Roman Bricks off the Wall
New Data for Understanding Production Centres and Distribution of Building Materials in the Ager Rusellanus (Tuscany, Italy)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jma.29077Keywords:
coastal settlements, ceramic petrography, provenance studies, Roman building materials, stamped bricks, TuscanyAbstract
Roman stamped bricks are considered one of the best indicators of the provenance of Roman building materials, contractors and owners, due to the names included in the stamps. They are also a good proxy for understanding part of the supply chain directed towards Rome and the city’s peripheral territories; however, hypotheses based on stamps are nevertheless often insufficient for pinpointing production centers, which limits the extent to which the movement of these materials and their makers can be reconstructed. This paper analyses some well-preserved brick assemblages from the Ager Rusellanus in southern Tuscany and reviews previous provenance hypotheses based on the stamps. The results from ceramic petrography and a systematic review of published analyses highlight how combining contextual information with a well-structured, analytical approach is fundamental for understanding the movement of goods, the nature of the workforce and even the relationship between state-commissioned building works and its agents.
The supplementary materials for this article can be found at the end of the online PDF.
References
Abbott, D.R., A.D. Lack and M.R. Hackbarth. 2008 Provenance and microprobe assays of phyllite-tempered ceramics from the uplands of central Arizona. Geoarchaeology 23: 213-42. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.20212
Arnoldus-Huyzendveld, A., and C. Citter. 2015 Lo Scoglietto nel paleo-paesaggio della piana di Grosseto. In A. Sebastiani, E. Chirico, M. Colombini and M. Cygielman (eds.), Diana Umbronensis a Scoglietto. Santuario, Territorio e Cultura Materiale (200 a.C. - 550 d.C.). Roman Archaeology 3: 1-11. Oxford: Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv170x3vq.6
Berti, F., B. Fabbri, S. Gualtieri and C. Gaurnieri (eds.). 2004 Metodologie di Ricerca e Obiettivi degli Studi: lo Stato dell’Arte—Atti della VI Giornata di Archeometria della Ceramica. Rome: Arbor Sapientiae and Consiglio Nazionale Ricerche.
Bianchi, E. 2001 I bolli laterizi del Foro di Traiano. Il catalogo del Bloch e i rinvenimenti delle campagne di scavo 1991-1997 e 1998-2000. Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 102: 83-120.
––– 2003 I laterizi bollati conservati nei depositi dei Mercati di Traiano. Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 104: 83-126.
––– 2010a I laterizi bollati dallo scavo nell’angolo sud-occidentale. Scavi nelle Terme di Traiano sul Colle Oppio. Bollettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 111: 321-26.
––– 2010b L’opus latericium nel Foro di Cesare. Nuovi dati e osservazioni per le fasi costruttive del II e IV secolo d.C. Scienze dell’Antichità. Storia Archeologia Antropologia 16: 379-537.
––– 2015 Produzioni laterizie destinate ai grandi complessi imperiali di Roma in età traianea. In M. Spanu (ed.) Opus Doliare Tiberinum, Atti delle Giornate di Studio (Viterbo 25-26 ottobre 2012). Daidalos 15: 31-51. Viterbo: Universitá degli studi della Tuscia.
Bianchi, E., and Meneghini R. 2002 Il cantiere costruttivo del Foro di Traiano. Römische Mitteilungen 109: 395-417.
Bishop, R.L. 1994 Pre-Columbian pottery: research in the Maya region. In D.A. Scott and P. Meyers (eds.), Archaeometry of Pre-Columbian Sites and Artifacts: Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by the UCLA Institute of Archaeology and the Getty Conservation Institute, 15-65. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute.
––– 2014 Instrumental approaches to understanding Mesoamerican economy: elusive promises. Ancient Mesoamerica 25: 251-69. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536114000157
Bloch, H. 1938 I bolli laterizi e la storia edilizia romana: contributi all’archeologia e alla storia romana. Rome: Colombo. https://doi.org/10.2307/4340610
––– 1947 Bolli laterizi e la storia edilizia romana. Ristampa da BC 64-66 (1936-38). Rome: Comune di Roma.
––– 1953 I bolli laterizi nella storia edilizia di Ostia. In G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D’Ossat … P. Pensabene and A. L. Pietrogrande (eds.) Scavi di Ostia I. Topografia generale, 215-27. Rome: Libreria dello Stato
Bloch, H., and H. Dodge. 2015 Brickstamps, Roman. Oxford Classical Dictionary (online edition). https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.1170
Blomster, J.P., H. Neff and M.D. Glascock. 2005 Olmec pottery production and export in ancient Mexico determined through elemental analysis. Science 307(5712): 1068-72. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1107599
Bowes, K. (ed.). 2021 The Roman Peasant Project 2009-2014: Excavating the Roman Rural Poor. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv18dvvqq
Bruun, C. (ed.). 2005 Interpretare i bolli laterizi di Roma e della Valle del Tevere: produzione, storia economica e topografia. Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae 32. Rome: Institutum Romanum Finlandiae.
Bukowiecki, E., and U. Wulf-Rheidt. 2015a I bolli laterizi delle residenze imperiali sul Palatino a Roma. Römische Mitteilungen 121: 311-482.
––– 2015b Trasporto e stoccaggio dei laterizi a Roma: nuove riflessioni in corso. Archeologia dell’Architettura 20: 45-49.
Burke, C., and P.M. Day. 2023 Strategies for success: Early Helladic pottery production in Corinth, Greece. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 15: 77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01776-7
Buxeda Garrigós, J., M.A. Cau Ontiveros and V. Kilikoglou. 2003 Chemical variability in clays and pottery from a traditional cooking pot production village: testing assumptions in Pereruela. Archaeometry 45: 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4754.00093
Campana, S., and E. Vaccaro. 2021 Santa Marta: a Roman nodal point in the middle Ombrone valley (southern Tuscany, Italy). In A. Sebastiani and C. Megale (eds.), Archaeological Landscapes of Roman Etruria: Research and Field Papers, 49-66. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEDITO-EB.5.122211
Capelli, C., and T. Mannoni. 1996 Proposte per una scheda descrittiva delle sezioni sottili e per una classificazione minero-petrografica delle ceramiche. Archeologia Medievale 23: 689-97.
Celuzza, M. 1989 Quando la Maremma non era ‘amara’. Dalle origini della civiltà etrusca alla fine dell’Impero Romano. In Z. Ciuffoletti and G. Guerrini (eds.), Il Parco della Maremma. Storia e Natura, 27-32. Florence: Marsilio.
Centro di GeoTecnologie. 2018 Regione Toscana - DB Geologico. Florence: Regione Toscana. Online: http://www502.regione.toscana.it/geoscopio/geologia.html.
Chelini, C., R. Iardella and G. Poggesi. 2015 Contributi per la Carta Archeologica del Comune di Grosseto dalla preistoria all’età romana. Notiziario della Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici della Toscana 11: 377-412.
Chirico, E. 2019 Prima Golena (Alberese, GR): la mansio-positio di Umbro flumen. Bollettino di Archeologia online 3-4: 85-96. Online: https://bollettinodiarcheologiaonline.beniculturali.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019_3-4_CHIRICO.pdf.
––– 2020 La mansio di Hasta ad Alberese (GR, Toscana, Italia). FOLD&R it-2020: 458. Online: http://www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2020-458.pdf.
Chirico, E., and C. Citter. 2018 I beni pubblici e della corona dall’Impero Romano ai Longobardi: il caso di Roselle (Grosseto). In C. Giostra (ed.), Città e Campagna. Culture, Insediamenti, Economie (sec. VI-IX), II Incontro per l’Archeologia Barbarica, 97-195. Mantua: SAP Società Archeologica.
Day, P.M., E. Kiriatzi, A. Tsolakidou and V. Kilikoglou. 1999 Group therapy in Crete: a comparison between analyses by NAA and thin section petrography of Early Minoan pottery. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 1025-36. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1999.0424
De Laine, J. 2002 Building activity in Ostia in the 2nd Century AD. In C. Bruun and A. Gallina Zevi (eds.), Ostia e Portus nelle Loro Relazioni con Roma. Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae 27: 41-101. Rome: Institutum Romanum Finlandiae.
Duncan, G. 1964 A Roman pottery near Sutri. Papers of the British School at Rome 32: 38-88. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068246200007248
Duncan, G., and J.M. Reynolds. 1958 Sutri (Sutrium): (Notes on southern Etruria, 3). Papers of the British School at Rome 26: 63-134. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068246200007066
Ebert, C.E., D.E. Pierce and J.J. Awe. 2019 Preclassic ceramic economy in Belize: neutron activation analysis at Cahal Pech. Antiquity 93(371): 1266-83. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.93
Filippi, G., and E.A. Stanco. 2005 Epigrafia e toponomastica della produzione laterizia nella valle del Tevere. L’Umbria e la Sabina tra Tuder e Crustumerium; l’Etruria tra Volsini e Lucus Feroniae. In C. Bruun (ed.), Interpretare i bolli laterizi di Roma e della Valle del Tevere: produzione, storia economica e topografia. Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae 32: 121-99. Rome: Institutum Romanum Finlandiae.
Gasperoni, T. 2003 Le Fornaci dei Domitii. Ricerche Topografiche a Mugnano in Teverina. Daidalos 5. Viterbo: Universitá degli Studi della Tuscia.
Gasperoni, T., and G. Scardozzi. 2010 Carta Archeologica d’Italia, Bomarzo, Mugnano, Bassano in Teverina. Viterbo: Università degli Studi della Tuscia.
Gilstrap, W.D., P.M. Day and V. Kilikoglou. 2016 Pottery production at two neighbouring centers in the Late Bronze Age Saronic Gulf: historical contingency and craft organisation. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 7: 499-509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.03.004
Gliozzo, E. 2005 La diffusione dell’opus doliare ‘urbano’ nell’Etruria romana: rapporti tra produzione ‘urbana’ e ‘municipale’. In C. Bruun (ed.), Interpretare i bolli laterizi di Roma e della Valle del Tevere: produzione, storia economica e topografia. Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae 32: 201-12. Rome: Institutum Romanum Finlandiae.
––– 2013 Stamped bricks from the ager Cosanus (Orbetello, Grosseto): integrating archaeometry, archaeology, epigraphy and prosopography. Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 1042-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.07.018
Gliozzo, E., D. Damiani, S. Camporeale, I. Memmi and E. Papi. 2011 Building materials from Thamusida (Rabat, Morocco): a diachronic local production from the Roman to the Islamic period. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 1026-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.11.024
Gliozzo, E., P.L. Fantozzi and C. Ionescu. 2020 Old recipes, new strategies: paleoenvironment, georesources, building materials, and trade networks in Roman Tuscany (Italy). Geoarchaeology 35: 678-700. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21792
Graham, S. 2006 EX FIGLINIS: The Network Dynamics of the Tiber Valley Brick Industry in the Hinterland of Rome. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1486. Oxford: Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.30861/9781841717388
Hein, A., P.M. Day, M.A. Cau Ontiveros and V. Kilikoglou. 2004 Red clays from central and eastern Crete: geochemical and mineralogical properties in view of provenance studies on ancient ceramics. Applied Clay Science 24: 245-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2003.07.009
Hein, A., and V. Kilikoglou. 2011 ceraDAT—prototype of a web-based relational database for archaeological ceramics. Archaeometry 54: 230-43. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.2011.00618.x
Helen, T. 1975 Organization of Roman Brick Production in the First and Second Centuries A.D.: An Interpretation of Roman Brick Stamps. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. https://irfrome.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Helen.pdf
Hilditch, J. 2014 Analyzing technological standardization: revisiting the Minoan conical cup. In A. Kotsonas (ed.), Understanding Standardization and Variation in Mediterranean Ceramics: Mid 2nd to Late 1st Millennium BC. Babesch Supplement 25: 21-33. Leuven: Peeters.
Hommel, P.M., P.M. Day, P. Jordan and V.M. Vetrov. 2016 Context is everything: early pottery, hunter-gatherers, and the interpretation of technological choices in eastern Siberia. In E. Sibbesson, B. Jervis, S. Coxon (eds.), Insight from Innovation—New Light on Archaeological Ceramics, 1-18. St. Andrews, United Kingdom: Highfield Press.
Levi, S.T., and I.M. Muntoni. 2014 L’archeometria della ceramica in Italia: storia degli studi, risultati e prospettive della ricerca. In A. Guidi (ed.), 150 Anni di Preistoria e Protostoria in Italia. Studi Di Preistoria e Protostoria 1: 535-42. Florence: Casalini.
Lindahl, A. 2002 Microscopical analyses of ceramic thin-sections of votive terracottas from Tessennano, Vulci, Tuscania and Tarquinia. In M. Sönderlind (ed.), Late Etruscan Votive Heads from Tessennano: Production, Distribution, Sociohistorical Context, 393-423. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
Liverani, P. 2019 Rusellae between crisis and revival: the evidence for colonial status. In A.U. De Giorgi (ed.), Cosa and the Colonial Landscape of Republican Italy (Third and Second Centuries BC),139-58. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Luti, R., P.L. Aminti, L. Donati and E. Pranzini. 2000 Ricerche sul territorio di Roselle per l’individuazione degli approdi esistiti dall’età etrusca a quella moderna. Science and Technology for Cultural Heritage 9: 15-65.
Maiuro, M. 2012 Res Caesaris. Ricerche sulla Proprietà Imperiale nel Principato. Bari: Edipuglia.
Manacorda, D. 1985 L’interpretazione della villa dai Sestii agli imperatori. In A. Carandini (ed.), Settefinestre. Una Villa Schiavistica nell’ Etruria Romana I. La villa nel suo insieme, 101-106. Modena: Panini.
Mentesana, R., P.M. Day, V. Kilikoglou and S. Todaro. 2016 United in our differences: the production and consumption of pottery at EM IB Phaistos, Crete. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7: 489-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.007
Mioli, N. 2010 San Rabano e la Fattoria Granducale. Storia, analisi strutturale e interventi di restauro. Florence: Nardini.
Morbidelli, P. 2004 Appendice: Bolli del Foro di Traiano: analisi petrografiche, diffrattometriche, e chimiche. In E.C. De Sena and H. Dessales (eds.), Archaeological Methods and Approaches: Industry and Commerce in Ancient Italy. British Archaeological Report, International Series 1262: 280-82. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Neff, H., J. Blomster, M.D. Glascock … B.L. Stark and M. Winter. 2006 Methodological issues in the provenance investigation of Early Formative Mesoamerican ceramics. Latin American Antiquity 17: 54-76. https://doi.org/10.2307/25063036
Olcese, G. 2003 Ceramiche Comuni a Roma e in Area Romana: Produzione, Circolazione e Tecnologia; Tarda Età Repubblicana-Prima Età Imperiale. Documenti di Archeologia 28. Mantus: SAP Società Archeologica.
––– 2012 Atlante dei Siti di Produzione Ceramica (Toscana, Lazio, Campania e Sicilia): con le Tabelle dei Principali Relitti del Mediterraneo Occidentale con Carichi dall’Italia Centro Meridionale : IV Secolo a.C.-I Secolo d.C. Rome: Quasar.
––– 2019 Database | Immensa Aequora. Immensa Aequora. Online: https://www.immensaaequora.org/it/content/database.
Peña, J.T. 1987 Roman-Period Ceramic Production in Etruria Tiberina: A Geographical and Compositional Study. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
––– 1993 Two studies of the provenience of Roman pottery through neutron activation analysis. In W. Harris (ed.), The Inscribed Economy: Production and Distribution in the Roman Empire in Light of Instrumentum Domesticum, 107-20. Journal of Archaeology Supplementary Series 6. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Journal of Roman Archaeology.
––– 2016 La Creta Fatta Concreta: The Italian Ceramic Clay Project (CFC) | RES ROMANAE. University of California, Berkeley: Roman Material Culture Laboratory. Online: http://resromanae.berkeley.edu/node/101.
Poggesi, G. 2004 I rinvenimenti di età romana nel territorio di Alberese: le Frasche e Montesanto. In M. Cygielman (ed.), La Villa Romana di Nomadelfia. Aspetti dell’Insediamento Rurale nel Territorio Rusellano, 113-19. Arcidosso, Italy: Effigi.
Quinn, P., P.M. Day, V. Kilikoglou, E. Faber, S. Katsarou-Tzeveleki and A. Sampson. 2010 Keeping an eye on your pots: the provenance of Neolithic ceramics from the Cave of the Cyclops, Youra, Greece. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 1042-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.12.005
Riley, J.A., D.P.S. Peacock and A.C. Renfrew. 1981 The petrological characterisation of late Bronze Age ceramics from Knossos and Mycenae. Revue d’Archéométrie 1: 245-50. Online: https://doi.org/10.3406/arsci.1981.1153.
Sebastiani, A. 2014 Spolverino (Alberese—GR). The 4th archaeological season at the Manufacturing District and revision of the previous archaeological data. FOLD&R it-2014: 320. Online: https://www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2014-320.pdf.
––– 2015 Le indagini archeologiche di età romana nel territorio di Alberese. In A. Sebastiani, E. Chirico, M. Colombini and M. Cygielman (eds.), Diana Umbronensis a Scoglietto. Santuario, Territorio e Cultura Materiale (200 a.C. - 550 d.C.), 12-22. Oxford: Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv170x3vq.7
––– 2016a Glass and metal production at Alberese. The workshops and the manufacturing district of Spolverino. European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies 6: 53-70.
––– 2016b New data for a preliminary understanding of the Roman settlement network in south coastal Tuscany. The case of Alberese (Grosseto, IT). Res Antiquae 13: 243-72.
––– 2017 From villa to village: late Roman to early medieval settlement networks in the ager Rusellanus. In J. Moreland, J. Mitchell and B. Leal (eds.), Encounters, Excavations and Argosies: Essays for Richard Hodges, 281-90. Oxford: Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1pdrqgc.29
Sebastiani, A., and E. Chirico. 2015 Periodi II-III. Dal primo impero al regno di Commodo (fine I secolo a.C. - ultimo quarto del II secolo d.C.). In A. Sebastiani, E. Chirico, M. Colombini and M. Cygielman (eds.), Diana Umbronensis a Scoglietto. Santuario, Territorio e Cultura Materiale (200 a.C. - 550 d.C.), 40-53. Oxford: Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv170x3vq.10
Sebastiani, A., E. Chirico, M. Colombini and M. Cygielman (eds.). 2015 Diana Umbronensis a Scoglietto. Santuario, Territorio e Cultura Materiale (200 a.C. - 550 d.C.). Oxford: Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv170x3vq
Sebastiani, A., and T. Derrick. 2020 A regional economy of recycling over four centuries at Spolverino (Tuscany) and environs. In C. Duckworth and A. Wilson (eds.), Recycling and the Ancient Economy, 359-82. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198860846.001.0001
Sebastiani, A., V. Testolini and E. Chirico. 2021 Database Archive Roman Bricks off the Wall. Online: http://ubir.buffalo.edu/xmlui/handle/10477/82647.
Shepard, A.O. 1964 Ceramic development of the Lowland and Highland Maya. In Actas y Memorias del XXXV Congreso international de Americanistas I, 249-62. Mexico City: Editorial Libros de Mexico.
Sistema Informativo Territoriale Regionale. 2021 Carta geologica-viewer1:25000 Geoportale Regione Lazio. Rome: Regione Lazio. Online: https://geoportale.regione.lazio.it/layers/geonode:carta_geologica_wgs84.
Steinby, M. 1974–75 La cronologia delle figlinae doliari urbane dalla fine dell’età repubblicana fino all’inizio del III secolo. Bullettino Comunale 84: 7-132.
––– 1993 L’organizzazione produttiva dei laterizi: un modello interpretativo per l’instrumentum in genere. In W. Harris (ed.), The Inscribed Economy: Production and Distribution in the Roman Empire in Light of Instrumentum Domesticum, 139-43. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 6. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Journal of Roman Archaeology.
––– 2021 I bolli doliari Romani dell’italia Centro-Occidentale. Rome: Institutum Romanum Finlandiae. Online: http://www.bollidoliari.org/index.php/4-introduzione.
Stoner, W. 2013 Interpolity pottery exchange in the Tuxla mountains, southern Veracruz, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 24: 262-88. https://doi.org/10.7183/1045-6635.24.3.262
Turbanti Memmi, I. 2004 Pottery production and distribution: the contribution of mineralogical and petrographical methodologies in Italy. State of the art and future developments. Periodico di Mineralogia 73: 239-57.
UNESCO. 2021 UNESCO recommendation on Open Science. Online: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379949.locale=en.
Vanni, E. 2015 Periodo I. Età ellenistica e repubblicana (II secolo a.C. - I secolo a.C.). In A. Sebastiani, E. Chirico, M. Colombini and M. Cygielman (eds.), Diana Umbronensis a Scoglietto. Santuario, Territorio e Cultura Materiale (200 a.C. - 550 d.C.), 26-39. Oxford: Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv170x3vq.9
Whitbread, I. 1995 Greek Transport Amphorae: A Petrological and Archaeological Study. Athens: British School at Athens.
Wilson, D.E., and P.M. Day. 1994 Ceramic regionalism in Prepalatial central Crete: the Mesara imports at EM I to EM II A Knossos. Annual of the British School at Athens 89: 1-87. https://doi.org/10.1017/S006824540001529X
