Archeologické rozhledy 2009 - Archeologický ústav AV ČR

138JEÎEK –CHYTRÁâEK –LOJEK –PROKOPOVÁ: Kpre-historii dvou Mûst praÏsk˘chPrague New Town connect traces of deliberate and non-disruptive liquidation – records of fill afterthe removal of structural elements, which is proof of the realization of a project of extraordinarydimensions and set rules. The destruction of costly buildings, including palatial stone buildings, atthe site of today’s square/náměstí Republiky along with subsequent terrain modifications raises questionsconcerning the property circumstances in the Prague agglomeration at the time. We connectthe liquidation of the secular development in this part of the Prague right-bank agglomeration withthe founding of Prague’s [Old] Town, which is evident at the beginning of the 1230s. Written sourcesfrom the time clearly show the efforts of non-monastic convents to move to a space protected by townwalls, which had left the former integral part of the right-bank Prague development outside of theirprotection and outside the range of town law. If in February 1233 the widowed Queen Constancia wascontemplating the establishment of a Cistercian convent at the Church of St. Peter (fig. 1: 3), whichhad been the church of the Prague Germans earlier and which Constancia had bought (in 1233) fromthe Teutonic Knights, the royal intention at the beginning of the 1230s to isolate the area surroundingthe Church of St. Peter and the Church of St. Clement from city activity was already a certainty. Thelegal property context and the timeline for the realization of such a plan remain a question though.Sources do not allow more precise dating than to the 1230s and 1240s.The assemblage of three intact ceramic vessels and two large fragments (fig. 7: 1–4) from thepreserved part of the cesspit (5b) date the fill to the 14 th century. The fill of the cesspit also contained335 fragments of hollow glass (fig. 8: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8), which illustrate the level of dining ofhouseholds, which for Prague standards were certainly not economically above average. Althoughwritten sources indicate that in this area beneath the walls of the [Greater, later Old] Town of Prague –which until that time had been deserted – extensive construction activity began around the turn of the14 th century (especially under the direction of several wealthy Prague burghers), no traces of suchactivity have yet been recorded, despite intensive archaeological excavations that have taken place.Not even the presented assemblage of ceramics and glass from the cesspit allows us to determinewith certainty whether it stems from the first or second half of the 14 th century: from a householdin the periphery areas of Greater [Old] Town or from a house of the first occupants of Prague’s NewTown (founded in 1348).English by Robin CasslingMILOSLAV CHYTRÁČEK, Archeologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Letenská 4, CZ-118 01 Prahachytracek@arup.cas.czMARTIN JEŽEK, Archeologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Letenská 4, CZ-118 01 Praha; jezek@arup.cas.czTOMÁŠ LOJEK, Stilus – služby pro vědu a výzkum, v.o.s., Havlíčkova 781, CZ-267 51 Zdicetomas.lojek@seznam.czANNA PROKOPOVÁ, Ústav pro pravěk a ranou dobu dějinnou FF UK, Celetná 20, CZ-116 36 Prahaprokopovaa@seznam.cz