The secondary glass workshop in the civil town of Brigetio

Abstract

In 2006 the Klapka György Museum of Komárom together with the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University carried out an excavation in the less researched area of the civil town of Brigetio, at 13 Vásártér, Komárom/Szőny. The conductors were Á. Gelencsér and E. Számadó. During the excavation of an area of 153 m², the living quarters of a striphouse constructed in different time periods, and a glass workshop related to one of these periods were discovered. The building had a five constructions period and a secondary glass workshop related to one of these. Some remains of two kilns were found in the workshop. One of them was rectangular with an apsis on one side and it was divided into two separate parts. The other kiln was circular, which must have been the melting furnace, while the rectangular one was the annealing furnace and they might have been connected to each other. In the courtyard of the striphouse four big rubbish pits consisting of cylindrical moiles, spoiled pieces, raw materials as chunks, additives used for coloring, almost the whole amount of the spoiled glass beads, glass rods, glass trails and glass drops with tool-marks on them were found. One hundred and twenty-one partly fragmentary and partly complete beads were uncovered in the pits. Spherical, cylindrical, biconical, shape of forms are represented among the glass beads. Our glass workshop operated within the limits of the civil town just in a short period in the first half of the 3rd century AD.