For thousands of years, people have been preoccupied with questions about death: What is death? Is there life after death? What happens to our souls, our entire spiritual being? Is there an afterlife? The answers given to these questions in different eras have fundamentally influenced and continue to impact our attitude toward the world around us, shaping our beliefs and becoming part of our everyday lives.
In human society, the purpose of burial is to give the deceased a worthly final resting place, so that the community can say a dignified farewell and prepare the deceased for the afterlife according to their beliefs. The oldest burials associated with our species, Homo sapiens, are thought to date back about 100,000 years. In the caves of Qafzeh and Es-Skhul in what is now Israel, researchers have found not scattered human remains but consciously buried human skeletons. This proves that the problem of death has been a human preoccupation for hundreds of thousands of years. And it has been with us ever since. Of course, we do not know the answer, we cannot know the truth, it is out there.
Over the past decade and a half, we have carried out significant large-scale excavations in Győr-Moson-Sopron County. Our exhibition aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the best of the Bronze and Iron Age burials uncovered here, with the help of spectacular burials presented in their original location (in situ) and reconstruction drawings. We gain an insight into burial customs and clothing, and we present the finds typical of the period unearthed from the graves, as well as brief descriptions of the recently excavated cemeteries.
In 2022, we presented our exhibition to the public with great success for a short time. We are now reworking and rethinking the exhibition, hoping that those who have missed it before will be able to see it.
