Panel 8.24 – Urban Roman production and distribution sites


Organiser/Chair:

  • Elizabeth Murphy (Universität Bonn, Graduiertenkolleg 1878)

Paper abstracts

1. Vanessa Elizagoyen (Institut National de Recherche Archéologique Préventive)

New evidence on leatherworking during Antiquity: the case of the Burdigala Jean Fleuret site (Bordeaux, Nouvelle Aquitaine, France)
Our archaeological knowledge of skins and leather workshops in Antiquity is still very partial, due to the usual difficulties of studying crafts running organic matters. Moreover, these last years, archaeological sites traditionally interpreted as tanneries were questioned.
In 2011, French archaeologists of Inrap (National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Researches) excavated a complex located on the edges of the brook Peugue, in the western extension of the Roman city of Burdigala (South-West of France), that works between the middle of Ist and the middle of the IIth century AD. It is fitted with a building made of earth and wood in which workstations and spaces of drying and storages were identified, of a wooden monoxyle tank, as well as a big pool in which the water circulates permanently. The landfill of archaeological remains under the level of the groundwater maintained the organic matters in an exceptional state of preservation. Thus, evidences evoking alum tawing (characteristic bones of Goats and sheep, alum amphorae of Lipari, iron schafts intended to stretch out skins on frames, pebbles used as tools) and artefacts resulting from the work of the cobblers (tools, leather wastes) were recognized. In this last set, the harvest of about 20 kg of leather delivers the biggest collection of marks (stamped marks and graffiti) never brought to light, leading ourselves to wonder once more about their functionalities.

 

2. Elisa Panero (Musei Reali di Torino)

Workshops and economic history in a roman town: An artisanal wool activity in Vercellae, Italy.
The city of Vercellae, which became a Roman municipium in 89 BC, was located at a key point on the Transpadanian routes, along the way from Mediolanum and Augusta Taurinorum to the Galliae. Since 2012, the Soprintendenza Archeologia del Piemonte began a systematic excavation in the southern suburb of the Roman city, in the area of the amphitheater, not far from the Sesia river and the river port. Here, several Roman features were found, including a rustic building (in some of its phases with an open portico), an underground context of uncertain function built with excellent masonry technique, some channels and many pits dug directly into the clay beds and then filled. There are many indications that suggest the area was used as a site for crafts activities. In addition to the structures, clear evidence includes a volcanic millstone, several large mortars and numerous loom weights of various kinds. However, it was thanks to the analysis of materials, particularly amphorae, which has strengthened the hypothesis that is was a lanarius. For example, amphorae with coarse paste, believed to have contained alum and oil, should be considered in relation to the production cycle of wool. These draw a strong analogy with the Altinum and Patavium area, famous in antiquity for its fine wool production. In this paper, I will present, in a preliminary way, the excavation structures and materials that are deemed to be connected to the textile production, waiting that further investigations add new data.

 

3. Jared Benton (Old Dominion University)

Workshops, not Factories: Late-Antique Bakeries outside of Large Urban Centers
Late antique bakeries are usually characterized as large – almost factory like – workshops, analogous to those found at Ostia or to those described by Socrates Scholasticus. But an examination of the evidence from around the Roman empire reveals that most late-antique bakeries were much smaller and more akin to the bakeries in smaller Roman cities from earlier periods. The operation of such bakeries can be divided into two broadly inferred, but related systems: bakeries in large houses, probably grounded in slavery, and small independent bakeries couched in the modest Roman familia.
The focus on the high-productivity bakeries largely resulted from an interest in assessing economic growth and intensification of production. This preoccupation led to a concentration on large urban centers which hosted the larger bakeries, such as Ostia - and central Italy in general – or textual evidence for Rome and Constantinople. Smaller cities, such as Volubilis or Augusta Raurica, which indeed have late-antique bakeries, have largely been overlooked. The bakeries at these locations, along with papyrological and legal evidence from different parts of the Empire, reveal the smaller scale of production for most bakeries. Such continuity with early bakeries shows the importance of the urban fabric of a city in determining the nature of its industries, but it also provides better context for the origins of the small-scale production of the early Medieval period.

 

4. Javier Salido (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

Macarena Bustamante, Bakeries and Mills in Hispania
This study deals with recent developments in the research of Hispania's bread-making tradition. More specifically, we’ll analyze the handling, transformation and production of baked products from a technological perspective, based on infrastructure and tools found on the Iberian Peninsula.