[MR] History Blog: Excavation Finds Swiss Casting Mold

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today the History Blog is reporting on a significant medieval discovery at
the Swiss city of Chur. While doing salvage archaeology in advance of a
building project, diggers found a stone mold for casting jewelry. The mold
has indentations for brooches and most significantly a large cross. Other
debris such as metal bars and glass at the site hints that the area was
probably a proto-industrial zone housing the workshops of various artisans.

Both sides of the mold can be viewed at
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/59154 . Although they are slow to
load, the photos can be blown up to a larger size.

Maybe you are wondering what the hole through the mold is for. Likely it is
for a peg to align the block to a similar piece, allowing the castings to
have front and rear detail, rather than just an open face and a smooth back
like most pilgrim tokens.

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge