394 THE PREHISTORIC ANTIQUITIES OF HUNGARY. 



THE PREHISTORIC ANTIQUITIES OF HUNGARY. 



AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROF. F. F. ROMER AT THE OPEN- 

 ING OF THE INTERNATIONAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONGRESS, HELD 

 AT BUDAPEST, SEPTEMBER, 1876. 



From the MaUriaux pour L'Histoire Primitive et Naturelle de VHomme. — Translated 

 for the Smithsonian Institution by Charles'Rau. 



In addressing you for the purpose of considering the two allied 

 sciences — anthropology and archaeology — upon which the labors of this 

 congress will be based, I can hardly overcome a feeling of embarrass- 

 ment. You doubtless expect that, in my position as secretary-general, 

 I should unroll before you a picture of what Hungary has done for those 

 sciences, since most of you never have visited our country, nor have 

 read the Hungarian works treating of them. 



Here, as in Europe generally, it was almost considered a disgrace to 

 pay attention to the barbarous nations, so far as their history before and 

 after the great migrations is concerned. Only the study of the classical 

 archaeology of the Greeks and Romans was in vogue. Prior to the day 

 when prehistoric archaeology became a universal science, no one cared 

 for the forms and decorations of the weapons, utensils, and trinkets of 

 the so-called barbarous populations, but, in most cases, only for the 

 precious materials of which they were made. The cemeteries and the 

 tumuli, with their contents as simple and primitive as the men who used 

 them, were, without any criticism, attributed to the great Roman peo- 

 ple, even in parts of the country where the Romans never had been. 

 The defensive works of prehistoric times, such as trenches, ramparts, 

 and castles, were ascribed to them, and even on our geographical maps 

 of that period one can see these works marked as Roman trenches, Roman 

 fortifications, &c. In the catalogues of the National Museum, likewise, 

 the arms, utensils, and ornaments of the barbarians have been assigned 

 to the Romans. 



Hungary has not had, like other countries, official archaeologists ap- 

 pointed to attend to the preservation of the discovered objects. Only 

 foreign savants, who in past centuries paid attention to such matters, 

 have written on the antiquities of this country ; and it must be stated 

 that they spoke of them in a manner betokening the utmost simplicity 

 of conception. Thus, they have affirmed in serious discourses held be- 

 fore academies, that gold grows naturally in the vineyards of Tokay, 

 because there have been found in that locality objects made of gold 

 wire, which presented no longer their original shape, having been 

 altered and distorted by roots growing on the same spots. The bones 

 of mammoths were at that time taken for those of giants, nummulites 

 passed for grain, porous basalt for petrified bread, &c. 



It is no matter of surprise, therefore, that during that period the 



