On 26 July 2014, the Hungarian archaeological expedition to the Ural region of Russia started in cooperation with the Department of Archaeology of Pázmány Péter Catholic University and the Hungarian Archaeological Theme Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Following the success of the 2013 expedition, the Hungarian research team is set to embark on a second journey to explore the eastern connections of early Hungarian history and the archaeological heritage of the Hungarian Conquest Period. This year’s team includes seven archaeologists, archaeology students, an antiquities specialist, and a press cameraman. The cameraman’s goal is to produce a sequel to last year’s highly acclaimed film this time incorporating new discoveries and insights.
In addition to revisiting the Uelgi site near Chelyabinsk, this year’s itinerary will expand to cover two new regions. The Archaeology Department of Orenburg State University, located in the South Ural region near the Kazakh border, and the Archaeology Department of Perm State Pedagogical University in the northern Kama River Valley, have each selected sites of potential significance to Hungarian ethnogenesis.
In the southern region, on the border between Orenburg County and Bashkortostan, the team will investigate a site in Kushnarenkovo (dating from the 6th–8th centuries AD). Meanwhile, in the north, work will focus on the site at Boyanov along the Kama River, known for its silver funerary masks, which were featured in an exhibition at the Hungarian National Museum last year.
The expedition, now extended to over three weeks, will conclude in Moscow, where the team plans to visit local museums and explore recent archaeological publications. These expanded scientific opportunities and discoveries, highly significant from a Hungarian perspective, stem from the research cooperation agreements established with Russian universities, which Pázmány Péter Catholic University renewed and extended last autumn.
