Comparative Study of the Chinese Porcelain Finds of Ottoman Buda and the Castle of Eger
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Tünde Komori COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE CHINESE PORCELAIN FINDS OF OTTOMAN BUDA AND THE CASTLE OF EGER MA Thesis in Comparative History, with a specialization in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies. Central European University Budapest CEU eTD Collection May 2017 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE CHINESE PORCELAIN FINDS OF OTTOMAN BUDA AND THE CASTLE OF EGER by Tünde Komori (Hungary) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ CEU eTD Collection Examiner ____________________________________________ Examiner Budapest May 2017 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE CHINESE PORCELAIN FINDS OF OTTOMAN BUDA AND THE CASTLE OF EGER by Tünde Komori (Hungary) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2017 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE CHINESE PORCELAIN FINDS OF OTTOMAN BUDA AND THE CASTLE OF EGER by Tünde Komori (Hungary) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Supervisor CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2017 I, the undersigned, Tünde Komori, candidate for the MA degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 18 May 2017 __________________________ Signature CEU eTD Collection Abstract This work compares the Chinese porcelain assemblages from Ottoman-period Buda (1541-1686) and the Castle of Eger (1596-1687), in Hungary. Being the two largest and most significant Chinese porcelain assemblages of the country, the general description and identification of the assemblages contributes to our knowledge of the material culture of Ottoman Hungary. The results of the thesis on the one hand is the identification of the majority of the types present in these assemblages, part of them to the Wanli period (1573-1620), and another part to the Kangxi period (1662-1722). The rest of the pieces can mainly be dated to the seventeenth century, with some exceptions indicating the second half of the sixteenth century. On the other hand, the comparison shed light on the topographical distribution of the sherds, thus leading to questions that are not thoroughly researched in the previous scholarship. These questions include the use of material culture for mapping social topographies, the definition of the function and social status of the pieces and the consideration of possible trading patterns of porcelain between the Ottoman Empire and Hungary, as well as the Ottoman Empire and China. The methodology relied on traditional archaeological analysis and art historical evaluation of the material; as well as notions of spatial analysis and historical archaeology. CEU eTD Collection i Acknowledgements Here I would like to grab the opportunity to thank all those contributing to the success of this thesis. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor József Laszlovszky for his kind advices and suggestions, which lead the thesis in the right direction and kept it in focus. Many thanks to Zsuzsa Reed for her language support and work ethic of reading an inhumanely large number of chapters, but somehow still finding the stamina for motivating us in the finish line. I also thank the Budapest History Museum and its archaeologists, Dorottya Nyékhelyi, Zoltán Bencze, Károly Magyar and András Végh for providing me with the porcelain material of their excavations; as well as Eszter Kovács, for collecting and handing me over the rest of the material from older excavation assemblages. I also thank the Museum for providing me space to work on the assemblages for years. I would like to thank the Dobó István Museum of Eger for allowing me to research the porcelain material of the excavations of Károly Kozák. I am especially grateful to Orsolya Zay, for her kind helpfulness in the practical and academic aspects of dealing with this material. My gratitude also goes to Magda Bácsi, whose enthusiastic support of my work and books were crucial for the development of my research. And last but not least, I wholeheartedly thank András Fegyvári for his invaluable help with editing the tables and figures, without which the thesis would certainly would not be the same. CEU eTD Collection ii Table of contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................1 Research Background ..............................................................................................................2 Chapter 1 – Methodology ............................................................................................................5 1.1. Methodology and theory ...............................................................................................5 1.2. Aspects of identification ................................................................................................6 1.2.1. Stratigraphy and archaeological contexts ................................................................6 1.2.2. Marks ....................................................................................................................8 Chapter 2 – The Aspect of Cultural Heritage Protection: The Case of Southeast Asian Shipwrecks ................................................................................................................................................. 13 2.1. UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage ...................... 13 2.2. Examples of Local Legislation ........................................................................................ 14 2.2.1. Cambodia ................................................................................................................ 14 2.2.2. Vietnam ................................................................................................................... 15 CEU eTD Collection 4.2.3. Counter example: the case of Australia .................................................................... 16 2.3. General Overview of the Southeast Asian Situation ........................................................ 21 2.4. Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 3 – Chinese Porcelain in Ottoman Buda (1541-1686) ................................................... 26 iii 3.1. The Development of Buda in the Ottoman period ........................................................ 26 3.2. Archaeological context of the findings ........................................................................ 31 3.2.1. The medieval royal palace .................................................................................... 31 3.2.2. The civilian town ................................................................................................. 34 3.3.1. The assemblage of the medieval Royal Palace ......................................................... 36 3.3.2. Chinese porcelain from the civilian town ................................................................. 56 3.3. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 70 Chapter 4 – The Ottoman Castle of Eger (1596-1687) ............................................................... 71 4.1. Eger in the Ottoman period ......................................................................................... 71 4.2. Archaeological context of the findings ........................................................................ 73 4.2.1. The northern part of the castle .............................................................................. 76 4.2.2. The Southern Part of the castle ............................................................................. 78 4.3. General Description of the Eger Assemblage............................................................... 80 4.3.1. Types also present in the Buda assemblage .......................................................... 80 4.3.2. Types not present in Buda ...................................................................................