instruments, GPS and detection stations). It is unfortunate that the majority of the unearthed sites have not been reported in sufficient depth, although our yearbook, Savario a Vos Megyei Múzeumok Értesítője established by Tihamér SZENTLÉLEKY has appeared continuously since 1963. It is an urgent matter to change this situation. In the same way, the registration and storage situation of the finds pouring in over one hundred years (1909: 13 561 items, 2007: 370 693 and 13 872 coins) is not reassuring (the latter are to be found in four separate locations of the town the outside the main building). Several international and Hungarian archaeological conferences or those organised with Hungarian participants and their publications, archaeological permanent exhibitions for which the concept is still fresh today but as to content obsolete and worn out (opened in 1982), and the scientific research site status (from 1979) - these all represent the recognition of county archaeological research. All the staff now working in the department are totally clear and aware of the responsibility, that by the end of March 2008, of the 216 settlements in the county, we are only aware of archaeological sites in 191. Of these, of course, there is not only one where only one site is registered, in other words, 25 villages are blank spaces. And the total number of known archaeological sites is 2105, and this clearly cannot be considered as a final count. So posterity - in light of the above - will have plenty to do!