As part of a cooperation that has lasted for five years between the Museum of Ceramics and the Department of Archaeology of the Institute of Prehistory at the University of Innsbruck, in August this year Ms Bożena Kantek, MA, was invited to take part in archaeological fieldwork in Abfaltersbach, Tyrol. The three-week placement included inventory and research work at the last pottery in Austria.
The village of Abfaltersbach lies in a basin south of the main range of the Eastern Alps, on the old Roman route linking East Tyrol with Carinthia, between the two towns of Lienz and Brunico, both renowned for centuries-old pottery traditions.
Steger’s pottery in Abfeltersbach was founded in the mid-17th century by the potter Engel. After his death, it passed into the hands of successive potters from the Hofer and Troger families. In 1867, the workshop was sold to Sebastian Steger, and from then until it ceased operating at the turn of 1965 and 1966, its history was linked to the Steger family of potters. Ceramics from this workshop were made from low-fired red clay. They were most often wheel-thrown, hand-shaped milk jugs, bowls, plates, cups and flowerpots, decorated with a slip-trailing horn or by spraying through cardboard stencils with cut-out patterns. Floral motifs or a kind of speckling covering the entire surface of the vessel predominated. The vessels were usually finished in shades of brown, blue, green and yellow. Colourless lead glaze was used. Steger’s workshop gained considerable renown for its tiled stoves, richly decorated with reliefs featuring floral or figurative motifs. Material excavated near the workshop also indicated lively imports of ceramic vessels from more distant parts of Austria and Europe. This is demonstrated, among other things, by shards of simple Bolesławiec vessels from the early 20th century, covered with typical brown earthen glaze.
The Steger workshop complex has survived in good condition to this day. It retains a glaze mill, a workshop with all its equipment, including two potter’s wheels, two kilns, wooden and plaster moulds, spraying stencils and wooden wheel bats. However, the former workshop was completely destroyed during the flood of 1882. The excavations therefore aimed to reach deeper layers of soil near the workshop in order to find fragments of vessels and remains of the workshop dating from before the disaster, as the 1882 flood is described. The excavations uncovered a fragment of a stone wall, probably dating from the 17th century, with part of a wooden pillar, as well as a quantity of ceramic and glass vessel fragments, both earlier and later, and an almost complete porcelain ball mill for grinding glazes. The present workshop, located in a residential and utility building, will in the future be converted into a pottery museum after being transferred by the Steger family. Consequently, during the summer excavation campaign, preparatory inventory work was also undertaken on the tools and ceramics in the workshop, with a future exhibition and the publication of a separate catalogue in mind. This occasion prompts reflection and regret that the lack of funds in our town prevents a similar solution in the case of the abandoned former Hugo Reinhold workshop on Zgorzelecka Street.
At the same time, the Department of Archaeology of the University of Innsbruck was conducting excavations at St. Justina and at Heinfels and Flaschberg castles on the Drau River, where a highly interesting and valuable collection of medieval silver coins was unearthed. Rare and highly valuable medieval objects were also found, such as ceramic gaming pieces barely the size of a pea, dating from the 12th century. At St. Justina, beside the church wall, a highly valuable medieval find was excavated: fragments of a 12th-century woman’s dress and gold jewellery from the same period. Meanwhile, high in the Alps, a group of archaeology students from Innsbruck, working in very difficult conditions at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres above sea level under the direction of Assoc. Prof. W. Leitner, found traces of a human presence from the Ice Age, dating back 7,000 years. The excavations were conducted at a site with an enormous boulder, probably used by travellers in ancient times as a place to rest. Fragments of fire-steels and tools from the Palaeolithic period found beneath the boulder attest to this.