The University of Miskolc offers BA studies in archaeology since 2007 at the Faculty of Arts. The studies are supervised by the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the Institute of History. The students can study three fields of the archaeology: Prehistoric Archaeology, Archaeometry, and Non-destructive Archaeology. These fields apply research methods of material sciences, earth sciences, and biology, therefore three other faculties of the university participate in the teaching of the courses involving laboratory exercises. We are also devoted to include several weeks of fieldwork exercise in the studies of students in archaeology.
Klára P. Fischl, PhD, Dr. Habil., head of the department
György Lengyel, PhD, Dr. Habil.
The BORBAS (Borsod Region Bronze Age Settlements) Project was launched in 2012 as a cooperation between the University Miskolc, Cologne University, and Herman Ottó Museum Miskolc to investigate the Bronze Age settlement system (21–15th century BC) in North-Eastern Hungary with non-destructive research methods. The aims of our research are to explore the inner structure of the settlements, and to determine the choice of site location, understand the spatial organisation of the settlements in environmental, economic, and social terms. A multi-layer site excavation at Borosdivánka-Nagyhalom also was joined to this research.
We have been running a systematic research on the Last Glacial Maximum and Late Glacial human occupation of the Western Carpathians to understand the formation and the diversity of the archaeological record of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers. Our research produced data on zooarchaeology, stable isotopes, chronometry, lithic typology, and technology. This eventually raise taxonomic accuracy of Late Pleniglacial lithic assemblages and refine the timing of Epigravettian settlement distribution around the Western Carpathians. Another issue our department deals with is the paleo human-ecology of the first Anatomically Modern Humans in the Western Carpathians. This research contribute to the better understanding the differences between Anatomically Modern Humans and Neanderthals which might have led to the latter’s extinction. We, therefore, contribute to issues of behavioural patterns of Pleistocene humans, such as economical thinking, adaptiveness, and logistics for unforeseen challenges of subsistence generated by long term mobility.
The Archaeometallurgical Research Group of the University of Miskolc (ARGUM) is the only interdisciplinary scientific team in the field of archaeometallurgy in Hungary. The members of the group are material, metallurgical and mineralogical engineers and archaeologists, they work at the university with a well-equipped research infrastructure (ED-WD-XRF, ICP-GD-OES, OM, SEM-EDS, HV, XRD, etc.) and professional relationships. The main objective of the research team is to execute archaeometallurgical research projects. These projects include chemical, microstructural and mineralogical examinations of archaeological finds in relation to ancient and medieval metal technologies, implementation of reconstrucion experiments and dissemination and publication of the results.
Head of ARGUM: Dr. Béla TÖRÖK
e-mail: bela.torok@uni-miskolc.hu