Technikatörténeti szemle 25. (2001-02)

Tanulmányok - Vályi Katalin: Árpád-kori harangöntő gödör Szermonostor udvarán

KATALIN VÁLYI: BELL-FOUNDING PIT FROM THE AGE OF THE ARPADS IN THE COURTYARD OF THE SZER MONASTERY In Szer in county Csongrád a bell-founding pit from the early 13th century and in its immediate neighbourhood 4 bronze smelting furnaces were excavated. The founding pit was used twice, immediately one after the other step, and separate combustion furnaces were built for the two casts. The founding pit of Szer was a 6 m long, 2-2,5 m wide and 1,60 deep pit of oval shape with vertical walls. At the bottom of the founding pit 4 stones located at regular distances from each other showed the size of the mould to be placed on them which, accordingly, could have had a diameter of about 80 to 100 cm. Between each two stones of the base there remained 40-cm wide and 260-cm long corridors each, with trough-shaped bottoms as fueling spaces, the bottoms being covered with smoot and ash thoroughly burned through. Neither the stones of the base nor the bottoms or sides of the fueling channels were covered with clay. On the basis of the residues of the second cast the casting procedure could be followed in detail. From the fragments of the mould its outer casing could be successfully restored, which allowed to re-found the bell. Bell-founding for the monastery of Szer as performed on the spot by an itinerant master might not have been a single case in mediaeval Hungary.