In the Hungarian National Museum, within the Department of Archaeology the Barbaricum Collection (Germanic–Sarmatian Collection) was officially established on 1 January 2011, after several years of preparation, on the initiative of Ádám Szabó, by the decision of László Csorba, Director General.
With a steadily growing number of objects approaching 8,000, the collection contains archaeological finds from the Roman imperial period dating from the 1st to 5th centuries AD, discovered in the Barbaricum area of the Carpathian Basin, east and north of the Danube. The objects were registered in the collection of the Hungarian National Museum from 1846 to the present day, and from 1926 onwards in various periodic archaeological collections. The artefacts shed light on the Germanic and Sarmatian populations, well known from contemporary sources, inhabiting the areas next to Roman Pannonia, Moesia Superior and Dacia, and north of the Danube, with a comprehensive and representative archaeological record.
Contact: Ádám Nagyernyei-Szabó, szabo.adam@hnm.hu
History of the collection
In 1994, Éva Garam, Mihály Nagy and Attila Kiss selected objects from the Migration Period Collection dating back to the Roman Imperial period, found north and east of the Danube, i.e. from Barbaricum. The finds selected were subsequently grouped together in a separate unit as part of the Roman Collection. Subsequently, objects and artefact assemblages from the medieval and prehistoric parts of the collection were also transferred on a case-by-case basis because of previously erroneous inventorying or wrongly identified objects. In 2015, the collection also took over the Dacian finds from Transylvania.
Despite the fact that no specialist in Sarmatian antiquity or imperial Barbaricum has been employed by the museum since 1959, some of the objects in the collection have been continuously published in academic publications, exhibitions and catalogues with the participation of external specialists. One of the first steps in the direction of forming the collection into a self-contained unit was a comprehensive revision, concerning not only the objects taken over from the Migration Period Collection but also other collections of the Depeartment of Archaeology. The general revision started in 2009 with the participation of Dénes Hullám, and continued in 2010 with the management of Zsófia Masek and Eszter Soós. In 2011, with the financial support of the National Cultural Fund, the compilation of a modern collection catalogue was started with former and current staff of the collection participating. From 2023, Réka Kustár-Piros also joined the collection.
Silver fibula with folded legs with overhanging taper. The locality is the outskirts of Kunszentmiklós (Bács–Kiskun county).
Small, round-bottomed, spheric-shaped vessel. Medium grey in colour with a thickening, flaring rim. Neck high, shoulders ribbed, body bulging. The base is turned, with a base-rim joint. Surface polished.
Location unknown.
Light green, white, orange, dark blue, red opaque, medium sized, pressed spherical and short cylindrical glass beads, larger biconic dark blue glass beads.
Location Pančova (Vojvodina, Serbia).
Small orange coloured, two-eared jug, wheel-thrown. Narrow-mouthed, with a funnel-shaped rim and a long, cylindrical neck. Body biconical. It has a rounded, low base rim and a wheel-thrown, grooved base. The narrow handles start horizontally from the middle of the neck. Originally painted red.
Location unknown.
A pendant carved from a piece of amber, with several depictions, pierced with an iron nail. The site is Geszteréd (Szabolcs–Szatmár–Bereg county).
