Mitteilungen des Archäologischen Instituts der Ungarischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 14, 1985

László Castiglione, classical archaeologist, scientific consultant to the Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, corresponding member of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, member of the International Association of Classical Archaeologists, the International Association of Egyptologists, the International Papyrological Society and numerous other Hungarian and international learned societies, general editor of the archaeological periodical of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, founder and first editor of these Mitteilungen, died after a long illness on April 2, 1984. His death is a grievous loss for both the Roman archaeology in Hungary and the classical archaeology in general. He was one of the few in this country who considered the mastery of the arts of the ancient world to be the sine qua non of provincial archaeology. He was one of the few Hungarian scholars, who tried to eliminate the gap between classical and provincial archaeology, first of all by significant contributions to the recent accomplishments of international classical archaeology – his activities in investigating the art of the late Hellenistic and Roman Egypt were well in advance of his time.
These are early days to properly appraise his scholarly activities and scientific accomplishments, to size up his achievements in the organization of research, and also to take the measure of his literary activities, though, for example, there can be no doubt that his history of arts in Roman Egypt, published in 1967, will remain the basis of research in thisfield for many generations. The stylistic historical, typological and chronological framework he provided in his works will doubtlessly further the object of future researchers. His effectual efforts to thoroughly reform the State of archaeology in Hungary (first as official at the 11. Department of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1963, than as Deputy Director of the Archaeological Institute between 1964–1980, and also as member of the Archaeological Committee, and as general editor of the journal Acta Archaeologica from 1969 until his death) can doubtlessly be attributed to the very same phenomenon which was also the cause of his tragic failures, namely to the outsiderness of the classical archaeologist in the Hungarian professional life and, what is more, to that of a classical archaeologist whose only ruling passion was his devotion to the exacting work.