Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 30/1. (2010)
Articles
Late Medieval Graphite Ware in the Tárgu Mure$ Franciscan Friary 207 precisely on the outer side of the defensive ditch of the friary. In this trench traces of a wooden construction (context L2), dug into the ground to a depth of 1.80 m from the medieval walking level, were revealed. The wooden building was raised on six round shaped wooden posts as the remaining holes indicate. The eastern and western side of the building was 3.40 m long while the northern and southern part was 2.8 m. Between the post holes, situated on the corners of the building, traces of beams were visible, which probably formed the walls of the building, dug into the walking level of the construction. The construction technique of the walls is not known. During excavation it became clear that the construction was filled with refuse material from the friary which indicates that the building was demolished during the functioning of the friary. The filling of the context already started at the end of the fifteenth century and by the beginning of the sixteenth century the wooden building was demolished. Only one coin dates the structure, a silver denar issued by Ferdinand I in the year 1543 thus offering a dating for the finds as well. Four fragments are hooked rims which curve sharply downwards into a semi-circle, representing a type of graphite cooking vessel characteristic to the end of the fifteenth and the sixteenth century produced on the territory of Austria.8 Specific features of these wares are the thickness of the rims and the use of a special type of clay containing graphite which cannot be found just anywhere. Such a place is the graphite-rich hinterland of Passau which substantiated pottery production since the 1220 s, especially in Passau but in the surrounding region, as well.9 Since two fragments from the friary material have visible workshop stamps10 11 on the rims, the possibility to attempt to localize their production place arises. One of the stamps is intact and shows a cross, above it a parallel line in an oval circle, a so-called “cross-transom” mark (see Pi. 1/1). A recent publication dates the use of this stamp to the beginning and middle of the sixteenth century based on the finds from Obernzell as well as other analogies.11 The use of workshop stamps is a still debated issue12 which has at its central point the Viennese Council decision from 1431 which offered protection to the producers and buyers of real graphite pottery from cheap vessel imitations by means of inserting certain rules that should have been applied through Vienna to all Austrian pottery. It states that only the pottery containing graphite should be marked with the compulsory Austrian sign’ but also an additional workshop sign or a simple cut should be added to the vessel. It is clear that this decision wasn’t fully respected because in 1527 the Archduke Ferdinand had to assert it again.13 The production place of Obernzell belonged to the High Passau region since the early thirteenth century. The first actual mentioning of the pottery from Obernzell as import article can be found in the rules of the potter’s guild of Regensburg from 1509.14 Documents mention the export of crucibles and of the ‘iron-coloured wares’ indicating the origin of the products as Obernzell and the graphite-clay sources from the Bavarian forest. As written sources and archaeological finds indicate the products of this centre were traded on the Danube as well as in the neighbouring areas but the extent of its exports cannot be estimated because consensus has not been reached in the scholarship regarding the important workshop stamps and their allocation 8 Holl 1975, 129-149; Tóth 2006, 53. 9 Mittelstraß 2007, 268. 10 These marks started to be used from the thirteenth century onwards (Bertalan 1998, 181). 11 Finds from Belgrad, Saldenburg, Passau, Salzburg, Riederberg, Murnau, Lässig (Mittelstraß 2007, 274-281). 12 See a detailed discussion in Mittelstraß 2007, 285-307 and Scharrer-Liska 2007, 23-24, 71-73. 12 Mittelstraß 2007, 269-270. 14 Bauer 1980, 24.
