Archaeology à la carte
Rescued Heritage Treasures from the Heart of Europe
MúzeumCafé 31.
The story began in February 2012 when László L. Simon, the then president of parliament’s cultural and press committee and we, on behalf of the Association of Hungarian Archaeologists, sat down together to discuss the grave situation of archaeological heritage protection in Hungary. The reason was that in November 2011 parliament had changed the law relating to heritage protection in such a way that linked preliminary archaeological excavations connected to large state investments to impossibly strict cost and time limits. The idea was raised at the meeting of presenting the decision makers with an exhibition held directly in the Parliament building about the range of objects and information involved when they were debating the rules with regard to heritage protection. The most important aim of the exhibition was to showcase to what extent explorations connected to large investments were involved and how they had contributed to the image formed of Hungary’s archaeological heritage in the past 15 years. We wanted to make it clear that this represented findings and information that in the main would have been lost under the new legislation framework. Parliament’s Red Salon, the MPs’ southern lounge, represented a fitting setting for the exhibits. The objects were loaned by 17 county museums, the Budapest History Museum, the museums of three provincial towns, and different institutions. Although the exhibition was not successful in the short-term, since parliament further limited the possibilities of archaeological excavations, we are optimistic about its long-term results.