Meet the Museum: Munkácsy Mihály Múzeum

Narrow hallway with lights indicating different years, open doorway at the end of the hallway. Lights are bars that start as blue near the front and become pink.
Figure 1. The exhibition begins with a little time travel…

Linda here – 

During a recent trip to Hungary I visited the paleontological and archeological exhibition of the Munkácsy Mihály Múzeum in Békéscsaba, in the south east of Hungary. The museum is named after Mihály Munkácsy, a Hungarian painter of the 19th century. The majority of the museum focuses on art, but there are many other exhibitions, especially covering Hungarian history — and that of course begins with paleontology. They first show some of the extinct fauna of Hungary before moving on to showcase the extant wildlife and local prehistoric archeology, namely Neolithic, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and so on.

Black display background and a white line indicating change through time with different markers signifying events.
Figure 2. .. and then introduces guests to the concept of deep time by showcasing the geologic time scale together with the evolution of major taxonomic groups and important events.

After traveling back in time through a neon coloured tunnel (Fig. 1), the museum shows the geologic time scale (Fig. 2) so that guests can get a feeling for it and understand how long ago different events took place. The entire exhibition, including this time scale, is in Hungarian and there are no English explanations, but I used a translator app and that worked very well. 

Next, we see small fossils from different periods and epochs, such as leaves and a fish from the Oligocene (Fig. 3), before a larger section showcases the Pleistocene megafauna of Hungary, including the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius; Fig. 4), aurochs (Bos primigenius), and giant elk (Megaloceros giganteus). 

Museum exhibit with a small plaque at the bottom of the image with information related to the specimens. Leaf fossil is on the left and the fish fossils are on the right.
Figure 3. Unidentified Oligocene leaves and fish.
Image of museum exhibit with the lower left having a plaque with details about the three specimens displayed in the case. top left specimen is part of a pelvis, to the right is a molar, and then the bottom right is a complete mandible with teeth intact.
Figure 4. A tooth, lower jaw and hip fragment of the woolly mammoth found in Hungary.

An interactive map is projected on a large Hungary-shaped table and shows a variety of environmental parameters and how they have changed throughout time, such as where the major Hungarian rivers Danube and Tisza were during the Pleistocene  (Fig. 5). 

Museum exhibit that is a projected map onto a table. The map is upside down in this image with some one pointing at feature on the map
Figure 5. Visitors explore the interactive map that shows the course of the large Hungarian rivers during the Pleistocene in red, and the modern course in blue. This allows local guests to understand the prehistoric landscape of their country much better.

After establishing what the environment looked like in the past, the museum also includes a small zoological section showing extant wildlife which was already present in the area at the time. They exhibit species that live together in the same habitat together in the same display (Fig. 6), which really makes it possible to imagine the ecology of the area. 

Museum exhibit with a black base. There are several taxidermy animals of the local fauna in a glass case.
Figure 6. Species currently living in the Hungarian forests, such as the eurasian badger (front; Meles meles) which evolved during the middle Pleistocene.

Once the Pleistocene environment and fauna have been established, the exhibition continues with its archeological section and showcases tools and ceramics (Fig. 7) of the prehistoric population that settled here during the early Holocene. Later on, the exhibition also includes weapons, tools and other objects created by people during the Iron Age, as well as by the Celtics and Scythians, by Romans, by medieval people and during more modern history. 

Exhibit with a black background and different ceramic vessels including pots, goblets, bowls, all in a tan color. Some are mounted on small shelves on the wall.
Figure 7. Examples of the ceramic vessels made by the prehistoric people of the area.

Overall the paleontological exhibition is very small since this is just a fraction of the entire museum, but nonetheless it is very modern and uses up to date methods to introduce their visitors to new concepts and ideas. I really liked how they have merged the geologic time scale and the local paleoenvironments into their country’s history and decided to showcase it all together in the correct order of events. I highly recommend a visit! 

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