Jeno Nyary

* Hontbagonya, February 20, 1836 – † Piliny, June 29, 1914 / paleontologist, speleologist, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; ; younger brother of Albert Nyáry. He studied philosophy and law in Pest. At the encouragement of his maternal uncle, Ferenc Kubinyi (Kóvár), he began to deal with archaeology. While researching on the Pilinyi estate and in the surrounding area, he found graves from the Hungarian Conquest period and Bronze Age material on Vár-hegy. He was a close friend of Flóris Rómer (Bratislava), with whom he carried out several joint excavations. He toured Upper Hungary and excavated in many places (e.g. Domaháza, Sőreg, Lapujtő, Dobfenek, etc.). He was of the opinion that the prehistory of humanity should be researched primarily in river valleys and caves, so in 1876–1877 he excavated the Baradla cave in Aggtelek three times, where he found a wealth of finds. He published this in a nearly 180-page work containing 335 drawings (The Aggtelek Cave as a Prehistoric Cemetery) in 1881. The importance of the work is shown by the fact that Lajos Kossuth himself wrote a 40-page review of it (Tanulmányok báró Jenő Nyáry Az aggtelek cave as a prehistoric cemetery, 1883). The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member in 1883 and a full member in 1887.