Research Centre for the Humanities

Abstract At the University of Pest at the end of the 18th century, it was Dániel Cornides (1732–1787) who explored Hungarian ancient religion, while András Dugonics (1740–1818) studied various aspects of Hungarian folk poetry (tales, idioms, proverbs) and folk customs in his lectures. Descriptive statistics, reports on the state of affairs in various regions and ethnic groups within the country documented the ethnographic character of these areas and groups in the first half of the 19th century. In the second half of the century, professors of Hungarian literature and language investigated and discussed these topics with a comparative European perspective at universities. Ethnographic and folklore-related knowledge was disseminated by excellent professors of classical philology and oriental studies. Professors of geography (János Hunfalvy, Lajos Lóczy) played a crucial role in providing information about faraway peoples and continents at the University of Budapest. The first associate professor (Privatdozent) in ethnography was Antal Herrmann at the University of Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca, now Romania) in 1898. He delivered his lectures in Kolozsvár until 1918, and between 1921 and 1926 in Szeged, where the University of Cluj was relocated. The first university department for ethnography and folklore studies was established at the University of Szeged, where Sándor Solymossy, a scholar of comparative folkloristics, became professor. At the University of Budapest, the first department for ethnography and folklore studies was founded for István Györffy, who primarily studied material culture and the people of the Great Hungarian Plain. His successors were Károly Viski (1942), then folklorist Gyula Ortutay (1946). In 1951, another department at the University of Budapest came into being for István Tálasi, who was a scholar of material culture studies and historical ethnography. The head of the ethnography and folklore department of the Hungarian University of Kolozsvár (Cluj) was Károly Viski in 1940–1941, and Béla Gunda between 1943 and 1948. At the University of Debrecen, established in 1912, a number of associate professors gave ethnography and folklore lectures between 1925 and 1949 (István Ecsedi, Károly N. Bartha, Tibor Mendöl, Gábor Lükő), but an autonomous department was established only in 1949 and led by Béla Gunda until 1979. At the University of Szeged, Sándor Bálint was appointed professor of ethnography and folklore studies in 1949, but only after 1990 did it become possible to provide M.A. degrees in ethnography and folkloristics, which had been provided at the University of Budapest since 1950 and at the University of Debrecen since 1959. The study reviews the disciplinary history of ethnographic and folkloristic studies in Hungarian higher education from the beginning until 1960.

Background/Objectives: Vertebral fractures are frequently underdiagnosed after minor trauma in patients with normal or mildly reduced bone mineral density (BMD). CT, the standard first-line imaging, may miss subtle fractures, while STIR MRI is more sensitive but not routinely applied. We evaluated whether DEXA-derived T-scores can guide selective use of STIR MRI in patients > 50 years. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 214 patients who underwent CT, sagittal whole-spine STIR MRI, and DEXA within 48 h after minor trauma. Fracture counts were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Spearman's correlation examined associations between T-score and fracture counts. Subgroups were defined as normal (≥-1), osteopenia (-2.5 < T-score < -1), osteoporosis (-3.5 < T-score ≤ -2.5), and high-risk osteoporosis (≤-3.5). Results: STIR MRI identified more fractures than CT in 87 patients (40.7%), while CT detected more in 19 (8.9%) (p < 0.0001). MRI outperformed CT across all T-score categories. The osteopenia group had the highest number of additional fractures (n = 53), and even patients with normal BMD showed a notable yield (n = 36). Correlations between T-score and fracture counts were weak and not statistically significant. Conclusions: T-score can support imaging triage but should not be used as a strict threshold. STIR MRI is justified in patients with T-scores < -2.5 when clinical suspicion exists and should be considered in those with higher T-scores if CT is negative but symptoms persist. Integrating T-score into imaging protocols may reduce missed fractures and improve outcomes.

Summary The transformation of the Roman world (4th-9th centuries CE) culminating in the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century marked a fundamental transition in European history. "Barbarian" groups and Roman provincial societies merged into enduring political frameworks in some places but not in others. Key questions persist regarding the regionally specific nature of this transformation. Here, we present one of the most densely sampled early medieval datasets to date, enabling the reconstruction of a post-Roman polity at an unprecedented micro-regional resolution. Our integrated genetic and archaeological analysis of two Roman-period (n=68) and five post-Roman (n=246) sites from the Little Hungarian Plain, a former Roman frontier region, reveals a significant increase in Northern European genetic ancestry, likely reflecting a large-scale population movement into the region. Moreover, while all post-Roman sites, dated to the time of the Langobard Kingdom, share similar genetic profiles, burial practices, and material culture, they display distinct patterns of social organization, especially regarding the role that biological relatedness played in each community. Our results suggest that distinct social hierarchies might have existed between sites, and their intensive connectivity probably formed the basis for regional-level organisation within the post-Roman polity. Our study provides a framework for investigating how new polities take shape after the collapse of major political systems. Applied more broadly, this approach can deepen our understanding of societal transformation across early medieval Europe and beyond, offering a richer and more nuanced view of the human past than ever before.

Abstract The present study describes and reconstructs the architecture of Bronze Age Houses G and H from Borsodivánka-Marhajárás-Nagyhalom, Northeastern Hungary. The site was investigated in the frame of the Borsod Region Bronze Age Settlement (BORBAS) project. Beyond the information on these two buildings derived from the excavation, we will also incorporate the results of scientific studies, micromorphology and phytoliths analysis conducted on the architectural remains and vernacular architectural parallels. Due to the tell character of the site and the burnt condition of the investigated layer, inner divisions, wall decoration made from daub and some other important architectural elements were preserved in situ and form the basis of the reconstruction.

Abstract Literature is language. Through language, literary texts construct characters, settings, plots, experiences, feelings, and ideas. Therefore, linguistic knowledge may help the literary critic understand and describe how meaning is created by linguistic means in literary texts. This entry traces the interest in and practices of studying the grammar of literature and other types of text in the academic field of stylistics. Stylisticians employ linguistic theory and methodology for analysis which is consequently based firmly on the actual wording of the text. The entry shows how developments in modern linguistics have informed stylistics work, which, in turn, has grown into a varied landscape of specialized subbranches such as functional stylistics, cognitive stylistics, corpus stylistics, and multimodal stylistics.