Cannon foundry

The Archaeological Researching of the Cannon Foundry at Sárospatak
2006–2009

by
István Ringer

In the summer of 2006, the Rákóczi Museum of the Hungarian National Museum began a planned excavation in the southwest corner of the Outer Castle at Sárospatak. The purpose of the research was to unearth and document the remains of the cannon foundry that used to exist there. This foundry operated very intensively between 1631 and 1648, in the time of György I Rákóczi. Rich source material has survived from this period; it was collected and published by Mihály Détshy in the early 1970s. As well as the historical sources, geophysical research conducted in the park of Sárospatak Castle also assisted in the topographical identification of the foundry, which had become completely covered by earth. In the study, the author summarises the most important findings available, concerning the archaeological excavation, which is still under way. In the course of the work performed so far, some 75–80 per cent of the foundry-complex, which consisted of many rooms and which covered a large area, has been unearthed. The remains of a large reverberatory furnace (air furnace) came to light with a firebox, hearth, and, in front of it, a walled drainage shaft of the type generally used across Europe in the seventeenth century in the smelting of bronze. At present, these remains are almost unique, even in European comparison. We managed to reconstruct the destroyed details of the Sárospatak reverberatory furnace on the basis of descriptions in treatises on ordnance and of depictions of furnaces featuring in these.

In the study, principally on the basis of the international specialist literature published on the subject, a brief survey may be read on the technology used in the casting of bronze cannon in the seventeenth-eighteenth century, including an explanation of the principle behind the reverberatory furnace and a short outline presentation of the process of making moulds for cannon. During the excavation of the cannon foundry at Sárospatak, an enormous quantity of archaeological finds came to light, one characteristic group of which could be linked directly to the activity carried on there. When the environs of the foundry were excavated, assemblages of finds linkable to every characteristic phase in the technology of making cannon were unearthed: mould patterns and moulds made from clay; pieces of copper, tin, and lead intended for casting; bronze which had overflowed from moulds; graphite bricks from destroyed hearth parts; and also a few fragments of cast cannon. Scientific investigation and archaeometric assessment of these assemblages of finds were performed at the University of Miskolc and at the Research Institute for Geochemistry of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. During the research of the inside part of the foundry, tool finds lined to the work carried on there came to light. Mention should be made also of the significant number of ordnance finds: handguns, glass and iron grenades, shot, and shell. In the spring of 2010, the excavation will continue, and at the same time the conservation and stabilisation of the building remains found will be made, as well as the fashioning of a new provisional structure to cover and protect them.