Smooth glass

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Smoothing glass, on the left the curved top, on the right the bottom

Smoothing glass , also called smoothing stone , was a glass tool for smoothing textiles, paper and leather. It was used in both cold and warm conditions. The smoothing glass was a forerunner of the straightening iron .

Designations

Numerous names for smoothing glass can be found in the literature. Old German names are Gniedelstein , Gniddelstein , Gnibbelstein, Gnittelstein, Gniwelstein, Gniwwelstein, Gniedstein, Gniedelstein and Glierstein. In other languages, the terms linensmoother (linen smoother), strijkglazen, sømglätter, lickstones, lekstenen, gniedstena, glidstijner or glüürtinje occur for the artifact. Since gniden stands for rub as well as smooth in Low German , it cannot be ruled out that smoothing glasses were also used to grind herbs or spices.

description

Curved top of a smooth glass from Klein Süntel

Smoothing glasses have the rounded shape of a bread roll and are usually made of glass , in exceptional cases also of stone. As a rule, smooth glasses made of glass have a diameter of 6 to 10 cm and a thickness of 2.5 to 5 cm. The weight is 300 to 400 grams. The massive pieces mostly consist of clear, dark green to almost black glass, although the medieval specimens often have a poor quality glass. They are made with wood ash, like most medieval glasses. A one-piece mold was presumably used to make smooth glass. The flat underside of a smooth glass is drawn inwards. It has a stitching button in the recess, which was created by separating the hot glass from the stapling iron during manufacture . There are often grinding and scratch marks as well as grooves on the curved upper side of smoothing glasses. They are traced back to usage, as in the past there were often grains of sand in washed clothes.

Use and distribution

Smoothing glasses smoothed items of clothing and their collars, hems and borders and gave them a silky sheen. With warmed smooth glasses, wax could be worked into the fabric to impregnate it. The use of the tool lasted over 1800 years from the 2nd to the 19th century . Then Glättgläser were of iron , mangles and laundry starch displaced and were used in succession to use as a paperweight or Stopfsteine .

The archaeologist Peter Steppuhn , who specializes in glass, on the excavation of the Klein Süntel glassworks with a smoothing glass found there

In addition to western Scandinavia, the main areas of distribution of smooth glasses were north-western Central Europe , where they were most frequently in use from the 9th to the 15th century. The medieval artefacts often come from burials, especially from women's graves in Scandinavia, or from rural and urban settlements. There are only a few finds in southern and eastern Europe. Smoothing glasses had their wedding in the Viking Age . 103 smooth glasses were found in the Viking settlement of Haithabu alone. Another site with a high number of recovered specimens is the early modern forest glassworks under the Hilsborn in Hils . With 28 smooth glasses found, a series production was established there for the first time in Central Europe. Individual specimens were found during the excavation of the modern Klein Süntel glassworks . Linen straighteners also come from Birka in Sweden and the Howe brochure in the Orkneys . Later examples, such as the smoothing stone from Gribdae in Kirkcudbright, have a handle. In Scotland, whale bones were occasionally used as ironing boards . The smoothing glasses were usually made on the continent and also exported to England.

Assumed ingot function

Early medieval half glass bars, as they are known from northern Italy , France and southern Germany as raw glass for further processing, were incorrectly referred to as smoothing glasses. According to the archaeologist Peter Steppuhn , who specializes in glass, scientists today agree that the primary function of smoothing glasses was smoothing. They largely rule out an ingot function based on various indications. The smoothing glasses found are round on all sides and have no sharp edges, which would not be necessary with a bar. Smooth glasses vary in size and weight and do not have a standardized volume, which would be necessary for a commercial product. The archaeological discovery situation of smooth glass speaks against its use as a pure glass raw material. They occur distributed in residential areas and less in workshop areas. Nonetheless, the broken glass of smooth glasses was a sought-after commercial object because of the volume of the glass and also served as a supplement for glass melting.

See also

literature

  • Peter Steppuhn : The Medieval Gniedelstein: Smoothing Glass or Glass Bars? On the primary function and continuity of a glass object from the early Middle Ages to modern times. News from Lower Saxony's Prehistory 68, Stuttgart, 1999, pp. 113-139.
  • Peter Steppuhn: Excursus 2: Smoothing glasses in: Glass culture in Lower Saxony. Tableware and household glass from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. Catalog for the exhibition of Stadtarchäologie Lüneburg , Husum, 2003, pp. 190–192.
  • Eva Andersson: Tools for Textile Production from Birka and Hedeby. In: Birka Studies 8. Excavations in the Black Earth 1990–1995. Stockholm 2003.
  • RJ Charleston: Slick stones (linen smoothers). In: Martin Biddle: Object and Economy in Medieval Winchester. Oxford University Press 1990, pp. 240-242.

Web links

Commons : Smoothing Glass  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Adelung, Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect .
  2. ↑ Peter Steppuhn, The Medieval Gniedelstein: Smoothing Glass or Glass Bars? On the primary function and continuity of a glass object from the early Middle Ages to modern times. News from Lower Saxony's Prehistory 68, 1999, p. 113; Peter Steppuhn: Catalog: 8.001, 2 smooth glasses in: Glass culture in Lower Saxony. Tableware and household glass from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. Catalog for the exhibition of the Stadtarchäologie Lüneburg , Husum, 2003, p. 182.
  3. ↑ An analysis of smoothing glass from Corvey can be found in: Uwe Lobbedey , Francesca Dell'Acqua, Karl Hans Wedepohl, Colored glass wall tiles from Corvey (Germany): Carolingian or Romanesque? Journal of Glass Studies 43, 2001, Tab. 2, JSTOR 24190901 , accessed 03/10/2016; Luděk Galuška, Jiří Macháček, Karol Pieta, Hedvika Sedláčková, The Glass of Great Moravia: Vessel and Window Glass, and small Objects. Journal of Glass Studies 54, 2012, Plate 1 examined smoothing glasses from a Great Moravian context ( JSTOR 24191273 Accessed: 03-10-2016) -
  4. ^ Ingvild Øye, Production, Quality, and Social Status in Viking Age Dress: Three Cases from Western Norway. In: Robin Netherton, Gale R. Owen-Crocker (eds.), Medieval Clothing and Textiles 11 , Boydell & Brewer, Boydell Press, 2015, 5. JSTOR 10 .7722 / j.ctt12879fj.7.
  5. ^ Eva Andersson, Tools for Textile Production from Birka and Hedeby. Birka Studies 8, 2003, Excavations in the Black Earth 1990-1995. Stockholm, Birka Project for Riksantikvarieämbetet , ISBN 9172092955 .
  6. ↑ Linen Smoother, Gribdae Farm , there, however, dated as winking.
  7. ↑ Cécile Macquet, Les Lissoirs de verre, approche techniques et bibliographique. Archeologie Médiévale Volume 20, 1990, pp. 319-334.
  8. ^ Marina Uboldi, Marco Verità, Scientific Analyzes of Glasses from Late Antique and Early Medieval archeological Sites in Northern Italy. Journal of Glass Studiea 45, 2003, p. 120. JSTOR 24191030 .