The holdings of the future Varazdin Municipal Museum's Prehistoric Department were acquired through the purchase of Stjepan Vukovic's rich private collection in 1938.
Stjepan Vukovic, since 1949 curator of the Prehistoric, later to become the Archeological Department, was responsible for the discovery of many archeological sites. He performed long-term explorations of Vindija cave, "Velika pecina", and Punikve paleolithic site near Ivanec. He was the founder of experimental archeology in our midst.
The Department systematically collects, documents, and studies archeological materials from all periods of prehistory, early history and the Middle Ages, all the way to the beginnings of the Modern World. Owing to the development of urban archeology, the Modern World items collection has also been started recently.
The collection includes over 10,000 exhibits.
We should like to point out the following in particular:
- stone tools and Punikve artefacts (explorations conducted by S. Vukovic from 1939-1965, with some interruptions)
- stone and bone paleolithic objects ftom the Vindija cave (explorations conducted by S. Vukovic from 1928-1967, with some interruptions)
- bronze smelters' hoard from early Iron Age discovered at Sv. Petar Ludbreski (explorations conducted by M. Simek in 1979 and 1980)
- a Scythian tomb from Jalzabet, early Iron Age (explorations conducted by M. Simek in 1989)
- a small Egyptian items collection formerly owned by the Pasthory-Varady family
Official: Prof. Marija Simek, Advisor