SAME COLLECTION, DIFFERENT ATTITUDES: THE SCIENTIFIC INTEREST RAISED BY ZSÓFIA TORMA’S COLLECTION
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 13/12/2020

In the second half of the nineteenth century, visiting the archaeological collection of Zsófia Torma (1832-1899) was indispensable for any researcher who was interested in the prehistory of Central and Eastern Europe. Zsófia Torma was a pioneering Hungarian archaeologist who had a significant contribution to the development of prehistoric archaeology in Transylvania, especially through her research on the settlement of Turdaș-Luncă, one of the most important archaeological sites in present-day Romania and then in Austria-Hungary. This site was first excavated by Zsófia Torma in 1875, and it is here that she discovered most of the artefacts that allowed her to create an impressive archaeological collection which became a reference point in nineteenth-century European prehistoric archaeology. It was a collection around which she built a strong international academic network, a vast scientific correspondence, as well as controversial theories with political implications. Towards the end of her life, this collection that is now hosted by The National History Museum of Transylvania in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, consisted of more than 10000 objects.

After Zsófia Torma’s death, the scientific value of her collection was heavily questioned, partly because of the unclear stratigraphy of the sites where it came from. There were several attempts to organise the collection and compare it with the finds and stratigraphic data resulted from later excavations carried out at Turdaș. With few exceptions, these attempts have been unsuccessful and the collection became a burden for later generations of archaeologists. What were the reasons behind this attitude shift? Who researched this collection after Zsófia Torma passed away, why and how? How did this research influence the current situation and perception of the collection? This paper aims to examine the evolution of the scientific interest raised by Zsófia Torma’s archaeological collection after her death, from the beginning of the twentieth century until today.


Author(s): Coltofean, Laura (Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania)