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The Zagreb Archaeological Museum

The Zagreb Archaeological Museum has experienced 157 years of continuous activity in the Croatian capital. Alongside the University and National Library, National Theatre, Records Office (Croatian State Archives), and the South Slavic/Croatian Academy of Sience and Arts, the museum was one of several national institutions which arose between the mid-1840s and mid-1860s to help form and strengthen the ill-defined Croatian cultural identity. The collections have a complex history from initial procurement to being subjected to much movement between cultural institutions and, not least, spending years out of the public eye to protect them from the ravages of war, as was the case from 1941 to 1945 and from 1991 to 1995. The museum’ s holdings (totalling 444, 984 objects) are truly eclectic, ranging from prehistoric artefacts (7, 4149 items) to the Egyptian (2, 257 items), Greek – Roman (95, 284 items) , and medieval (3, 765 items). Alongside one of the richest numismatic collections in Europe (269, 529 specimens) and our extensive library (41, 441 volumes), the holdings include small groups of Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets and South American pre-Columbian ceramics. Rooms containing regional masterworks are thus juxtaposed alongside rich Egyptian material, including the famous Nesikhons (?Nesi-Hensu) mummy found wrapped in the longest known Etruscan text (a ritual calendar - also the only preserved ancient book written on linen sheet and the only Etruscan book). The wealth and breadth of the collections in Zagreb make it very much an international universal museum. The 74, 000 prehistoric artefacts provide insights into 7000 years of regional culture in continental Croatia and the Srijem region of Vojvodina (where the museum was once active). The collection includes key research material such as ceramics and metal materials from the Copper Age Vucedol Culture and bronze and gold from 60 hoards, the style and workmanship of which provide a wealth of information regarding Bronze Age metallurgy and trade. Arms and armour from Early Iron Age graves are abundant, as are luxury artefacts of Late Iron Age Celtic provenance. The material culture of the Japods, the Illyrian population of the central part of Croatia, is of special interest. One of the richest, most diverse and interesting museum collections is the Greek and Roman collection. In addition to archaeological material procured through local exploration and excavation, this collection contains exceptionally valuable artefacts obtained in large quantities from individual owners and collectors. The last include a major collection of Roman sculpture and Greek pottery assembled by Count Laval Nugent of Westmeath. From about 40, 000 registered objects, the largest number derives from the Panonian-Illyric sites of Sisak (Siscia), Osijek (Mursa), Vinkovci (Cibalae), as well as Mitrovica (Sirmium) and Zemun (Taurunum), in the former Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia. Sculpture and inscribed stone from the Dalmatian lands of Solin (Salona) near Split and from Nin (Aenona) near Zadar are also common. One of the most important Greek artefacts is the famous inscription from Lumbarda (island of Korcula) dated to the 3rd c. B.C., witnessing of the foundation of a Greek settlement, as well as the base of an early 4th century BC triumphal monument (tropaion) from Pharos (Stari Grad, on the island of Hvar), which bears a dedicatory inscription to the memory of the triumph of the colonists of Pharos over the native Illyric Jadasini and their allies. Among the Greek artefacts of foreign origin are about 1500 vases of the 8th to the 3rd century BC, the richest and most complete collection in Croatia. The largest number was purchased from the collection of Marshal Count Laval Nugent in 1894. The Roman collection is much larger and more varied than the Greek holdings. The most important material is cult sculpture, followed by portraits, reliefs, and inscriptions. Particularly important are the monumental statues of Venus, Marsyas, Ganymede, a young Satire with flute, the sitting Muses, Calliope and Thalia. Many of the stone monuments are from the former Nugent collection and probably originate from Minturnae, a Roman town south of Rome where Nugent’ s agents conducted extensive archaeological excavations in the 1820s. Particularly important local Roman sculpture includes the early 3rd century AD beautiful portrait probably of Empress Plautilla from Salona. Among numerous bronze figurines from large Panonian Roman cities, are statuettes of the highest quality of workmanship depicting Jupiter, Victory, Mars, Mercury, Minerva, Venus, Silenus, Priapus, Hercules, Fortuna, Bacchus, as well as the oriental gods Mithras, Attis, Mercury-Thoth, and Isis-Fortuna. The epigraphic collection is also considerable. The museum’ s interesting collection of a few hundred medical instruments is amongst the largest in Europe, and its arms and armour collection is of similar international importance. Some of the largest additions to the Roman collection are the result of periodical acquisitions from Sisak. For example, the varied and valuable collection of the merchant F. Dierich was bought in the 1860s, as was another belonging to V. Solitro from Split. Between 1900 and 1912-13 the bed of the River Kupa in Sisak was thoroughly dredged, and the extensive finds revealed enriched the Archaeological Museum. The medieval material in the Zagreb Archaeological Museum, dating between the 5th and 15th centuries AD, is among the most comprehensive collection of the period both in Croatia and in the Southern Slav lands. Abundant local finds include 5th and 6th century material of the East Goths, Gepids, and Langobards. Massive East Goth fibulae crafted out of beaten silver and found in Ilok are particularly interesting. The migration of the South Slavs in alliance with the Avars is documented by a number of important individual finds from burial grounds. Of particular importance is a Roman brick found in Srijemska Mitrovica, Roman Sirmium, on which an anonymous citizen of the town, fearful of the Avar siege which historical sources state lasted two years, inscribed in Greek ‘ O, Lord God help this town, repel the Avars, protect the Romans and he who writes this, Amen’ . Despite this plea, Sirmium fell in AD 582. The Evolution of the Museum The central core of each of the collections of the Zagreb Archaeological Museum was originally housed in the premises of the Croatian-Slavonian Economic Society located in the mansion of Baron Daniel Rauch on St Mark Square in Zagreb. The earliest actual museum building was the National House on Opaticka Street, a lovely classical mansion belonging to Count Karlo Draskovic of Trakoscan, bought in 1846. In that year the museum held its first permanent exhibition. In 1880, during Don Sime Ljubic’ s tenure, the museum’ s holdings were once again on the move, being transferred to the Academy building. By 1897 some 6386 people were visiting the archaeological collections annually (according to the signed visitor’ s book). Yet once again this new space lacked the necessary infrastructure, with no workshops, poor exhibition space, and insufficient lecture halls. Plans to build a new museum were drafted c. 1914, with the Croatian parliament voting a sum of 1, 500, 000 crowns for the scheme. This project was interrupted and remained unrealised due to both the First and Second World Wars. After the 1945 revolution, a high priority order was issued for the History and Archaeology Museums to move to the Vranyczany-Hafner mansion on Zrinski Square. This mansion had been the base of the Automobile and Officers Club in the 1920s and 1930s, the hub around which Zagreb society revolved. But during the Second World War the Wehrmacht Headquarters had been located there under the direction of General Edmund Glaise von Horstenau. In the end this relocation greatly improved the collections’ prospects, especially since the History Museum relocated to the Upper Town in 1959, allowing the archaeology museum far greater space. In 1893 the museum had entered a Golden Age with the appointment of Josip Brunsmid as director from 1893-1924. A great Croatian archaeologist, numismatist, conservationist, university professor, and President of the Commission for the Protection of Monuments, Brunsmid the scholar had a worldwide reputation. During his tenure the purchase of material and books from the whole of Europe and the publication of the museum periodical was a real highlight in the museum’ s existence. Besides being a peerless scholar, Brunsmid was an excellent organiser. To involve the general public more closely in collecting and preserving their own cultural heritage, he arranged for the publication of a Croatian map showing the locations of monuments of the prehistoric and early historical periods in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. When it was published Brunsmid wrote that ‘ Most of the schools in Croatia and Slavonia got the map as a present, through which the government provided the opportunity for the widest possible number of people in country to get to know and become interested in antiquities in the hope that this would be of great use for the preservation of such things which, often through ignorance or carelessness, are damaged, and that these would be sent to enlarge the collections of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb’ . Ever since 1846 the museum has contained a core permanent exhibition, the composition of which has changed over time. The permanent exhibition of ‘ Monuments of Antiquity’ has been rearranged twice since 1945. The permanent exhibitions of Prehistory and Egypt were renewed in 1974 and of Prehistory reopened in 2003. The numismatics exhibition (the only one in the country) was opened in 1978, and ‘ The Middle Ages’ came to light in 1982. The Lapidarium gardens in the courtyard were opened in 1987. For many years there has been no permanent exhibition focusing on the Greek and Roman Period, a situation rectified in 1996 with the museum’ s 150th anniversary exhibition ‘ Muzeopis 1846-1996’ . At the moment a selection of most valuable ancient and mediaeval objects can be seen. Besides the permanent sections, the museum frequently organises special exhibitions. These have included: ‘ The Bindings of the Zagreb Mummy’ (1936, 1966)’ , ‘ Goldsmiths Work of Prehistory and Antiquity’ (1969), ‘ Prehistoric Settlement in Sv. Petar Ludbreski’ (1978), ‘ Egyptian Bronze Sculpture’ (1978), and “ King Zvonimir (1990), ‘ Zagreb before Zagreb’ (1994), “ From the Invincible Sun to the Sun of Justice” (1994), “ Vukovar, Lijeva Bara” (1996), “ Accede ad Certissiam” (1998), “ The Vucedol Orion” (2000), to mention a few. Most recently ‘ The Splendour of the Roman Cemeteries of Istria’ ran from April to June 2003. In 1991 and in 1993 a selection of the most important exhibits was shown both in Arezzo in Torino respectively. The Zagreb Book of Linen is in Graz at the moment, exhibited at the “ Tower of Babel” exhibition. Collating Cultural Resources The National Museum has long played a key role in the protection of national cultural heritage. From the outset the museum was conceived as a scholarly institution and, under the wing the Society for South Slavic History. Even before the museum came into existence, a court chancellery regulation of 1818 had forbidden the export of historical monuments from the Austrian Empire. The registration of monuments conducted by priests, teachers, and other literate individuals was taken very seriously. This situation was further facilitated in 1871 when Baron Anton Mollinary de Monte Pastello, the last commander of the Croatian Military Frontier and a keen amateur archaeologist, granted the current museum director, Sime Ljubic (from 1868-92), with a pass which granted him the co-operation of all military commanders. Following a circular letter from Baron General Filipovic in 1880, a government order was passed concerning preservation of antiquities. This reactivation of the 1818 law forbade the export of antiquities. Anyone found breaking this order was liable to arrest and confiscation of goods. People caught illegally excavating antiquities were fined twice the object’ s value. The Church also played a pivotal role in this preventive order, with Bishop Strossmayer publicising it by circular to the bishoprics of Srijem and Bosnia. In January 1895 Ban (viceroy) D. Khuen-Hedervary created a protection order for all castles that had belonged to the Zrinski and Frankopan families ‘ ...because in a number of cases it has occurred that, without any question being asked, ancient castles...have been put to public use, overbuilt or pulled down’ . Document of 1 December 1898 decreed that all archaeological finds from Croatia and Slavonia should be dispatched to the Zagreb museum. In 1900 Bude Budisavljevic, high prefect of Lika, issued an order whereby records should be made of all archaeological finds in Lika. A government circular of 1902 expanded this process by demanding the drawing up of accurate inventories of all castles, churches, and other monuments in Croatia and Slavonia. By this stage, the protection of so many monuments exceeded the Zagreb Archaeological Museum’ s resources. Thus, a Royal Commission for the Protection of Monuments was constituted in June 1911. Before then the Archaeological Museum had covered the huge area of the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia, some 42, 531 square kilometres. Areas beyond the reach of museum staff were patrolled by an ‘ army’ of extremely well organised correspondents: ‘ excellent field staff brought the museum unconjectured help. Enormous quantities of material arrived, and the Archaeological Museum swelled from a provincial storehouse into one of the richest European collections’ . Over the decades the Zagreb Archaeological Museum has drawn heavily on regional sites for its primary collections. Of the many prehistoric sites which museum director Sime Ljubic discovered, the Neolithic settlements of Sopot in Samatovci and the Japod necropolis in Prozor were of primary importance. With the greatest scientific precision, Josip Brunsmid, excavated a large number of sites dating between the Neolithic and Iron Age at Bapska, Jakovo Kormadin, Vucedol, and the necropoleis of Bijelo Brdo, Kompolje, Vrebac, Prozor, and Siroka Kula. Under Brunsmid the museum’ s fieldwork was assisted by three young scholars, V. Hoffiller, V. Tkalcic, and J. Klemenc, who worked at the multi-period settlements of Pogorelac in Sisak, the urnfield in Velika Gorica, the Japod necropolis in Smiljan (1903), and the large urnfield in Dalj (1909-11). The years immediately after the Second World War witnessed a surge in excavation, especially at sites which helped elucidate the cultural development of Croatia. Special attention was paid to necropoleis and settlements dating between the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages to the north of the country. The excavation of a tumulus necropolis in Kaptol near Pozega, combined with the rich results of earlier years, enabled previously unknown cultural group to be recognised. The tradition of museum excavations in Lika, essential for understanding the genesis of the Japods has also been continued. The results of this research were published as individual monographs, such as the “ Urnfield Culture in Northern Croatia” , or were printed in the museum periodical Vjesnik and other archaeological publications. For a long time the Archaeological Museum has been investigating and preserving Andautonia, a Roman municipium near the modern village of Scitarjevo. In 1994 the site was opened to the public as an archaeological park. Andautonia continues to provide the museum with many new finds, including very rare multi-coloured 1st century AD figurative frescoes recently discovered under the later period thermae. The longest ongoing project remains the excavation of the spa centre of modern Varazdinske Toplice, Aquae Iasae, as well of the Roman remains on Zumberak mountains. In the next future we are planning to complete the permanent exhibition in the Japodic room, as well as the Egyptian room. The permanent show of Greek and Roman art as well as mediaeval archaeology will also be initiated, as the actual exhibition represents a preview only. There are going to be several major exhibitions in 2003, such as for instance “ The area between the warriors of the West and those of the East – artefacts of the Early Iron Age from Continental Croatia” and “ Asseria – the Roman city” .

Zagreb; Croatia; Archaeological Museum; collections

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