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

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

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

and

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

Life and work

Torma was born in Csicsókeresztúr, Beszterce-Naszód County,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

(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 is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

). 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, Romania, Deva. The county is part of the Danube–Criș–Mureș–Tisa Euroregion. Name In Hungarian language, Hungarian, it is known as , ...

. Torma was mostly self-educated. In 1875, she was encouraged by , considered by some to be the father of Hungarian archeology, to begin her own excavations of the ancient settlement of Tordos (present-dat

Turdaș Turdaș (, ) is a commune in Hunedoara County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Pricaz (''Perkász''), Râpaș (''Répás''), Spini (''Pád''), and Turdaș. Turdaș lies on the left bank of the Mureș River, which surroun ...

), along the

Mureș River Mureș may refer to: * Mureș County, Romania * Mureș (river) in Romania and Hungary (''Maros'') * Mureș culture, a Bronze Age culture from Romania See also * Târgu Mureș, the capital of Mureș County * Ocna Mureș, a town in Alba Cou ...

. The symbols and scripts on clay objects she found during an excavation in

Hunyad County Hunyad (today mainly Hunedoara (county), Hunedoara) was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary, of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and of the Principality of Transylvania (disambiguation), P ...

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

Vinča symbols The Vinča symbols are a set of undeciphered symbols found on artifacts from the Neolithic Vinča culture and other "Old Europe (archaeology), Old European" cultures of Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe. They have sometimes been descr ...

. 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 List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany 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 in ...

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

National Museum of Transylvanian History The National Museum of Transylvanian History (, ) is a history and archaeology museum in the city of Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country ...

of Kolozsvár (present-day

Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

). 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 ( , , commonly known as UBB) is a public research university located in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Established in 1581 as Academia Claudiopolitana, it underwent several reorganizations over the centuries, eventually taking ...

. Torma died in Szászváros (present-day

Orăștie Orăștie (; , , , '' Transylvanian Saxon'': Brooss) is a small town and municipality in Hunedoara County, south-western Transylvania, central Romania. History 7th–9th century – On the site of an old swamp was a human settlement, ...

), 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 Archaeologists from Austria-Hungary Anthropologists from Austria-Hungary Paleontologists Hungarian women archaeologists Women paleontologists Women anthropologists