LATE-MEDIAEVAL AND EARLY-MODERN IMPORTED GLASS VESSELS FROM THE CASTLE IN PUCK

• Authors: Milewska M.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

. The article is an analysis of a small collection of fragments of glass drinking vessels excavated in the castle in Puck, located on the western coast of the Gulf of Gdansk. The castle, built at the turn of the 15thc., until 1454 served as a fortified residence of the Teutonic Order administrator (Fishmeister) of the Puck region. After the region was incorporated into Poland, the castle became the seat of the royal administrator of the Puck starosty. The glass fragments discussed here were found in the moat, in a large rubbish damp which accumulated garbage from the main building of the castle. Therefore, there is no doubt that they are remains of vessels used by the inhabitants of the building, i.e. subsequent administrators of the Puck estates. Additionally, the finds can be quite precisely dated due to over 70 coins found in the damp. It has been established that within a century and a half the inhabitants of the main building broke at least 84 drinking vessels of various types, of which 70 can be identified with some precision. These were: plain glasses, glasses decorated with threads, glasses of the Rippenbecher type, bowls of the Maigelein type, glasses of the Nuppenbecher type, Krautstrunk, a cup of the Berkermeier type and tall goblets with a foot. Surprisingly, characteristic Maigelein bowls had not been previously excavated in Poland. Above quoted analogies to the types of vessels mass-produced in glassworks in central and northern Germany motivate the conclusion that the vessels found in Puck were imported. Unfortunately, research on German glass production is not advanced enough to help identify any particular places from which they might have come. The presence of German glass vessels in Puck is not surprising, as numerous finds of that sort have been recorded along the Baltic coast. Undoubtedly, they could have been bought in the nearby Gdansk, an international trading centre. In view of the diversity of the analyzed set it is striking that the subsequent inhabitants of the castle over such a long period used low plain glasses and tall goblets with wide feet. These were actually the only types of vessels used by the Teutonic Order administrators; it is only in the second half of the 15th c. that the range of vessels extends. The variety noted here probably indicates that the inhabitants of the castle, either in their everyday life or on special occasions, used tableware widely accessible within the Hanseatic zone. At the time in question the widespread models were Nuppenbecher and Krautstrunk glasses, Maigelein bowls, and later also Berkermeier cups. Although they were on the market, they were accessible only to elites, as until the end of the 16th c. glass drinking vessels were regarded as luxury. In the case of Puck the group of consumers who could have afforded them was probably limited to the Teutonic administrators and their clerks, and later to the royal administrators and their families. (5 fig., 2 tables)

Keywords

EN

GLASS DRINKING VESSELS (PUCK CASTLE)

Discipline

• ARCHAEOLOGY: ARCHAEOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 3-20
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Milewska M.

• M. Milewska, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Instytut Archeologii, ul. Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa. Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07PLAAAA03136477