Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 30/1. (2010)
Articles
Late Medieval Graphite Ware in the Tárgu Mure? Franciscan Friary 209 right of free royal towns.24 When discussing trade and trade networks, the graphite pottery group found among the Targu Mure§ material can offer interesting insights. Only a minor part of the Kingdom of Hungary experienced the effects of urbanization during the fourteenth and fifteenth century.25 Yet even the predominantly rural parts, like the Szekler land for example, experienced trade benefits through the mediation of market towns. A form halfway between a village and a town, this new type of settlement emerged, fulfilling the function of regional economic centres. Due to the fairs, market towns acted as centres for the distribution and circulation not only of locally produced goods, but, more significantly, imported goods mediated through merchants from larger towns. These centres served the needs of the regional elites and peasantry alike. Previous research did not identify Austrian ware in Transylvania, so at the time when Imre Holl was working on this subject he had no available data to use so he set the Tisza River as the limit of its easternmost spread.26 However, the presence of this particular pottery at the Targu Mure$ friary, as well as from the bishop’s palace and cathedral from Alba Iulia,27 changes this limit and pushes the boundary until the eastern Carpathians. These finds raise new perspectives on the circulation of goods in the kingdom of Hungary. Written sources remain silent about pottery trade, but they record the salt transported from Transylvania towards Szeged (from here spread to other regions) via the Mure§ River.28 Waterway trade was more efficient for bulky items, cheaper, faster and safer at the same time, while continental long distance trade would not have been profitable for merchants selling pottery because it was both fragile and heavy. Thus, one can assume that other kinds of merchandise, such as large quantities of pottery, were also transported on waterways in the direction of Transylvania, as in the case of the Danube, for which there is clear evidence that it allowed Austrian ware’ to reach Buda and the Balkans from the sixteenth century onwards.29 Thus, the picture of late medieval Targu Mure§ as reconstructed from the written sources - the picture of a market town, a regional economic centre actively participating in the trade network of the kingdom - can be substantiated by pottery evidence. APPENDIX List of the fragments 1. Rim fragment of a cooking pot, PI. 1/3. Targu Мищ-Cetate 2008, C25, G2, D. = 0.47-0.95 m, from the fill of pit 2. Production technique: fast wheel; fine shiny dark grey paste; sand and graphite temper; complete reducing firing; dark grey surface colour; without surface finish; not decorated. Diam. = 24 cm, Th. = 0.8-1.7 cm. Date: beginning and middle of the sixteenth century. 2. Rim and neck fragment of a cooking pot, PI. 1/1. Tárgu Mure^-Cetate 2008, C25, G2, from the fill of pit 2. 24 In 1482 King Matthias Corvinus gave this right to the town of Tärgu Mure? (see: Pál 2003, 59). 25 Engel 2001, 251. 26 Holl 1955, 168. 27 Recent archaeological finds show that this pottery is more frequent in Transylvania than it was previously thought to be (Rusu 2008, 295-296; Marcu Istrate 2009, 49-50, 61). The most comprehensive work on pottery, both imported and local tableware, in the Carpathian Basin was done by Imre Holl, although most of his work was published at a time when no comparative material was available from Transylvania (Holl 1955, 147-199; most recently, with reference to his previous works in the field: Holl 2005, 311-384). 28 lambor 1982, 75-85. 29 Mittelstraß 2007, 268-269.
