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Smiths and building ironwork at Turaida Castle
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note allows judging that the smith was employed rarely at Turaida estate. It seems that he was
needed only occasionally – probably, when a broken tool, door or window fittings were to be
repaired. It may be assumed that for more substantial repairs or during the construction of
new buildings the smith had permanent work for several months, or the necessary fittings were
either ordered or brought from somewhere.
Some archaeological finds serve as indirect evidence of smiths working at Turaida Castle.
A. Anteins wrote that the cultural layer of the second half of the 13th century revealed an 860
grams heavy piece of raw iron in the 1953 excavation site near the Main Tower. Judging by the
scale of the picture in the article the piece might be 14 × 7 cm in size. Its surface had imprints
of charcoal and tiny remains evidencing about burning ore together with charcoal to get iron.
After investigating the macrostructure of the piece’s porous surface, it was decided that it was a
homogenous material – ferrite, sometimes also inclusions of pearlite (Anteins 1960, 47). If the
dating of the horizont of the cultural layer is the second half of the 13th century, as considered by
A. Anteins, then this is the earliest evidence about forging iron in the territory of Turaida Castle.
More evidence about smiths at Turaida Castle was obtained in the 1978 excavations in
the southern outer bailey supervised by J. Graudonis. In the annual report of archaeologists he
stated that a 16th century smithy was located in the outer bailey south to the southern block
near the western wall (Graudonis 1979, 38–40). J. Graudonis’ book, published in 2003 (Grau-
donis 2003, 107–108), and the unpublished review on the excavations in 1978 (TMR – Grau-
donis 1978, 21–23) are used to describe below the discovered artefacts and finds.
The smithy, unearthed in the excavation area in the southern outer bailey, was a building
about 3.5 × 4.5 m in size (Fig. 3). A layer of burnt coal with several pieces of raw iron gives evi-
dence that smiths had worked there. Before building the smithy, the site had been tamped down,
and the 25–35 cm thick layer consisted of rubble and lime mortar with many brick chips and flat
roof tiles. The foundation was laid on the tamped layer without any binder material. Its western
part revealed the remains of two brick constructions – the former hearths. The partly extant back
and western part of one hearth, built from bricks and clay mortar, was in the north-western part
(Fig. 4). The hearth’s area was about 1.50 × 0.55 m, the floor was made of bricks, 28 × 12 × 8 cm in
size, and its mouth was on the southern side. In the back wall of the hearth six layers of bricks were
discovered; they had crumbled up to the height of 0.65 m because of fire. In the south-western
corner there were also the remains of the other hearth, the back wall of which was 0.55 m in height
and was built close to the outer bailey wall as well as small pieces of bricks from the floor and side-
walls, built from bricks that were similar in size with those of the first hearth.
To the west from the smithy there were found the remains of the western wall of the
southern outer bailey and the foundation of a Small Semicircular Tower. Its inner space was
3.6 m in length, running parallel to the outer bailey wall, and its width was 1.88 m, but the
walls – 0.75 m thick. It was full of construction waste and a relatively big amount of charcoal.
J. Graudonis associated the uncovered foundation with the tower in the outer bailey and the