Presentation at the 9th International Congress for Ancient Archaeology

September 1876 brought Zsófia Torma into an international scholarly forum when she presented finds from her Tordos excavations at the 9th International Congress for Ancient Archaeology in Budapest. The precise day of the presentation is not available in the accessible sources, but the event is firmly dated to that congress and year.

This was a major step in the public recognition of her work. She exhibited nearly one hundred artefacts, placing material from a Transylvanian prehistoric site before an audience of specialists from across Europe. In a scholarly environment dominated by men, and in a period when women were rarely invited to present archaeological evidence at major international congresses, the visibility of her contribution was itself historically important.

The Budapest presentation gave her discoveries broader circulation and helped position Tordos within European debates on prehistory. It also showed that Torma’s work was not confined to local collecting or antiquarian interest: she was engaging in the same transnational knowledge networks as leading archaeologists of her time. The event strengthened her credibility, expanded the reach of her findings, and demonstrated how a woman researcher could intervene directly in the formation of archaeological knowledge.