Visy Zsolt (Ed.). Hungarian Archaeology at the Turn of the Millennium

Teleki Laszlo, 2003. — 500 p.The present volume is the fruit of two and a half years’ work. Originally given the title Hungarian archaeology in 2000 and now published as Hungarian archaeology at the turn of the millennium, the volume reflects the concerted efforts of renowned specialists in this field of research to present a comprehensive overview of the emergence and development of this discipline, of the country’s archaeological heritage and of the institutional background of archaeological work.
The Department of Monuments of the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage that co-ordinated the publication of the present volume was organized no more than a few years ago. The main goal in creating this department, active since 1999, was to monitor and supervise the national monuments and to work out the much-needed new legislation for the protection of archaeological sites that had until then been part of the museum structure, a task that called for a broad overview of the theoretical and practical problems of Hungarian archaeology. The idea of this “handbook” arose almost simultaneously with the creation of the department, a proposal received with sympathy and enthusiasm by all of our archaeologist colleagues. The managing editor presented a detailed proposal, an outline of the contents that was adopted in its more or less original form, although with slight alterations. Our objective was to present an overview of Hungarian archaeological research, highlighting also the modern practices and advances made in the protection of the archaeological heritage, with an emphasis on all major contributions to this discipline made by Hungarian archaeology. In addition to the three editors working on the manuscripts, this book is also the “baby” of the ten editors who edited individual chapters and of the almost eighty authors who wrote various sections between the “gestation period” from the first meeting of the editorial board in April, 2000 and the submission of the manuscript to the printers in November, 2002. This book is a unique achievement in the history of Hungarian archaeology since only two volumes of the planned series on the archaeology of Hungary have appeared so far (one describing field methods, the other covering the Palaeolithic in Hungary, written by László Vértes). The volumes of the highly popular Hereditas series, used also as university textbooks, did not discuss all aspects of Hungarian archaeology in such detail.