Excavation of the Demirk？y Fatih Foundry Pipe Findings (2010-2015)

The Fatih Foundry is located in the town of Demirk？y in the city of K？rklareli, and landscaping and salvage excavations in the foundry were initiated in 2001 and completed in 2015. The iron foundry, known as the Fatih Foundry, covers about ten thousand square meters, and consists of units situated on two separate elevations. The higher elevation, surrounded by ramparts, housed life around the yard and service areas, and the lower elevation had manufacturing hardware. Excavations on the foundry, which is an example of Ottoman industry, have revealed spaces at the level of foundation/walls. This paper examines the examples among the pipe and pipe pieces, still in identifiable and evaluable condition, obtained during six excavation seasons at the Demirk？y Fatih Foundry between 2010 and 2015. These excavation seasons have not yielded intact/whole pipe examples. All of the 41 fragments examined in the paper were recovered during the excavation work on the higher elevation, which is defined as the living and service space. Among the Demirk？y pipes obtained during the excavation seasons of 2010 to 2015, all, except for a white clay one, are red clay. Burns on the fragments indicate that they were used. In terms of form and decorations, while different excavations have revealed analogues, fragments do not repeat each other. There is a striking richness in geometrical decorations on the fragments. Plant decorations are observed less frequently. Also, a large number of marked examples were found among the pipe fragments, with only a part of these markings being legible. It was concluded that these examples might have been manufactured in capital Istanbul and dated to the 19th century. It is known that the facility was comprehensively revived in this century. The Demirk？y Fatih Foundry was a state-owned business that provided service for Istanbul, and it seems possible that the pipe examples worked by its employees were shipped from Istanbul, a notion supported by the meticulously work on the examples and the use of gilding