UN ATELIER DE PRELUCRAT METALE DATÂND DIN SECOLELE XVIII-XIX, DESCOPERIT LA ALBA IULIA
A METALWORKING WORKSHOP DATING FROM THE 18th-19th CENTURIES, FOUND AT ALBA IULIA

Summary/Abstract: The authors present a metalworking workshop in Alba Iulia discovered during an archaeological research carried out for the construction of a building on the Ferdinand Boulevard, no. 13 (pl. 1/1). On this occasion, it was discovered part of the foundation from a building (pl. 3/2), which, based on archaeological material discovered, dates from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The archaeological inventory of this construction consists of fragments of crucibles and graphite crucibles (pl. 7/2-10b; 8/1-4) and ceramic (pl. 5/2; 7/1), fragments of pottery ( pl. 8/5-11; 9/1-13) and fragments of stove tiles (pl. 10/1-6). We present a fragment of a crucible from which the bottom preservs a stamp – the brand of the workshop where it was produced (pl. 5/2; 7/2), being an indication that the graphite crucibles used in the workshop which we present were imported from Bavaria, where the largest deposits of graphite in Europe is present and where, in the XVI-XIX centuryes they produced the crucibles for all Europe, sometimes they were sold outside the continent. I also drew the attention to a large melting pot, which is fitted with two metal clamps mounted under the rim and on that basis, to give greater resistance, given that in him you can put up to 130.074 kg of melted silver, or 109.014 kg of melted bronze, or 97, 369 kg of melted iron (pl. 3/4; 7/10a-b). We mention a piece of graphite crucible that preserved intense traces of silica (pl. 5/3a-b) fragments that have preserved traces of molten metal (pl. 5/5; 6/2) and two fragments which have intense traces of lime (pl. 6/3-4), resulted from the technological process for the separation of metals. Besides those mentioned above, there were discovered fragments of pottery (pl. 8/5-11; 9/1-13) and a few fragments of stove tiles (pl. 10/1-6). In the proximity of the workshop, it was discovered a fountain, contemporary with it (pl. 3/2; 4/3) and a barrel of lime used probably for the operation of separation of the metals (pl. 3/3). The workshop we present is the first discovery of its kind reported in the municipality of Alba Iulia, helping the knowledge of metallurgy and metal processing situation in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth century in this city. In our presentation we considered the possibility of a connection between the mint of Alba Iulia and the workshop, the assumption is justified by the fact that in the two sites were discovered the same types of crucibles, which perhaps a little workshop, as it is the one we present, could not afore.

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