Problem funkcjonowania wczesnośredniowiecznej pracowni szklarskiej w obrębie niemczańskiego kompleksu osadniczego

The problem of the existence of early medieval glass workshops in Silesia has been constantly discussed by various researchers for many years. Niemcza – apart from Wrocław, Opole and Obiszów – is one of the centres where such a workshop could be located. The discovery of glass jewellery within this centre argued in favour of that, as well as artefacts associated with glassmaking, referred to as crucibles with congealed glass mass, quartz splinters, icicles with a glazed coating, glass slag, fragments of pottery with glassy surface, and a small fragment of a nozzle. This paper presents the results of recent analyses of chemical composition, both of finished products and findings hypothetically related to the process of glass melting/remelting. The aim of the paper is to verify the hypothesis concerning the existence of an early glass workshop in Niemcza and to determine its character.