Medieval Studies/Archaeology Doctoral Program

The history of the program

After the establishement of the Doctoral School of History at the University of Szeged in 1990, doctoral applications with archaeological topics could be submitted for a long time only to the Antiquity and Medieval Studies Programs because of the lack of an independent Archaeology Program. Many candidates used this opportunity, so numerous archaeologists obtained their doctoral absolutoriums in the above mentioned programs and defended their dissertations in Szeged too. What is more, the then fellows of the Department of Archaeology of Szeged also joined the doctoral school as instructors. However, the growing interest in the training showed a similarly increasing need for launching an independent archaeological training program. For this purpose, nonetheless, steps could only be made after personal and other conditions had been met (for instance, enlisting a properly qualified staff of instructors).

Due to these efforts, a three-year doctoral training in archaeology could be finally launched in cooperation with the Medieval Studies Program in Szeged in the first semester of the academic year of 2015/2016. With this step, the palette of the training in archaeology has become three-tiered at the University of Szeged. Besides the three-year basic training (BA level) that ends with a bachelor degree and the two-year master training (MA level) that provides a master degree, the opportunity of obtaining a doctoral degree is now given through the three-year doctoral training (PhD level).

Anyone can apply for the training with an MA diploma from the academic year of 2015/2016 (according to the law on higher education applications can be submitted with any MA degree but obviously those who hold an MA degree in archaeology enjoy considerable advantages). The training offers state-funded and fee-paying forms. The applicant has to indicate during the entrance procedure which training form he/she intends to choose. However, the number of state-funded positions is limited, so the applicant has to specify if he/she takes on the fee-paying form of the training in case the number of state-funded places is inadequate. Foreign students can enrol in the program to funded positions within the framework of the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship.

Due to reasons of content, accreditation and organisation of the instruction, the program was launched in cooperation with the Medieval Studies Program, with an independent course trail, offering a complex training and network plan for archaeologists participating in the program. Meanwhile, as a consequence of the higher education reform affecting doctoral trainings as well, the length of the doctoral training in all scientific fields was changed to 2+2 year. This change affected our program, too, from the academic year of 2016/2017, so the current duration of the doctoral training is 4 years.

The present of the program

The program provides the widest opportunity for the archaeological profession to obtain the doctoral degree. From the researchers of the Neolithic to archaeologists specialising in the late Middle Ages, the program welcomes any applicant willing to enrol in the training who holds at least an MA degree, but particularly the Iron Age, the period of imperial Barbaricum, the Migration Period, the Age of the Hungarian Conquest and State Foundation, and the Middle Ages are the fields which are regarded with distinguished attention.

The training is built basically on two tiers. It rests on individual research under the tutelage of the chosen supervisor on the one hand, and on the university contact courses on the other, which are organised as real workshop seminars and lectures. Not only the students enrolled in the training but the instructors of the doctoral school also present their newest research results at these courses, involving the whole scientific workshop into the research / creative process within the framework of these vivid classes with their lively atmosphere of stimulating debates and exchange of ideas. However, from its very onset, the lecture series of the doctoral school involved and still continues to invite the most distinguished researchers and prominent members of the international and Hungarian society of archaeologists in the training, with respect to almost all of the archaeological eras. It is so that, among others, the following scholars have presented in Szeged: Dr. Dieter Quast, Dr. Csanád Bálint, Dr. Elek Benkő, Dr. Éva Garam, Dr. Mária Bondár, Dr. Péter Somogyi, Dr. István Ecsedy, Dr. Róbert Müller, Dr. Károly Belényesy etc.

The aim of the training is to provide the widest potential professional help for writing the doctoral dissertation, and to fully prepare the applicants for obtaining the doctoral degree, but also to bring up an individual generation of researchers girded with far-reaching, thorough and profound knowledge, the newest methodological skills and insights as well as with a wide range of Hungarian and international relations.

In line with the regulations of the university, the faculty, and the Doctoral School of History, the doctoral program offers the opportunity to obtain the doctoral degree as an individual trainee. This possibility is given to those colleagues, who have been employed in this profession for several years, have got considerable scholarly and publication output, and who cannot undertake applying for the full-time training because of their work at some museum, research institute or institution of higher education. The program council and the Council of the Doctoral School of History decide on the status of the individual trainee taking into account the suggestion of the director of the program. In the case of individual trainees, however, the number of subjects at the doctoral comprehensive examination is not one but three. All the other conditions comply with the regulations of obtaining the doctoral degree in the case of individual trainees too. (For further regulations with respect to individual trainees, see the header of “Felvételi információk” [Admission information] in the menu.)

Network plan of the program’s training

Instructors of the program

Dr. Ágnes B. Tóth
Dr. Szabolcs Felföldi
Dr. habil. Valéria Kulcsár
Dr. András Markó
Dr. Katalin Pintér-Nagy
Prof. Dr. László Révész
Dr. Gabriella Vörös
Dr. habil. Mária Wolf

Topic announcers of the program with their proposed topics

Dr. Ágnes B. Tóth
Germanic Peoples of the Carpathian Basin in the 5th–6th Century

Dr. János Dani
Archaeology of the Late Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages

Dr. Szabolcs Felföldi
Specific Questions of the Hun and Avar Age, the History and Archaeology of the Inner Asian Silk Road in the 3rd–5th Century

Dr. habil. Valéria Kulcsár
Barbarians in the Age of Emperors, Age of Huns, Prehistory (Iron Age)

Dr. András Markó
Paleolithic of the Carpathian Basin

Dr. Katalin Pintér-Nagy
Archaeological Relics of the Avar Age

Prof. Dr. László Révész
Archaeological Relics of Hungary from the Age of Conquest and Founding of the State

Dr. Gabriella Vörös
Sarmatian period of the Great Hungarian Plain

Dr. habil. Mária Wolf
Medieval Settlements and Castles; Research into Industrial Archaeology

Supervisors of the program

Dr. Ágnes B. Tóth
Dr. Szabolcs Felföldi
Dr. habil. Valéria Kulcsár
Dr. András Markó
Dr. Katalin Pintér-Nagy
Prof. Dr. László Révész
Dr. Gabriella Vörös
Dr. habil. Mária Wolf

Active students participating in the organised training of the program

Boglárka Mészáros
Zsófia Sztankovánszkiné Osváth
Dorottya Walter
Máté Varga
Krisztián Zandler

Grade 4
Martin Borsódi
Kristóf Hergott
Anna Botyánszki
Zita Hrabák
Andrea Szombathelyi

Grade 3
Réka Fülöp

Grade 2

Márk Ádám

Grade 1

Péter Ferenc Pillér

Supervisor: Dr. Gabriella Vörös

The Archeological examination of the sarmatian cemetery from Hódmezővásárhely-Aranyági-Halom

Réka Major

Supervisor: Dr. János Dani

Late Bronze Suciu de Sus culture

Csilla Molnár Mrs Bereczki

Supervisor: Dr. Mária Wolf Mrs Liptowszky

Tipology and chronology of the 16-18. century find material in the Castle of Szeged and the Palánk

Anna Zsófia Győri-Pórszász

Supervisors: Dr. László Révész, Katalin Pintér-Nagy

Along the Kapos River in the Avar Age - Examination of burials in a microregion

Roland Soós

Supervisor: Dr. habil. Valéria Kulcsár

The late iron age of the Pest Plain

Anna Szigeti

Supervisors: Dr. János Dani (SZTE), Dr. István Major (ATOMKI)

The Hajdúbagos/Cehalut Ceramic Tradition in the Upper Tisza Region (Hungary) in the Light of Archeological and Natural Scientific Research

Students who passed their complex exam

Zsolt Petkes
Balázs Mellár
István Törőcsik
Péter F. Kovács

Rita Rácz
Rita Soós
Boglárka Mészáros
Máté Varga
Zsófia Sztankovánszkiné Osváth
Dorottya Walter
Krisztián Zandler

Pre-degree certificate stating that all course-units have been completed

Gábor Wilhelm
Zsolt Gallina
Nikoletta Lukács
Sándor Varga