Late Antique - Early Medieval Christianization Research Group

A kutatóközpont neve angolul

Késő Antik - Kora Középkori Krisztianizáció Kutatócsoport

The purpose of the research center

Through methodological expertise and basic research, the research group underpins the successful teaching and research of the Early Christian Archaeology specialisation of the MA programme in Archaeology, which is unique in Hungary. The research group takes an active part in the academic research programme Frühes Christentum in Ungarn (Early Christianity in Hungary), run by the Department of Archaeology of the University of Pécs and the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, above all by writing the summary chapters on religious and church history for the project monograph. Over the past three years, work has begun on a new monographic synthesis of the early Christian church history of the late Roman provinces of Pannonia (Krisztina Hudák and Levente Nagy), which necessarily addresses many aspects of Christianisation as a historical process. In 2024, Levente Nagy began the systematic development of a third research topic: an analysis of Orosius's world history, primarily from the perspective of ancient history and historiography. This topic is also closely linked to the study of Christianisation as a historical process.

These research tasks often go beyond the teaching and research duties specified in the job descriptions of archaeology lecturers. At the same time, the theoretical and practical methodological principles of early Christian archaeology, ancient history and historiography, and church history applied by the research group are incorporated into BA training and, above all, into MA and doctoral (IDI) training. The group's raison d'être is also convincingly demonstrated by the fact that, apart from the theology faculties of church-run higher education institutions, late antique and early medieval Christianisation, early Christian church history and early Christian archaeology are not part of the research profile of the history and archaeology departments or institutes of Hungarian humanities faculties. Nor do the history and archaeology research institutes that have been transferred to the ELTE Centre for the Humanities (ELTE HTK) conduct research specifically on early Christian church history and archaeology. The Hungarian Patristic Society (MPT) is the only scholarly society in Hungary that works intensively on all areas of early Christianity. Since 2024, however, its president has also been the head of the research group, so the group is necessarily integrated into the MPT's extensive network at the highest, presidential level. In view of its active and successful work, I recommend that the Faculty leadership keep the Research Group for Archaeological Methodology on the Faculty's register of research groups.

Research center website

http://regeszet.btk.pte.hu/hu/tartalom/rolunk

Head of Research Center