Archeology Department

The establishment of the Society of History and Archeology in Banat in 1872 marks the beginnings of the Banat Museum. Among the then aims of the Society we record the research of the historical past, the establishment of a museum of history and archeology and the initiation of some archeological excavations.

The first museum objects come from donations, accidental archeological discoveries and acquisitions. It is worth mentioning the great antiquity donation from 1873 of General Anton Scudier consisting of several Roman and feudal epigraphic and sculptural monuments, coming from Titel (today Yugoslavia). Roman monuments were also brought from Banat (Caransebeș, Orșova, etc.). Over time, valuable collections have entered the museum’s patrimony, through donations or acquisitions: Ormós, Pongracz, Cesnola, etc.

In 1877, the museum officially opened to the public. The number of archeological pieces increases every year; this process took on a larger scale with the onset of systematic archaeological excavations (1893), reaching over 17,000 objects in 1916. The revival of archeological research took place only after the Second World War, especially in the 1960s, through the excavations undertaken by the specialists of the Banat Museum. We mention the researches from Tibiscum, Cruceni, Bobda, Hodoni, Parța, Remetea Mare, Foeni. Thus, the number of archeological objects has increased rapidly, reaching now over 350,000, including pieces from the Paleolithic to the modern era, coming mainly from sites on the territory of Banat. In recent years, The research topics of the archeologists of the history section focus mainly on major issues of the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Roman Age, the Migration Age and the Early Medieval Age. Some of the museum objects in the collections are presented in the following permanent exhibitions (hosted in 19 rooms of the museum):

Paleolithic and Epipalaeolithic
Neolithic, Neolithic Sanctuary from Part
The Bronze Age
Iron Age (Northern Thracians and Geto-Dacians)
Daco-Roman era (Roman Dacia, Daco-Roman)
Pre-feudal and medieval period
The modern and contemporary era