Budapest Régiségei 37. (2003)

Gyürky Katalin, H.: A budapesti I. Fortuna u. 18. számú lakóház régészeti kutatásából származó üvegleletek 13-28

H. GYÜRKY KATALIN f GLASS HNDS FROM THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS AT 18 FORTUNA STREET IN BUDA CASTLE The archaeological investigation of the house was conducted by Julia Altmann and Judit Zádor. I was asked to study the glass finds of the excavation. The glass finds come from between the 13

th century and the end of the Period of Turkish occupation. It is lucky that the location of the finds belonging to different periods were scattered thus enabling us to differentiate between the characteristic types of the periods. I had had suppositions in this field that could have been proved in the course of the present work. The amount of the glass finds is high, which is not unusual in Buda, as the whole mediaeval city, especially the wells abound in them. It is only the case of 13

th century finds that may be exceptional as the number of the representatives of certain types is larger than would satisfy the needs of one single houshold. The earliest group of the glass- finds was unearthed at the excavation site of Julia Altmann in the thick soot layer of a huge fire. The fire deformed the finds themselves too, the glass melted and curved. (Figs. 1 and 2) These finds had already been mentioned in the glass catalogue in 1986. Bottle with a bulge in the neck (Fig. 1, Fig. 2 No. 1-4) The full thickness of the bottles is deteriorated and they have a pink shade. (The colour of the deterioration is important too: the pink or pearlshade could have been colourless or translucent glass when intact. It is characteristic for this group of finds that the thick body of the bottle starts right under the bulge. Therefore as for their shape they are close to the unbroken bottle found in Panik (Yugoslavia, near Dubrovnik) and installed at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan. Interestingly, its dark-amber colour reminds of another find from Buda, a small biconical bottle. This similarity might be the key to the problem of the origin of the 13

th century glass finds of Buda that could not have been solved yet. I have already mentioned in my studies several times that the earliest appearence of this bottle shape can be dated back to the 12

th century Corinth, belonging to Byzantium. It is not that frequent and common that it could be qualified as a general type. At the same time there is 100 years difference between the Greek and the Hungarian examples. It is only possible to bridge the gap if we suppose that the type survived in smaller workshops somewhere else, possibly on the Balkans. Drinking cup (Fig. 1 No. 1). It can be a local product. The reconstruction shows that it belongs to type Number XIII. 2. of the First Glass Catalogue. Broken piece of the side of a glass cup (Fig. 1 No. 3) between two smooth threads there is a thicker wavyone - probably horizontally. There is a similar find among the 13

th century glass finds of the Royal Palace of Buda. This decoration is characteristic of foreign pieces. The findspot is only known in one case but all of them are dated back to the turn of the 13

th and 14

th centuries. The curvature of our fragments suggests a barrel-shape glass. It is also possible that the trimmed bottom-fragments also belong here 55 of which have been unearthed. (Fig.l No. 4 Fig. 2 No. 2) The trimming is made up of rare globularly protruding thorns - characteristic of the 13

th century. There are 135 pieces of conical glass cup bottoms, 16 flat and round drop fragments and furthermore two fragments with threading. The drops can be only decorations of prunted beakers or they can be combined with the plastic decoration and the threading as on the fragment found in the first courtyard of the palace of Buda. The glass finds coming from this site are broken to the extent that it is impossible to make undisputable reconstruction. Heeding this fact one of our reconstruction is presented in the following, (fig. 1 No. 1) At the same site where the earliest group of the glass finds was unearthed a purse full of money was also found. The study of the coins has not been completed yet. Archaeologists conducting the excavation say that they can be dated back to king Béla IV and King András III, i.e. up to the end of the 13

th century There were some smaller glass finds coming from the top level of the site which represent transition from the 13

th to the 14

th century Side and neck-ring fragment of an amber biconical bottle. Before Venetian glass- making opened a new phase with its colourless crystal glass glasses used to have different shades: light blue, light green, yellow, smoky brown or pink. Thus the amber glass finds of Fortuna Street come either from the end of the 13

th - or from the turn of the 13t and 14

th centuries. However at the same site a colourless fragment of the bottom of a biconical bottle was also found which is disambiguously from the 14

th century. On the surface level some broken pieces of a small Venetian prunted beaker with its trimmed bottom fragments decorated with 20