Organization of production and trade of minor metal items at Nowy Targ (New Market) Square in medieval Wroclaw in the light of the production waste

Abstract

This paper aims to describe the production of minor items, mostly dress accessories, from non-ferrous metals on a market square to understand how the organization of space looked like and to get an insight of chaînes d’opératoires. Base for this research are numerous production waste finds from excavations which were conducted in Wroclaw at New Market Square – a place which fulfils a role of a market square since the 2nd half of the 13th century to this day. The paper focus on spatial analysis of finds based on proposed ‘typology’of metal scraps in relation to organization of similar production in the whole medieval city.