Budapest Régiségei 37. (2003)

Mester Edit: Beszámoló a gyertyánvölgyi üveghuta feltárásának és rekonstrukciójának eredményeiről, 2001-2002 281-295

MESTER EDIT REPORT ON THE RESULTS OF THE EXCAVATION AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE GLASSWORKS IN GYERTYÁNVÖLGY (2002-2003) I was a university student when I first met Katalin H. Gyürky who introduced her results in studying glass-ware to me with inimitable accuracy and modesty She supported me with much love and care in my first own work, in the project dealing with the glass finds of Visegrád. I have been involved in the research of glass-ware and glassworks since then and I thankfully remember the instructive conversations that set me out on this road. In 2001 I got to know Mr. Rezső Halász, the major of Biikkszentkereszt, who was about to begin the research and the reconstruction of the glassworks in Gyertyánvölgy, near their settlement. As a result of our coproduction the formation of an industrial-historical site unique in Hungary has been started with the help of a number of professional institutions and sponsors. Glass was made in the woods of Bükk Hills near Diósgyőr from the 1710s onwards. Between 1712-1750 the first glasshouse worked in Óhuta (the present Bükkszentlászló). In 1755 the "glass barn" was translocated to Újhuta (the present Biikkszentkereszt) by Ferenc Sztraka and they continued production with the earlier methods and instruments. In 1790 János Stuller founded the workshop at Répáshuta that had very favourable circumstances the closeness of the raw material and water energy. After the series of bankruptcy of the lessees the workshop and its equipment was bought by József Schir from Újhuta, who translocated it into Gyertyánvölgy, leased from the crown estate. In 1865 the glassworks consisting of nine buildings was leased by Gusztáv Schusselka coming from Bohemia. Apart from the factory building and the house and the office of the owner there were houses for the workers, a pub, stalls, a shed and an apiary too. (Fig. 2) At the peak of the production there were 70 workers producing 50000 forints worth of glass per year. The production was manufacture-like. Apart from traditional window glass the main bulk of the production was hollow glassware. In the history of glass making in the Bükk Hills it was first at Gyertyánvölgy that glassware with chiseled, cut or burnished decoration had ever been made. In 1897 the owner, Gusztáv Schusselka went bankrupt. In the first phase of the archaeological research planned for several stages - it was possible to learn the layout of the development of the north-eastern part of the area. Investigation of local history and oral tradition confirmed information known from military maps made in 1858 and 1872: on both sides of the stone-paved road running from north to south through Gyertyánvölgy there was a villagelike settlement in the second half of the 19

th century. There was a cemetery belonging to the settlement of the glassworks in the southern part of the valley. The archaeological excavations started in 2001 and continued in the summer of 2002 has proved that the glassworks in Gyertyánvölgy is one of the best preserved industrial- historical sites in Hungary. In the first phase of the excavations two houses, a well and the waste hill ("halna") of the workshop came to light. The fireplace in one of the houses completely survived. (Fig. 4) In the course of the excavation of the houses a large number of glass objects, instruments and pottery were found. As part of the reconstruction works one of the houses, information charts and the lay by have been completed. (Fig. 5) In the course of the excavations conducted in the summer of 2002 the building of the workshop was found. In the parts that have been unearthed up to now the remains of two huge furnaces have come to light. In and around the workshop the site abounded in melting pots, pieces of instruments, glass-gall and frit, and in the south eastern part of the building there were many spare-parts for machines made of iron, pieces of metal sheets and bolts for the boiler. (Fig. 7-9) It is worth mentioning the glass objects among the finds, (Fig. 10-13) especially the spoilt or the unfinished ones that refer to local production. After giving up glassmaking the territory remained undisturbed. The traces of the objects surviving on the surface facilitate the detailed investigation of the glassworks and the buildings belonging to it and also the reconstruction of the sites of technological procedure and everyday life. Thus the results of archaeology can be the starting point for a complex research where specialists in history of economy, in industrial history, in ethnography and in the history of the settlement can take their parts. Apart from the complete excavation of the building of the glassworks it is our plan to make an experiment of glass-making in which after reconstructing the furnace we would like to produce glass objects known from the excavations. 284