Dénesi Tamás (szerk.): Collectanea Sancti Martini - A Pannonhalmi Főapátság Gyűjteményeinek Értesítője 9. (Pannonhalma, 2021)
II. Gyűjteményeinkből
144 Takács Melinda Melinda Takács The traces of a pottery workshop in a market-town A group of late mediaeval jugs from Győrszentmárton The Archaeological Collection of the Archabbey in Pannonhalma was reviewed with a wide-raging examination in the recent past, and it has been made available for professional research. The present paper introduces a group of late mediaeval jugs, which consists of ten items and is kept in the collection. The pots in question were made in the settlement of Győrszentmárton (i.e., Pannonhalma today), they were found probably in the 1920s or 30s. Unfortunately, we have no exact information about the circumstances of the finds, but the written accounts confirm that the local residents came across the traces of a late mediaeval pottery workshop. Based on notices and archival data, we managed to identify two ground-plots as the possible site where the group of jugs might have been found. Both places of discovery are situated in the town’s centre today, in the northern part of Szabadság square. As these facts show, the former pottery workshop was located in the presumable central part of the mediaeval market-town, not far – for about 150-200 metres – from the present-day parish church dedicated to the Feast of Annunciation. The jugs of the assemblage display an identical design from the point of view of formal and technological features, they visibly reveal the same potter’s handwork. These articles are unglazed, their average hight is 28-30 cm, their rim-diameter is 7-8 cm, their bottom-diameter is 9-10 cm. Their volume is about 2.5-3 litres. Their material consists of micaceous sand, arenaceous clay, coarse limestone. They are wheel-made; their spouted rim is proportioned with three ribs. Their body is not broad-shouldered, their form is slender. Their side is decorated with deeper or poorer ribs in stripes. The signs of cutting them off from the wheel can be clearly observed on their bottom. They are fired red, their colour is in some places spotted, uneven. Each article is damaged. Without exception, larger and smaller cracks can be found on their sides, which was probably caused by the unsatisfactory firing due to the failure of the furnace. The best analogies of the jugs are known in the settlements of Sarvaly, Bajna-Csima, Gyepűkaján-Nagykeszi, Felsődörgicse and Csepely, and owing to these facts, the jugs can with great certainty be dated from the second half of the 15 th century or maybe the beginning of the 16th century. The relatively correct dating of the jugs and their unified features of technology and form can provide points of reference to the future examination of the late mediaeval pieces of pottery of a little-known region.
