Secrets of the wandering mine

The permanent exhibition titled Secrets of the Wandering Mine in Bükkábrány presents the curiosities of surface excavation carried out around the village. The exhibition building and outdoor display area are located on the western edge of the settlement, along road number 3.

Collections

The lignite mine in the Bükkábrány area cuts a huge, fan‑shaped imprint into the ground. This fan continuously opens on one side, closes on the other, and the area is being reclaimed. Before the machines advance, archaeologists survey the site. Thus it can be said that the largest‑extent excavation in Hungary is taking place here. Because of the general nature of the excavations, artifacts of the most diverse natural‑scientific and historical topics come to the surface.

The museum displays a portion of the finds uncovered during the archaeological excavation in its main building. In the open area beside the building, large mining equipment and machinery can be seen.

The most interesting finds

Here, from a depth of 60 metres, 16 pieces of 7‑million‑year‑old swamp cypress were recovered, whose photographs have toured the whole world. Even in their fragmentary state, the enormous trunks, 4–6 metres high and 1.5–3 metres in diameter, are considered by experts to constitute one of the most beautiful assemblages of finds in the history of Hungarian geological and paleobotanical research. Some of them can be viewed at the exhibition of the Ipolytarnóc Fossil Site Nature Protection Area. These trees did not carbonize, did not rot, their cellular structure is barely damaged, and organic material remained. Their preservation was a great challenge for the researchers, who now can infer the Upper Miocene climate and many other details from the growth rings of trees that died 300–400 years ago. The lignite deposit found at the foot of the Mátra and Bükk regions originated from the wood of the swamp cypress and mammoth pine forests that once grew on the shore of the ancient Pannonian Sea.

During their rescue excavations, archaeologists also found significant Paleolithic artifacts. The plastic decoration on the side of a Neolithic vessel displayed in the exhibition depicts a cattle. From the middle of the 4th millennium BC a stone-age cart model was uncovered. From the first half of the 2nd millennium BC a ceramic bowl was found that shows the very regular layout of contemporary settlements in this area and their spatial arrangement with almost engineering precision.

In 2014, a late Bronze Age treasure was uncovered through metal-detecting research. The bronze objects had once been hidden along a contemporary road for later reuse. The find contains simple items – a two-handled axe, fragments of saws, fragments of needles and pins, a solid needle, a large solid ring, ring fragments, two small melted bronze ingots – .

From the Scythian and Sarmatian period, the 6th–5th centuries BC, one of the museum's treasures is an antler amulet depicting a wolf and a wild boar. From the Celtic period the "world currency" of the era, the philippeus tetradrachm, was uncovered.

In Bükkábrány – in five separate cemeteries – 263 Sarmatian graves were excavated. In these, traces of ornate women's clothing, garments pierced with many beads, were found. Traces of the Csörsz ditch were also located; this fortification system also forms part of the modern border between the municipalities of Vatta and Bükkábrány. Here the Árpád-era Olaszegyháza and the remains of the largest contemporary settlement of northeastern Hungary were uncovered, including deep pit dwellings.

At the border of Bükkábrány, traces of the Battle of Mezőkeresztes were found on both banks of the Csincse stream, including stone-carved Turkish cannonballs and lead-cast musket balls. The Royal Archives in Stockholm preserve a map drawn of the Battle of Mezőkeresztes site. The map also marked the church of Alsó-Ábrány. From this it is revealed that the church of Alsó-Ábrány was in the middle of the cemetery on today’s Calvary Hill.

Opening of the exhibition

The permanent exhibition, prepared with the support of the European Union, opened on July 10, 2020. Due to the Covid‑19 pandemic the building could not receive visitors from autumn, but the outdoor exhibition is freely viewable.