CONTENT

PÉTER MARKÓ: SITUATION AND OPPORTUNITIES IN VAS COUNTY

------------------------A large-scale meeting has been organised at Szombathely on 26^th May 2001, with the participation of prominent intellectuals settled elsewhere and called home for this event. The programme was entitled "Hazahívó" ("Recall"). One of the lectures of the meeting has been delivered by PÉTER MARKÓ, a sociologist, president of the Vas County Assembly. He related about the changes in the constitutional and political situation of the county administration, the regionalisation being under progress as well as the relationship between the county and the region. He also spoke about the endeavours the goal of which is to have Vas County meet the requirements of the present age on traffic, educational and cultural (e.g. scientific) areas too and to utilise the opportunities deriving from the geographical location and openness.

GÁSPÁR NAGY: "TRUST AND FAITH IN BLOOMING CENTURIES"
Answer for the recalling words)

------------------------The prominent poet living in Budapest, in his lecture delivered on the "Recall" meeting held at Szombathely, recalled his childhood in the villages of the Vasi-Hegyhát as well as his student years at Pannonhalma and Szombathely. He spoke with the words of classical poets about the special role of the Hungarian poetry in enduring the existence and in keeping the nation. The character is even more important than the talent and it must be present in our meditations about our mother tongue and in our love for it.

GÁBOR VÉKONY: NÁNDOR FETTICH AND THE SCYTHIANS

------------------------Nándor Fettich was a determinant personality of the 20^th-century Hungarian archaeological research. His works dealing with the Scythian findings found in Hungary are especially important and still valid regarding their role in the history of art. During the work-up of the findings from Zöldhalompuszta, Tápiószentmárton and the Bulgarian Gar>inovo he determined the style-critical place of these complexes and the new findings found since then proved that these estimation was justified. He saw exactly the link between these findings with the late Assyrian, New Babylonian as well as the Persian art. According to the recent Iranian findings we know that this archaic Scythian art was actually developed on the northern Iranian areas and then transferred to the European region. He also succeded to determine in the case of Zöldhalompuszta, Tápiószentmárton and Vettersfelde (Witaszkowc) that the objects found there were the remains of cremation. Since then, we could find the evidences for the counterparts of early cremation methods in Eastern Europe too: Litoj kurgan, Krivorov>e and it is also possible that such burials with cremation occur in Iran as well.

ENDRE TÓTH: NÁNDOR FETTICH AND THE TOPOGRAPHY OF SAVARIA

------------------------The research of Roman topography of Savaria started with finding and inscription collections in the Middle Age and in the case of other findings the research commenced in the beginning of the 19^th century. Nándor Fettich was the first to determine in the 1920s, by the help of these findings, the dimensions of the colonia under the present Szombathely and on the other hand he traced the place where the buildings of the Emperor's cult for the province of Pannonia Superior could be sought. The later researches affirmed his both statements. The area of the Roman city - bordered by city-walls - spread toward North to the present Petőfi Sándor street, toward South to the Kossuth Lajos street, toward East to the Király street, toward West to the western end of the cathedral. The main altar of the forum of the province and the Emperor's cult lied on the area between the Perint river and the Kálvária.

GÁBOR KISS: NÁNDOR FETTICH AND THE BEGINNINGS OF RESEARCHESON MIGRATION OF NATIONS IN VAS COUNTY

------------------------Nándor Fettich - one of the most determinant personalities in the migration researches in the Carpathian Basin - was born at Acsád in Vas County. Although he spent most of his life in Budapest - as the fellow worker of the Hungarian National Museum and then, being exiled by this institute - he always followed with attention the Hun and Avar-Age findings excavated on his motherland. These findings emerged again and again in his several works. The most important place of excavation from his native region is the published Avar graveyard at Vasasszonyfa - the publication of which he planned to do. With the help of the graveyard from the 7^th-9^th century, comprising almost one thousand graves - following the working method of Fettich - we can gain data about the commerce carried out on the antique Amber Way from the Adriatic Sea, forwarding Byzantine goods (as well) to the North. These products - according to all indications - had a great effect to the brazier handicraft of the late Avar Age.

KÁROLY MESTERHÁZY: NÁNDOR FETTICH AND THE ARCHAEOLOGYOF THE HUNGARIAN CONQUEST

------------------------Nándor Fettich devoted about one third of his scientific activity to the research of the Hungarian conquest. The source materials for his research were provided by his own excavations (Kenézlő, Hencida, Ókécske etc.), the old, inadequately published findings (Benepuszta, Tarcal, Galgóc) and the finding saving works (Gádoros, Karos, Geszteréd etc.) of his coevals. His first great work was published in 1931 (ArchÉrt) and in this work he already appeared with full scientific preparedness. He exposed the thoughts proposed there in his great book published in 1937 (Die Metallkunst der landnehmenden Ungarn, ArchHung 21.). Following this, he wrote four books dealing with the 10^th-11^th-century questions - however, he planned even more. Two books out of these four were published. One of them in Berlin in 1942 and one - on the tomb finding of Zemplén - written together with V. Budinsk-Kri>ka in 1973. In this latter he included the vast part of his unpublished work on the sword of Charlemagne. We have presented in this present paper the scientific method of Nándor Fettich, his results and his mistakes as well. In the archaeological methods he relied on typology but he also endeavoured to answer historical questions too. In his later works he dealt mainly with the continuity and the symbolic world. His place is among the greatest in the Hungarian archaeology.

MIHÁLY HOPPÁL: THE TULIP MOTIF IN SPACE AND TIME

------------------------The author overviews the historical background of the tulip motif in order to demonstrate that not only the Western origins can be imagined in the case of this decorative element. In these surveys, besides the ethno-semiotic work of Gábor Lükő, the findings of Nándor Fettich regarding the Scythian and ancient Hungarian signs play an important role as well. Concretely, he exposes the tulip motif symbolising the muliebrity and the heart symbolising the manliness from the ancient times almost to our days from the middle Asia through the antique Greeks to different European regions.

GÁBOR ILON: NEW DATA TO THE COPPER AND BRONZE-AGE COACHESIN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN
(The wheel found at the METRO Store at Szombathely)

------------------------The famed Nándor Fettich, whom the author is paying the tribute by this present paper, dealt with the history of the coaches from the Neolithic to the middle Bronze-Age in his basic study published in 1969. The author publishes the wheel of a coach model (cca. 6000 years old) found on the exploration on the area of the Metro Store at Szombathely, which is - according to our knowledge - the earliest evidence for use of coach in the Carpathian Basin. Concerning this, he summarises the research history relating to the coach and construes its presumptive role in mythology.

NÁNDOR FETTICH: RELIEFS OF JÓZSEF SZENTPÉTERY BUDAPEST, 1947
(Excerpts)

------------------------Nándor Fettich, an archaeologist - producing imperishable creations in the goldsmith's craft too - wrote a book on the greatest goldsmith of the 19^th century, József Szentpétery (1781-1862). His work was finished in June 1947. Later, in April 1956, he wrote a foreword to it. The study, however, remained in proofreading phase and later it was transferred to the Repertory of the Art History Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. József Szentpétery, an archaeologist, selected excerpts that memorialise both of them. The study exposed the goldsmith technique of Szentpétery, also known as the "Hungarian Cellini". Fettich named this technique as "minuteria" - the goldsmith formed from a plate completely sculptural parts. In other words, an arm or a weapon emerging from the background wasn't shaped from separate material with fitting but from the plate itself, by hammering.