Pozostałości pieców ludwisarskich z XVII-XVIII wieku z Kowna

ENBased on archaeological and historical sources it is known that in the 15th century in Kaunas worked goldsmiths, and in the second half of the 16th century bells were cast by bell founders, and at the beginning of the 17th century probably also artillery guns. At the end of the 16th century, a bell founder Martin Hofman cast two church bells. During archaeological excavations on Town Hall Square and in the economic yard of the former Bernardine monastery, two kilns for non-ferrous metals melting were found. Pieces of these metals alloys, products fragments and a bell casting mould were found. The bellfounding workshop unearthed on Town Hall Square stood in the yard of town granaries built at the end of the 16th or early 17th century. Only the underground part of the kiln was preserved – a circular made of bricks, narrowing downwards ash chamber with openings for ventilation and ash removal, as well as an adjacent chamber with stairs in the western part. The fire chamber and the chamber in which the raw material was melted did not survive. The outer diameter of the ash chamber was 1.95–2.00 m in the upper part, 1.65 m in the lower part, 1.40 and 1.05 m in the inner part respectively, while the depth (measured from the top of the preserved part) was 1.55 m. The adjacent chamber measured 1.97 × 1.32 × about 0.70 m, with four steps of height 0.25–0.32 m and width of 0.15–0.18 m to the exit to the surface. The length of the preserved part of the kiln along the east-west axis was 3.80–3.90 m. The mould for casting the planned product was placed in a pit next to the melting chamber.The remains of the bellfounding workshop, based on the the cultural layers stratification and the finds context can be dated to the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. The results of the chemical composition and microstructure analysis of copper alloy fragments show that in the kiln a good quality bronze was melted, suitable for guns and bells production. Remains of the second bellfounding workshop were discovered during archaeological excavations in the economic yard of the Bernardine monastery. As in the case of the first kiln, only its lower part was unearthed, but in this case, the floor of the melting chamber, the ash chamber and the pit with of the bell casting mould were found. On the levelled pit’s bottom, a foundation made of bricks and clay with a thickness of 20–25 cm was rected, on which a brick core of the casting mould was made. It had the shape of a truncated, hollow cone with a hole with a diameter of 28 cm at the top. This mould was not completed, because it lacked the upper part, and only one side was carefully finished. The diameter of the mould was 132–134 cm and the preserved height was 47 cm. The weight of the bell cast in it can be estimated at about 800 kg. The analysis of the chemical composition of the alloy fragments showed that in the kiln a good quality bronze was melted, suitable for bells production. For unknown reasons, the work aiming to cast the bell was stopped, the kiln was damaged, while the mould was saved by filling it with layers of clay. Judging from the find of a Russian coin dating from 1718–1722 in the backfill, the construction of the kiln can be dated to the 1720s–1730s. Comparing the two objects can be seen that they have the same principle of operation, but differed in the construction of individual parts and quality of construction. The kiln on Town Hall Square was designed with the intention of multiple use, while the one in the Bernardine monastery only for casting a single bell.

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