Zsófia Torma (26 September 1832 – 14 November 1899) was a Hungarian

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

and

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Life and work

Torma was born in Csicsókeresztúr,

Beszterce-Naszód County Beszterce-Naszód was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now in northern Romania (north-eastern Transylvania). The capital of the county was Beszterce (now Bistrița). Geography Beszterce-Naszód cou ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(today Cristeștii Ciceului,

Bistrița-Năsăud County Bistrița-Năsăud () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Transylvania, with its capital city at Bistrița. Name In Hungarian language, Hungarian, it is known as ''Beszterce-Naszód megye'', and in German language, German as ''Kreis Bistritz-N ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

). After her parents died, she moved with her sister to Szászváros, now in Romania, where she began to study the snail farms she found in

Hunedoara County Hunedoara County () is a county ('' județ'') of Romania, in Transylvania, with its capital city at Deva. The county is part of the Danube–Criș–Mureș–Tisa Euroregion. Name In Hungarian, it is known as , in German as , and in Slovak as ...

. She was mostly self-educated. In 1875, she was encouraged by Flóris Rómer, considered by some to be the father of Hungarian archeology, to begin her own excavations of the ancient settlement of Tordos, along the Mureş river. The symbols and scripts on clay objects she found during an excavation in

Hunyad County Hunyad (today mainly Hunedoara) was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary, of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and of the Principality of Transylvania. Its territory is now in Romania in Transylvania. The capital of the co ...

became an archaeological sensation. She also found artifacts of the 6,000- to 7,000-year-old Tordos culture, some of which were covered with Vinca symbols. According to Gizella,

Zsófia Torma was the first to discover the Neolithic culture of Tordos, drawing attention to the connection between the signs of Tordos and the Assyrian-Babylonian literacy, the penetration of Sumerian literature through Southeastern Europe. She worked in Tordos for twenty years, more than thirty years before the discovery of the carefully collected, extremely valuable finds and dissertations on them, as the Vinca-Tordos culture was only explored in 1908.

Torma had severe financial problems caused by her self-funded excavations. She also struggled with archeologists in her own country, who "ridiculed and ignored her, as a woman and amateur in the field of archaeology, as well as her groundbreaking ideas and efforts." However, her finds and writings found acceptance among foreign researchers who engaged in long correspondences with her. Her most well-known work, the ''Ethnographische Analogien'', was published in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

, Germany, in 1894. Torma had an important role in the founding of the

National Museum of Transylvanian History The National Museum of Transylvanian History ( ro, Muzeul Național de Istorie a Transilvaniei, hu, Erdélyi Történelmi Múzeum) is a history and archaeology museum in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It features a permanent exhibition, as w ...

of Kolozsvár (present-day

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

). In her will, she left her collection of 10,387 archeological pieces to the Transylvanian National Museum's Museum of Medals and Antiquities. On 24 May 1899, just a few months before her death, she became the first female to be named an honorary doctor at the Kolozsvári m. kir. Ferencz József Tudomány, what is today

Babeș-Bolyai University The Babeș-Bolyai University ( ro, Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai , hu, Babeș-Bolyai Tudományegyetem, commonly known as UBB) is a public research university located in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. UBB has a long academic tradition, started by Universitas ...

. Torma died in Szászváros (present-day Orăştie), on 14 November 1899.

References

Notes

* *
The life work of Zsófia Torma
in the Transylvanian Values Collection

External links

Coltofean, Laura. 2017. Zsófia Torma: A pioneer of prehistoric archaeology in nineteenth-century Transylvania. In: Cs. Szabó, V. Rusu-Bolindeț, G. T. Rustoiu, M. Gligor (eds.): Adalbert Cserni and His Contemporaries. The Pioneers of Alba Iulia and Beyond. Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca, 2017: 327-354.

Coltofean, Laura. 2015. Object Photography in 19th Century Archaeology. The Photographs of Zsófia Torma's Archaeological Collection. ''Brukenthal. Acta musei'' X.1: 35-48.

Coltofean, Laura. 2015. Importanța ediției a opta a Congrès international dꞌanthropologie et dꞌarchéologie préhistoriques în dezvoltarea arheologiei preistorice în Transilvania secolului al XIX-lea / The Importance of CIAAP 1876 in the Development of Prehistoric Archaeology in 19th Century Transylvania. In: ''ArheoVest'', Nr. III / No. III: ''In Memoriam Florin Medeleț (1943-2005), Interdisciplinaritate în Arheologie [Interdisciplinarity in Archaeology], Timişoara, 28 noiembrie 2015 / 28 November 2015'', Vol. 2: ''Metode Interdisciplinare și Istorie [Interdisciplinary Methods and History]'': 1035-1055.

Coltofean, Laura. 2014. Unveiling Zsófia Torma. The Diary of a Woman, an Archaeologist and a Visionary. In: Marler, Joan (ed.), ''Fifty Years of Tărtăria Excavations. Festschrift in Honor of Gheorghe Lazarovici on the Occasion of His 73rd Birthday''. Sebastopol: 258-273.

Coltofean, Laura. 2012. When Passion is Stronger than Death… Zsófia Torma’s Reflections. ''Brukenthalia. Romanian Cultural History Review'' 2: 67-77.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torma, Zsofia 1832 births 1899 deaths People from Bistrița-Năsăud County Hungarian archaeologists Hungarian anthropologists Hungarian paleontologists Hungarian women archaeologists Women paleontologists Hungarian women anthropologists 19th-century women scientists 19th-century Hungarian women writers

Life and work

See also

References

Notes

External links