An archaeological park is currently under construction near the M3 toll road. In the meantime, excavations are flourishing in Hungary, thanks to ongoing motorway projects.
Hungary’s first archaeological park will open nearby Polgár, Northeast Hungary, on 20th August. Besides the thousands of fossils on exhibit, an artificial lake, a restaurant and a campsite will welcome visitors on the border of Hortobágy National Park. The investment costs HUF 2 billion, out of which HUF 900 million is granted by the National Motorway Rt. (NA). NA also plans to build a similar park near Lake Balaton.
According to the Act on Cultural Heritage Protection dated 1992, expenses of excavations have to be covered by the company that initiates works interfering with possible archaeological remains of a specific area. The company has to spend at least 0.9% of the project’s total costs on excavations. Accordingly, on the 800 kilometres of motorways the state plans to build by 2008, a total of HUF 7.2 billion–HUF 11 billion will be spent on excavations.
“Excavations along the routes of motorways account for more than 90% of archaeological researches in Hungary,” said Pál Raczky, professor at Eötvös Lorand University (ELTE) in Budapest. According to Raczky, archaeologists welcome the motorway program, as Hungary’s hidden cultural heritage can be revealed in a belt of 60 meters–90 meters from the East to the West and from he North to the South.
However, investors in a project are obliged to finance excavations only on the tracks of motorways. In Balatonszárszó, the prospective M7 motorway touched only the corner of a medieval graveyard, and archaeologists could not excavate a nearby church due to lack of money. In the end, the Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Pro Archaeologica Foundation helped finance further searches on the location.
Excavations can take months or sometimes as long as years. For example, when discovering a Roman-Sarmatian pottery village near Vecsés, archaeologists had to search an area of 300,000 square meters and they dig out 8,000 objects. “Bones cannot delay motorway construction,” archaeologists said, adding they have to respect the deadline set by the investors. The deadline is generally between a few months and two years.
Furthermore, whenever routes are modified, excavations have to be started from the beginning each time.
Source: HVG
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14.05.2004