Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 31/1. (2011)
Articles
The Production of Prismatic Glass Bottles in Roman Apulum 179 A large pottery kiln (Fig. 3, structure 1) was discovered in room I (Cserni 1912a, 267- 268) and two semicircular furnaces (Fig. 3, structure 2 and 3) are known from room C (Cserni 1912a, 262-263). The straight side of the larger kiln (Fig. 3, structure 2; PI. 1/4) was 1.50 m, the radius was 1.20 m and the preserved height was 0.85 m, the straight side of the badly preserved smaller kiln (Fig. 3, structure 3) was 1 m and the radius 60 cm. The shape and size of the kilns, the published dataset and the fact that in room C no mould has been recovered, do not allow us to identify them with certainty as typical glass-working furnaces, but we can’t exclude the fact that they might have been used as such. From the many glass fragments discovered in the building, just a selection of the larger fragments has been published (Cserni 1912a, 279, fig. 22; 280-281) in the form of summary description and a photographic plate (PI. 1/5). With regrets we had to realize that the glass-material from the building was not to be found in the museum, so our observations rely only on the published data. Related to the bottle production we might link the eight glass moils (marked with red), the four glass thread fragments (marked with yellow) and the six bottle fragments (marked with green) which could be identified with a high degree of probability based on the available photo. From the building, we have eight pieces (1-8) which might belong to mould bases (Fig. 4/a) and eight pieces (9-16) could belong to the sides (Fig. 4/b-c) of the moulds. All of the mould bases and six of the side pieces have a frame (Fig. 4/b) and only two (10 and 14) belong to the version which presents the lack of it (Fig. 4/c). We have no clear evidence how these moulds were held together, but after being assembled (for the design, see Fig. 4/d) probably a rope or a fastener made of other organic material was used. Three of the well preserved side fragments (9 and 11-12) have a narrower inner part at the bottom and a wider one at the top, allowing the completed vessel to be taken out without dissembling the mould. Twelve pieces are made of marble (1-7 and 9-13) and only four (8 and 14-16) of ceramic. About the moulds discovered in this building we can declare with high probability, that they were possibly produced from reused' fragments of local marble7 8 and the available ceramic building materials in the workshop. This statement is strongly supported by the presence of at least one unfinished mould base (7) and the iconographical similarities between the moulds. Six (1-3, 5 and 7-8) of the eight moulds are decorated with rosettes, two with four petals (2, 5) and four with 7 A hint in this direction might be the roughly carved rhomboid decoration on one of the moulds (10) which could also be part of an unfinished base mould for a rectangular bottle but also a sketch for a decoration of another purpose. The second option might be more convincing, because this is the only mould fragment from our set having both sides polished. 8 Archaeometrical analysis could not be made on the moulds, but the uniformity of the greyish-white marble and it’s frequency in the area, would make it rather improbable to be imported.
