Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis 10. (1972)

Fehér Géza: Adatok Eger török agyagművességéhez

Géza Fehér Jr. TURKISH POTTERY AT EGER The important role of Eger during the age of the Turkish occupation (in the 16th and 17th century) appears most clearly from an exquisitely worked silver flagon which is one of the objects found during the excavations in the Castle in 1929 (inventory number: 52.264.1.). Regular excavation work carried out at Eger in the last fifteen years enriches our knowledge which important facts of architectual history. The identification and classification of the finds promises remarkable new results of research relating to Turkish pottery. The old Turkish relics of the Dobó István Castle Museum of Eger make us acquainted with a rich variety of pottery, even if their provenance and circumstances of discovery are not known to us in all details. This material is certainly a good representative of the Turkish pottery of Eger. And its display will be of useful assistance in analysing the material of recent excavations. For appraising the relics presented in this study, we used mainly the comparable material of the museums of Esztergom, Szolnok and Pécs. It has been concluded that the various pieces of the Eger ceramics we studied represent different periods of the era of Turkish occupation. Some of these vessels must have been made in the 16th century. But the majority of the material is a product of the late period of the Turkish rule in Hungary. We make this assumption especially on the basis of the shape, the execution and the composition of the glaze of these vessels. 17-century vessels of similar execution are to be found in large numbers in the repository material of the Damjanich János Museum of Szolnok. Yet the available Turkish ceramics of Eger are not sufficient in themselves for drawing safe conclusions on the methods of production, or their use. But even so, the Eger material will be fairly important in a nation-wide study of the Turkish material, and also in an investigation into the questions of pottery technique. Here we may only make brief mention of the function of these vessels. As concerns the type of the numerous pedestalled bowls found in the Eger material, and called by the collective noun "sahan", we only remark that this type of vessels was hardly suitable to be used for cooking. They were rather used for eating, were put on the table filled with vegetable dishes, sorts of stew, thin meals. It was the pedestalled bowls of different sizes that were best fit for serving fruit and cold dishes prepare d with oil which was much favoured in Turkish kitches. The beaked variant of jugs, called "ibrik", was a water-holding vessel first of all which also served the purpose of hand-washing and ritual washing. But refreshing drinks, or tea and coffee, may have been kept in them as well. The pitchers without a beak, having a cylindrical neck for the most part, were called "gögüm" by the Turks. Water was warmed in the bigger ones, the smaller ones were used for making tea, the dark extract of tea was 201