Zalai Múzeum 12. 50 éves a Nagykanizsai Thúry György Múzeum (Zalaegerszeg, 2003)

Kovács Gyöngyi: Jegyzetek a kanizsai vár 16–17. századi kerámialeleteihez

Jegyzetek a kanizsai vár 16-17. századi kerámialeleteihez 165 Since the fort was provisioned by the villages in Zala county and the Kanizsa demesne (VÁNDOR 1994, 335-340), the pottery workshops must be sought in this area. The Bajcsa fort no doubt acquired a part of its pottery from the same settlements as Kanizsa, although wares from Styria and the Mura region appear to have been used in greater number. After the Turks captured Szigetvár and Kanizsa, the composition of the settlements provisioning Kanizsa changed. The year 1566 and 1600 can be seen as a genuine break, marking a change in the material culture of the Kanizsa fort. Our study of the similarities between Bajcsa and Kanizsa revealed that tableware sets and ornamental pottery wares of the later 16

th century (cp. KOVÁCS 2001, Figs 12-15) are entirely absent from the finds from Kanizsa. This can most likely be explained by the fact that following the rebuilding by Ferabosco, the castle functioned as a provisions storehouse and the captains were lodged in the town during the period between 1577 and 1595, when the Bajcsa fort was garrisonned (MÉRI 1988, 35, 45-46, 48; KERECSÉNYI 1993, 253-254; VÁNDOR 1994, 310-311, 326, 336337). The presence of rare foreign - Austrian and Italian - wares among the finds from Méri's excavation that can be dated to this period can be explained by the fact that Kanizsa was a royal fort after 1568 where the presence of German, Austrian and Italian troops and architects can be assumed (cp. the fragments of Austrian vessels decorated with sanded glaze (Fig. 3.3, Fig. 4. la-d; cp. HOLL 1990, 239-243; HOLL 1992, 36; KOVÁCS 2001, Fig. 15. 2). The so-called 'fire or siege pots' represent a 16

th century pottery type that is less well-known since few specimens have been published (Fig. 4. 7-8; cp. TAKÁTS 1903, 59-60). 17

th century ceramic wares (Turkish occupation period) The Kanizsa fort underwent a significant transformation during the Turkish occupation period (MÉRI 1988, 57-59; VÁNDOR 1992, 10-11; VÁNDOR 1994, 365-368). According to Evlia Chelebi's description from 1664, the fort became thoroughly Turkish in outlook and atmosphere (EVLIA 1985, 563-571). The Turks occupied the entire fort and they filled up the western part of the royal pentagonal fort - which during the later 16

th century was still marshland - and built an entirely new suburb called the Topraklik (MÉRI 1988, 44, 46, 51, 58; VÁNDOR 1992, 10-11; VÁNDOR 1994, 366-367). Most of the finds from the Topraklik date from the 17

th century. The late medieval castle perhaps perished in the early 17

th century (VÁNDOR 1994, 368). The building was in a very bad condition by the late 16

th century, becoming unfit for human settlement by the 17

th century (11) - and its rebuilding was apparently never even considered. Only a handful of glazed Turkish pottery fragments was found by the castle walls during Méri's excavations, while substantially more sherds from Turkish wares came to light in the trenches lying farther from the building, suggesting that although the Turks let the castle itself decay, they nonetheless settled in its vicinity. Apart of the Turkish occupation period pottery from Kanizsa - such as hand-thrown vessels, glazed and unglazed pots, as well as various jugs and plates - no doubt came from the villages taxed by the fort, while other wares - such as glazed footed bowls, certain types of black jugs and eastern faience and porcelain cups (Fig. 9. 1-4) - were imported from the Balkans and Anatolia. It is possible that some of Turkish and Balkanic characteristic wares was made locally, even though there is nothing in the archaeological record to support this. The glazed Turkish ceramic wares from Kanizsa compare well with the wares from other Turkish-occupied forts in Hungary and includes footed bowls (Fig. 6), spouted jugs, simple jugs (Fig 9. 7-10) and stove tiles (Fig. 7. 7). The hand-thrown vessels that can be linked to Balkanic population groups arriving with the Turks have their best parallels among the finds recovered from various Turkish forts in southern Transdanubia. This regional distribution indicates not only the ethnic background of the soldiers garrisoning these forts (cp. HEGYI 1998), but also sheds light on the population of the settlements, as well as their industry, that supplied the Turkish forts and towns. Although hand-thrown pottery was by this time a rather archaic tradition in Hungary, the potters of southern Transdanubia continued to produce pottery with this technique during the late Middle Ages and throughout the Turkish occupation period as shown by the survival of one type of slow wheel (HOLL 1956, 191).That the distribution of hand-thrown pottery, practically restricted to southern Transdanubia during the Turkish occupation period, was perhaps influenced by the fact that this pottery had local antecedents during the late Middle Ages. This hand-thrown pottery can be assigned to three main periods at Kanizsa. Beside a few sherds from the Árpádian period, the overwhelming majority of the pottery dates from the late Middle Ages (15

th-16

th century) and the Turkish occupation period (17

th century). It is often difficult to distinguish the finds of these three periods from each other, even if there are other associated finds. The late medieval vessels were produced by Hungarian potters in the seigneurial villages and they probably also made some of the wares used during the