Sándor Bökönyi, the founder of modern archaeozoology in Hungary and a defining figure in the international research scene, was born a century ago. He was a Hungarian pioneer in the study of animal domestication in Europe and the Middle East.

He served as director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences between 1981 and 1993. We will remember his defining personality on several occasions during 2026 and we can learn about his life on a separate webpage.

He graduated as a veterinarian, worked as a natural scientist in archaeology, and became the director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He greatly contributed to the spread of archaeozoology and multidisciplinary studies in Hungary. During his over four decades of scientific work, he worked and taught in several countries. The focus of his research was the history of animal domestication. He published the results of animal bone assemblages examined in Europe and the Middle East in numerous languages, in the form of more than 230 academic studies, in addition do writing some popular articles on the subject.

In order to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Sándor Bökönyi, a website has been created in Hungarian and English. This website contains information regarding the main milestones of his life and his wide-ranging activities.

He will be remembered by the international community at the 10th Balkan Symposium on Archaeometry, to be held in Budapest from 19 to 22 October 2026. The event brings together archaeologists and natural scientists specialising in the history of the Balkans and the wider region from prehistory to the early modern period. There will be nearly thirty presentations at the meeting and numerous posters are expected. Furthermore, in a public lecture organized in connection with the meeting, László Bartosiewicz will commemorate him as the internationally recognised founder of modern zooarchaeology and one of the initiators of interdisciplinary research in Hungary and present the current perspectives of archaeozoology.