Contextual Archaeology: the Late Antique Fort and Vicus Favianis/Mautern. Methods and Results

Abstract

The archaeological research carried out within the fort and vicus of Favianis/Mautern, on the Austrian-Danube limes, has provided scholars with important new information for the development of settlement structures and for material culture in the Roman imperial and late antique periods, as well as for the Early Middle Ages. Archaeological structures in the fort were analysed alongside the structures in the vicus. A major focus of this analysis lay in the examination of diverse forms of waste management during the Roman imperial and late antique periods, and the interpretation of primary and secondary rubbish. The findings provide us with new evidence for the population migration from the vicus to the fort in Late Antiquity, for the dating of Horreum ware and late antique burnished pottery, as well as for the transition from the late antique fort to the Early Medieval town.