Archaeology Park in Százhalombatta

[wiseheart]

As you all know, I usually dislike these obligatory school trips. A coach ride with 60 kids isn't exactly my idea of a good time, professional enthusiasm nothwithstanding.

But today's trip was truly excellent. We visited the Archaeology Park in Százhalombatta, a 1.5 hour bus ride from Budapest. It's truly a marvel, and the only one of this kind in the entire Europe. It's a shame that so few people know about it.

Százhalombatta's name roughly means "a place with 100 burial mounds" - which is the exact truth. More than a hundred Bronze and Iron Age burial grounds have been found here, and barely any have been properly dug out - it's simply too expensive. In any case, they've built a reconstruction of several Bronze and Iron Age houses, with replicas of the tools the people 3000 years ago used for their daily work, like looms and all that. They also reconstructed one of the burial mounds (#105) as much as it was possible, and there's a multimedia show in it about Iron Age burials. It's very neat.

Beyond that, they offer visitors the chance to learn a few simple tasks done in that age. The kids did some leatherwork, pottery without a wheel (it hadn't yet existed in the Iron Age), colouring clothes with stamps, making jewellery out of brass wire and that staff. They have so-called family days, when they even cook meals for the families, unsing only plants and meat the rest of which have been found in the digs, so they are as "authentic" as possible.

I've enjoyed this trip very much. I wish we had more such places.

Links:
General: http://www.szazhalomconf.com/Szazhalombatta.html
SAX Project: http://www.arch.soton.ac.uk/Research/default.asp?ProjectID=17
Some pictures and town guide: http://summerfest.battanet.hu/Summerweb2/e_szhbatta.htm

There are probably better ones, but I suck at googling. Speaking of which, does anyone know really good sites about the Hallstatt culture? I set the people of Rhun into that context in my stories, but I haven't found any detailled information about that culture on the Net.

Comments

[gone2thedogs.livejournal.com]

That sounds so interesting, I'm glad you enjoyed the trip.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I wish I had pictures, but they didn't sell cards or even a halfways decent guide. Ah, well, I'll try to hunt down something on the Net for you.

[gone2thedogs.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links, the information is wonderful. It's good to see sites like this preserved and made available to the public. The amateur archaeologist in me wishes I could hop on a plane and go see this tomorrow, but alas....

I'll do some searching around for info on the Hallstatt and see what I can find.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Archaeology is one of my secret vices, too. :)

[kln1671.livejournal.com]

Oh! I've heard about that place! I so want to go there one day.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, whenever you choose to pay this part of the world a visit, you won't have to bother about hotel rooms. I can always put up one houseguest. :)

[raiining.livejournal.com]

Huh, I think I read about this historical site in Savage Breast which, among other things, looks at the history of religion and its impact on daily life in pre-Christian cultures. The site seems amazing, and the family days sound like fun! I wonder how different the meals are from normal country food in the region?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not that different. The plants are still used for food, actually, although more in the country areas than in the cities.

[jilba.livejournal.com]

Wow, what an interesting trip! Even as schoolkid, I felt sorry for the teachers forced to take us on excursions, as most of the kids played up badly, and the teachers were more bored than us.

Nice to see you enjoyed this one.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I truly did. The kids actually behaved, even during the guided tour which most of them found boring. We on the other hand enjoyed the guided tour very much. *g*

[jilba.livejournal.com]

And the kids behaved too? Amazing!

[disthrainsdotte.livejournal.com]

Going on excursions must be trying for all who are involved but the site sounds interesting. Like going to Birka near Stockholm, only the site is older than the city on Björkö. If I get to visit Hungary again I will try to go there.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You've been to Hungary before? Too bad we haven't known each other back then. But whenever you decide to pay us another visit, I'll show you all the sights. :)

[disthrainsdotte.livejournal.com]

I went with my choir to Budapest and the surrounding area in June 2002, we sang in three conserts and had fun. I agree with you, it would have been great if we had known each other back then. If I get the chance I will let you know, I am sure we will have a great time together.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I hope you'll come again, one day. I'd love to hear you sing, and I'll show you everything you want. A great time it would be indeed. :)

[disthrainsdotte.livejournal.com]

I hope so also and it would be nice to sing to you. I love singing in a choir, we have fun together. We could go places and see things through each others eyes and that is a good thing.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

What an interesting trip!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yep, it was. I always swear I'll go back without the kids to such places, so that I can take my time and try everything, but the sad truth is, I'd never even get there to begin with if there weren't these school trips.

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

Very cool! I'm glad you finally got a GOOD school trip. And such an interesting place - sounds like a good program, with lots of things for the kids to do, not just reading labels on glass cases.

You remind me: one of my favorite things in my trip back to Denmark years after a school semester spent there was visiting different archaeogical museum sites, including outdoor sites they called "tracks," where you just walked through woods or fields and came across old burial sites or structures that had been relocated to prevent their destruction. The museums worked to find land that would be like the original site, orient the grave or building facing the same direction as before, etc., so the effect is quite natural. And it was late October, so no crowds.

In fact, come to think of it, you might look to Denmark for some more information on daily life in those eras. The Danes themselves are very proud of their long history. Families actually go on wait-lists to spend their vacation living as an Iron Age (?) family in one of the more famous sites. Not "reality TV" style, but actually helping do the research by building and working with tools and using clothing and household implements the way the scientists think the stuff was used. At the end of the season (or whatever period of study), they collect all the stuff and examine the wear patterns to see if it matches the ones on actual artifacts: if so, their theories are confirmed; if not, then they haven't got it figured out yet.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Sounds intriguing. In my younger years I'd have greatly enjoyed to do something like that. I'm not sure I could bear the lack of a bathroom and a proper bed now. :/