Archaeometrical and archaeological research on stamped Roman tiles
from the Carnuntum and Vindobona region (Austria)

At the beginning of the 20th century Roman tiles with producers-stamps became of great interest in the research on the antique ceramic building material of Pannonia. In the 1930s these efforts led to a project initiated by the University of Budapest aiming at a general listing of all tile-stamps which by then had been found in the province of Pannonia.

This first systematic regional record focused on epigraphic aspects, its principal aim was to catalogue all known tile-stamps and classify them according to military and civil manufacturers. This was the basis on which A. Neumann finally could present a total of 2492 tiles from Roman Vienna, which still was an exclusively epigraphically orientated edition of local material, but nevertheless has remained unique as far as the amount of material for Pannonia is concerned. Especially these two preliminary studies are indispensable to the research on Roman tiles in the greater Vienna-Carnuntum area since they offer an overall view of the regional stamp repertoire.

In the course the recording and publication of the numerous finds following the excavations of the "Limeskommission" of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) in the eastern part of the Praetentura of the legionary fortress of Carnuntum (1968-1977) the wide spectrum of Roman tiles was not taken into account. Though the numerous stamped tiles from the legionary fortress had been recorded by drawings and photograhpy, no publication of this kind of material followed.

On the initiative of the "Forschungsstelle für Archäologie" of the ÖAW (today: Institute for Studies of Ancient Culture) in 1998 R. Kastler started to record the complex building structures of the excavations of the legionary fortress. As part of a cooperation project supported by the "Aktion Österreich-Tschechische Republik" the recording of the tile-stamps was taken over by Jiri Musil (Institute for Classical Archaeology of the Charles-University Prague) who was able to complete the typological catalogue of the material during the year 2000.

During the studies of Roman tile-stamps from Vienna, undertaken by the "Stadtarchäologie Vienna", the first attempts focused on a complete recording of the stamp repertoire from a typological point of view. Wide preliminary studies regarding this matter had already been done in the 1980s by B. Lorincz. After the computerization of the material collected by B. Lorincz the new finds of the latest excavations in the legionary fortress (Judenplatz, 1995-1998) and in the canabae legionis of Vindobona (Michaelerplatz, 1990-1991) were added to this database.
During her work on the finds of the Roman settlement of Unterlaa, K. Adler-Wölfl not only analysed the stamp-spectrum of this site, whose stamps showed a clear dominance of civilian manufacturers. In the year 2000 she chose 23 samples for systematic archaeometrical studies which were the first attempts in this field on Roman ceramic building material in the Vienna area.

Figure 1
Sampling of Roman bricks in Mušov - Dolni Dunajovice, Moravia (Tchech Republic)

Since the first results were encouraging the research was continued. With the financial support of the "Aktion Österreich-Tschechische Republik" (Project 33p16), the ÖAW and the "Stadtarchäologie Vienna" it has been possible not only to extend the regional frame of the project to the area adjoining the Limes (Barbaricum), but also to carry out further specific petrographic analyses besides a stamp-typology based classification of the material.

Like in Unterlaa the archaeometrical research was entrusted to R. Sauer in cooperation with the "Institut für Konservierungswissenschaften und Restaurierungstechnologie, Abteilung Archäometrie der Universität für Angewandte Kunst" (B. Pichler) to guarantee the best possible comparability between the already carried out analyses and the recent research. During a couple of excursions in 2002 in the area north of the Danube relevant tile-samples could be found especially in Mušov, Mikulcice and Stillfried.

Scientific research on Roman ceramic building material along the Pannonian Limes has been carried out until now almost exclusively under stamp-typology based aspects. From the stamp-types and their distribution researchers tried to draw conclusions about the place of manufacture and the sales territory of the tiles. This method was also used by J. Istenic who, on the basis of distribution maps of stamped tiles in south-western Pannonia, was able to show which economic areas in the hinterland and down the river Drau were supplied with tiles manufactured by brickyards in Poetovio.

In the Vindobona-Carnuntum area the situation is more difficult in so far as there were several important civil as well as legionary production centres in the relatively confined area around the two legionary fortresses. The economic exchange between the production centres of Carnuntum and Vindobona is almost unknown which makes it quite impossible to determine, for example, to what extent private tiles and legionary tiles were exported from one place to the other when required. The 10th and the 14th legion are furthermore two units which were positioned at both garrisons, so that we can at least assume that they had their legionary brickyards working at both places, which makes the situation even more difficult since the manufacturers were the same. Due to the durability of tiles as a building material which could be re-used several times, especially under the above-mentioned circumstances only very rare cases allow a more precise chronological dating of the moment of production of single tiles.

•    It therefore seemed appropriate to collect and analyse all clues in order to enable a chronological dating of the tile-stamps. An attempt was started on the basis of stratified material from the excavations at the legionary fortresses in Carnuntum and Vindobona as well as with the help of finds from the Roman base of Mušov which had been used only for a short time during the Marcomannic wars.
  

•    The common features and differences which emerged from the comparison of the stamp-types were to be backed up by accompanying archaeometrical research. Of prime importance was the question whether, apart from the stamp-types, there is also a concentration of certain fabrics in Carnuntum or Vindobona. On the basis of these local reference groups the next problem to be solved was how "non-local" or single stamps and fabrics which had been found in the neighbouring village could be explained.

•    A comparison of the reference groups would also allow to determine the place of manufacture of tiles found in the Barbaricum.

© Christian Gugl & Martin Mosser 2003