Two fragments of lustre-glaze tableware excavated at the Týn merchant inn in the Staré-Město quarter of Prague, the archaeological deposition context of which may be dated into the turn of the 13th and 14th century, represent products of Andalusi pottery workshops of 12th and early 13th centuries. The route by which this tableware service came to Prague is difficult to trace. It seems most logical to link the introduction of this luxury pottery with the wave of Andalusi products, especially precious textiles, supplying the highest circles of Bohemian society roughly between 1250 and 1320. This commercial operation might have followed up the trade ventures of Andalusi-oriented entrepreneurs furnishing customers of western Europe along the Atlantic coast with luxury items originating in Andalusi production plants. An alternative to this idea is represented by the possibility that the vessels came to Prague in the baggage of some of its Jewish residents. and Dva zlomky přepychové stolní keramiky s lustrovou glazurou, nalezené při výzkumu Týnského dvora v Praze v archeologickém kontextu uloženém nejspíše na přelomu 13. a 14. stol., představují výrobky andaluských dílen almohádského období Iberského poloostrova a byly zhotoveny nejspíše ve 12. či raném 13. století. Rekonstruovat cestu tohoto přepychového stolního servisu z Andalusie do Prahy není jednoduché. Nejlogičtější řešení tu představuje myšlenka transportu v důsledku almohádského obchodu se zeměmi západní Evropy podél jejího atlantického pobřeží až do oblasti Severního a Baltského moře. Druhou a stejně dobře představitelnou alternativu představuje přivezení souboru luxusního stolního zboží některým z židovských obyvatel středověké Prahy.
Investigations of the „colourful“ or „coloured“ style of jewellery characteristic of the Migration period of European history (5th–7th century AD) over a considerable area beginning with Ciscaucasian steppes and ending in Gaul have brought to light two sources of the red precious and semiprecious stones frequently used in decoration of similar items. Between about 450 and 600, the stones, predominantly of the almandine series, came from India and Sri Lanka. On the contrary, jewellers working, by and large, between 600 and 700 had to be content with smaller, garnet– or pyrop–family stones mined somewhere in Bohemia. This presumably happened because in 570, the army of Sasanian Iran occupied the Arabian peninsula and closed the channel between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean for Indian supplies going to the Mediterranean. This induced the Merovingian jewellers to seek an alternative source of the stones which was ultimately found in Bohemia. This hypothesis would constitute an excellent explanation of what wares did the Frankish merchant Samo, wheeling and dealing in Bohemia or Moravia roughly between the years 623 and 658, first as a merchant and then as a paramount ruler elected in view of his valour in fighting the Avars who pretended to hold sway over the Slavs of these border regions of their khanate, come to procure. It was known for some time that he is not very likely to have come to purchase slaves and he might have come in search of such precious materials as Bohemian garnets. The author then tries to identify possible archaeological testimonies of intercourse between the Bohemians and Moravians of the 6th–7th centuries and population groups from Western Europe. Such indications do exist, though they are fragmentary, scanty and not very clear. Evidence for contacts has come from northern and southern Moravia, as well as from central and northwestern Bohemia. Bavarians, Alamans, Franks and especially Lombards or Longobards might be suspected as partners for the local nobility and entrepreneurs. The author points out that surprising as these results may seem to us, they may reflect not faulty knowledge but rather a wrong manner of asking questions from the archaeological sources. At any rate, both Bohemian regions in which pottery– and metal items heeding west have turned up in the 6th–8th centuries do include pyrop–bearing mineral resources. and Diskuse