Material sources of the Roman brick-making industry in the I and II century A.D. from Regio IX, Regio XI and Alpes Cottiae
Introduction
Brick represents artefacts routinely recovered in the archaeological documentation (Skibo and Feinman, 1999, Hodder, 2012). Their main constituents are fired soils. The exploitation of bricks and tiles has always been very convenient and useful for humankind, as the raw material is abundant on the earth's surface and easy to shape and fire. Yet, little is known of the making of less refined ceramics, whose enormity of production and trade is surprising in view of the slight knowledge we have of the associated industry. This is the case for bricks and tiles in the Roman age, whose production was one of the most vital manufacturing industries in Roman times with confirmed evidence of export towards the main cities of the Mediterranean (Helen, 1975, Thébert, 2000). Nevertheless, the technological aspects of brick making in ancient Rome, which is thought to have been one of the most important businesses of the Empire, remain relatively mysterious. Some major questions are related to defining from where the Romans collected the raw materials, how have they made their bricks, and how far have they transported the bricks with respect to the furnaces.
In general, the determination of provenance of archaeological finds is based on two assumptions: i) raw materials from diverse sources have different chemical compositions; ii) variations of composition within one source are smaller than between materials from different sources. In the archaeological context, the scientific literature illustrates a wide variety of approaches applied in the study and characterization of soils (Facchinelli et al., 2001, Marra et al., 2011) and ceramics artefacts to gain information on provenance, technology and manufacture, from X-ray diffraction (e.g. Rye, 1981), and direct observation of structural phases by scanning electron microscopy, and reflection spectroscopic investigation of the colour of ceramics (Marra et al., 2011, López-Arce et al., 2003, Calliari et al., 2001, Hatcher et al., 1994, Marengo et al., 2005).
To investigate the manufacture of bricks and tiles in the Roman territory during the first centuries AD and investigate how the sources of raw materials were selected, we analysed the soil features of an area situated by the Po river in northwestern Italy – in particular, the triangle between two ancient Roman regions (Liguria, Transpadana) and one Alpine district (Alpes Cottiae) – along with the different chemical and physical properties of soils, bricks, and tiles recovered from Roman sites located in the same region. Chemical, structural and magnetic analysis were conducted, respectively, using mass spectrometry coupled with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-MS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR), and magnetic measurements.
Section snippets
Spatial and temporal domain – sampling
Since the Julio-Claudian epoch (0–35 BC) and for census requirements, the Italian territory was divided by Roman government into Regiones. Northwestern Italy corresponded to Regio IX Liguria, Regio XI Transpadana, and Alpes Cottiae, with borders (Fig. 1) defined by Alpes Maritimae (southwest), Gallia Narbonensis (west).
Accessibility of resources, including the procurement distances for soil as a raw material source, was carefully weighted in ancient societies (Schiffer and Skibo, 1997). Although
Provenance of raw material for brick-making
In an attempt to identify any objective parameter differentiating artefacts and soils of different sources as well as any link between artefacts and soil sources, attention was addressed to REY elements. In all samples, in terms of concentrations, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, and yttrium account for more than 80% of all the REYs (Table 3, Table 4) with a nearly symmetrical and platykurtic general distribution (skewness <0.4, kurtosis −1.7/−0.4). A close examination of the REY data allows the
Discussion
The samples examined show a close correlation between the point of use and discovery and soils from which they originated. Moreover, the lack of additives in the mixtures shows that the production of bricks was little influenced by the location of the resource “clay”, but much more by that of water and, above all, fuel for the furnaces. Woodland areas were not generally part of the lands granted to settlers as commons use by the community for cutting wood (silva publica) (Settis, 1984). The
Conclusions
A synopsis of the three main questions addressed by this manuscript (1, where did the Romans collect the raw materials?; 2, how did they make their bricks?; 3 how far have they transported the bricks with respect to the furnaces?) could be that in Roman brick-making soil characteristics were not essential, as they transported raw soil material usually for distances of only a few kilometres. Key points in order of importance were availability of timber and water and soils without stones.
The
Acknowledgments
Region Poitou-Charentes (n°09/RPC-R055) kindly supported the first author. DISAFA-Università di Torino made its laboratories available for some of the analyses. ARPA Piemonte has provided data on the Gd/La ratio. Hamish Forbes and Giuseppina Spagnolo Garzoli provided extremely useful and valuable information. The Carena family from Cambiano kindly has made available its historical experience in the manufacture of bricks. Carlos Odriozola and Antonio Delgado from the Universidad de Sevilla
References (85)
- et al.
Relevance of magnetic properties for the characterisation of burnt clays and archaeological tiles
Physics and Chemistry of the Earth
(2008) - et al.
An appraisal of soil diffuse contamination in an industrial district in northern Italy
Chemosphere
(2012) - et al.
Mobilization and redistribution of REEs and thorium in a syenitic lateritic profile – a mass-balance study
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
(1993) - et al.
Roman bricks from the Lagoon of Venice: a chemical characterization with methods of multivariate analysis
Journal of Cultural Heritage
(2001) - et al.
The late-antiquity environmental crisis in Emilia region (Po river plain, Northern Italy): geoarchaeological evidence and paleoclimatic considerations
Quaternary International
(2013) - et al.
Chemical characteristics of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary layer at Gubbio, Italy
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
(1996) - et al.
Pottery kiln and drying oven from Aventicum (2nd century AD, Ct. Vaud, Switzerland): raw materials and temperature distribution
Applied Clay Science
(2013) - et al.
Multivariate statistical and GIS-based approach to identify heavy metal sources in soils
Environmental Pollution
(2001) - et al.
Numerical simulation of Holocene depositional wedge in the southern Po Plain-northern Adriatic Sea (Italy)
Quaternary International
(2004) - et al.
Archaeomagnetic data from four Roman sites in Tunisia
Journal of Archaeological Science
(2012)
Stamped bricks from the ager cosanus (Orbetello, Grosseto): integrating archaeometry, archaeology, epigraphy and prosopography
Journal of Archaeological Science
Origin of magnetic fabric in bricks: its implications in archaeomagnetism
Physics and Chemistry of the Earth
The prehistoric and preindustrial deforestation of Europe
Quaternary Science Reviews
Weathering traces in ancient bricks from historic buildings
Building and Environment
Bricks in historical buildings of Toledo City: characterisation and restoration
Materials Characterization
Archaeometric characterisation of ancient pottery belonging to the archaeological site of Novalesa Abbey (Piedmont, Italy) by ICP–MS and spectroscopic techniques coupled to multivariate statistical tools
Analytica Chimica Acta
The Alban Hills and Monti Sabatini volcanic products used in ancient Roman masonry (Italy): an integrated stratigraphic, archaeological, environmental and geochemical approach
Earth-Science Reviews
Effect of firing temperature and atmosphere on ceramics made of NW Peloponnese clay sediments. Part I: reaction path, crystalline phases, microstructure and colour
Journal of the European Ceramic Society
An anthropic soil transformation fingerprinted by REY patterns
Journal of Archaeological Science
Estimate of the magnetic anisotropy effect on the archaeomagnetic inclination of ancient bricks
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors
Lattice vibration spectra. Part XCV. Infrared spectroscopic studies on the iron oxide hydroxides goethite (α), akaganéite (β), lepidocrocite (γ), and feroxyhite (δ)
European Journal of Solid State and Inorganic Chemistry
Dark ages and dark areas: global deforestation in the deep past
Journal of Historical Geography
The transition from natural to anthropogenic-dominated environmental change in Italy and the surrounding regions since the Neolithic: an introduction
Quaternary International
Mechanochemical treatment of α-Fe2O3 powder in air atmosphere
Materials Science Engineering
Evaluating rare earth element availability: a case with revolutionary demand from clean technologies
Environmental Science & Technology
Ceramic Theory and Cultural Process
Fine particle magnetic mineralogy of archaeological ceramics
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Les villae de La Ramière à Roquemaure, Gard
Monographies d'Archéologie Méditerranéen
Brandizzo – Un Insediamento Rurale di Età Romana
Tegular materials from Sarmizegetusa – 2. Mineralogical and physical characteristics of the raw material
Romanian Journal of Materials
Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Mössbauer study of firing conditions used in the manufacture of the grey and red ware of Tureng-Tepe
Journal of Physique
Applying environmental magnetism to sediment tracing
Anthropogenic soils are the golden spikes for the Anthropocene
The Holocene
L'inizio dell'opus testaceum a Roma e nell'Italia romana
Ancient techniques
Journal of Applied Physics
Geomorphological evidence for land cleared from forest in the central Po plain (Northern Italy) during the Roman period
Iberian ceramic production from Basti (Baza, Spain): first geochemical, mineralogical and textural characterization
Archaeometry
Solving archaeological problems using techniques of soil magnetism
Geoarchaeology
Brick and tile production in Roman Britain: models of economic organisation
World Archaeology
Unusual thermomagnetic behaviour of haematites: neoformation of a highly magnetic spinel phase on heating in air
Geophysical Journal International
Exploring the economics of building techniques at Rome and Ostia
Cited by (17)
Designing a ‘yellow brick road’ for the archaeometric analyses of fired and unfired bricks
2023, Journal of Cultural HeritageStudying the potential of rock magnetism to distinguish combustion structures of different type
2022, Journal of Archaeological ScienceCitation Excerpt :All experimental clays were arranged in the upper chamber of the kiln where they are subjected to maximum firing under conditions such as temperature, duration and atmosphere that are not so different. In contrast, archaeological samples come from different areas of a variety of kilns (Table 1), where firing conditions were more diverse often causing formation of different magnetic minerals (Spassov and Hus, 2006; Scalenghe et al., 2015). This is supported by the predominantly higher NRM and χ values measured for the multiple heated experimental clays than those observed for the archaeological pottery kilns (Fig. 2a and b; Fig. 5; Fig. S8, S9 in Supplementary material).
Multiscale assessment of masonry materials from the roman imperial baths at Sagalassos
2022, Measurement: Journal of the International Measurement ConfederationCitation Excerpt :New interdisciplinary initiatives have been developed on the conservation of the extant remains, aiming to achieve the immediate and sustainable preservation of the Baths. Over the past two decades, various studies have provided valuable information on historic building materials to evaluate the importance given to archaeological sites and monuments taking into account of their conservation, repair, and maintenance [5–11]. Man-made historic building materials are different from modern, industrial ones.
Geochemical characterization of bricks used in historical monuments of 14-18th century CE of Haryana region of the Indian subcontinent: Reference to raw materials and production technique
2021, Construction and Building MaterialsCitation Excerpt :Brick is one of the oldest man-made structural materials and has been widely used due to easy availability of its raw materials [1]. The complicated history of masonry has been decoded by investigating brick morphology [2], statistical analysis of brick dimensions [3], or through a detailed study of the materials used, might be through the application of mineralogical methods [4,5]. The bricks can be classified geologically, according to the clays from which they were made, and there are often close family resemblances between bricks made from clays of similar origin [6].
Characteristics and Production Technologies of Byzantine Building Bricks from the Anaia Church in Western Anatolia
2023, Clays and Clay Minerals