Roman lava quarries in the Eifel region (Germany): geochemical data for millstone provenance studies

Gluhak, Tatjana M.; Hofmeister, Wolfgang

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2009.04.007

Cited by 20 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The allocation of the samples to the Eifel region and furthermore to a certain quarry in the Eifel is done by statistical cluster and discriminant analysis. For a more detailed description of the methodology we refer to Gluhak & Hofmeister (2009;.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examples that were found under the permanent water table are generally in better condition (Reniere et al in press) (Figure 4). (2016) These tephritic phonolite lavas were imported from the Vulkaneifel in Germany (the procedure of the provenance analyses as well as the necessary data from the extraction sites are given in Gluhak & Hofmeister (2009;). This region consists of three volcanic fields.…”

Section: Volcanic Rock: "Basalt"-like Lavamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Archaeometrical research on Roman millstones is mainly confined to the Mediterranean (we cite some examples after Gluhak & Hofmeister (2009) Antonelli et al 2001, Renzulli et al 2002Buffone et al 2003). Thanks to the recent detailed analytical geochemical-statistical methodology developed by Gluhak (2010) it is possible to link Roman querns and millstones made of volcanic rocks to particular extraction sites, even to an individual quarry or lava flow.…”

Section: Journal Of Lithic Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Querns and mills during Roman times at the northern frontier of the Roman Empire (Belgium, Northern France, Southern Netherlands, Western Germany): Unraveling geological and geographical provenances, a multidisciplinary research project

Reniere

Neer

Dreesen

et al. 2016

JLS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents the results of a multi-disciplinary provenance study of querns and millstones during the Roman period (1st-4th century CE) in the northern part of the Roman Empire (provinces of Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior). Comparative petrographical, mineralogical and geochemical analysis allowed an international team of archaeologists and geologists to identify the different raw materials used for the manufacturing of querns and millstones. As a result, (litho-) stratigraphic assignments as well as geological-geographical provenances are suggested or corroborated for the broad spectrum of these natural geo-materials. We give evidence for the exploitation of at least seven different rock types. They include sedimentary rocks (fine- to coarse-grained quartzitic and arkosic sandstones, conglomerates, limestones) and volcanic rocks (vesicular lavas) derived from different geological strata in the following geological-geographical settings: the volcanic Eifel area (Pleistocene lava), the Ardennes Massif (Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks) and the Paris and Northern Sea Basin (Cenozoic sedimentary rocks). Furthermore we show that a large diversity existed within different productions (different types of hand-mills and mechanical powered mills) and distribution patterns. This paper provides new data which will lead to new insights into the socio-economics of the local “Gallo-Roman” communities and into their networks within the northern Roman Empire.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Volcanic Rock: "Basalt"-like Lavamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Journal Of Lithic Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Querns and mills during Roman times at the northern frontier of the Roman Empire (Belgium, Northern France, Southern Netherlands, Western Germany): Unraveling geological and geographical provenances, a multidisciplinary research project

Reniere

Neer

Dreesen

et al. 2016

JLS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, products from a single extraction site will never show an identical geochemical composition because they always mirror the natural heterogeneity within a rock outcrop (Gluhak & Hofmeister 2009;2011;Gluhak & Rosenberg 2013). Thus, two or more rocks can only be defined as the same on the basis of the similarity of their geochemical compositions, with "similarity" meaning a low variation in geochemical features.…”

Section: Major and Trace Element Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raw material variability as archaeological tools: Preliminary results from a geochemical study of the basalt vessel workshop at Iron Age Tel Hazor, Israel

Gluhak¹,

Rosenberg

Ebeling

2016

JLS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The discovery of a basalt vessel workshop at Tel Hazor, one of the most important Iron Age sites in the Near East, marks a turning point in our understanding of stone artefact production and distribution during the 1 st millennium BCE. It offers a rare opportunity to characterize ancient raw material sources, production sites, and study production, trade and distribution systems. The basalt vessel workshop, the only one of its kind in the Levant, produced large quantities of bowl preforms and production waste. To better understand the production and distribution systems behind this specialized production centre, in 2011 we initiated a focused geochemical project that concentrated on the products of this unique workshop. We measured the major and trace element composition of 44 unfinished basalt vessels from the workshop and other contexts at Hazor, and can demonstrate that the majority of these objects were derived from one specific, geochemically well-constrained, basaltic rock source. Only a few bowls clearly deviate from this geochemical composition and were produced using raw material from other sources. Thus, we believe that one major quarry existed that supplied the Hazor workshop with the majority of the basaltic raw material. The products from this specific extraction site provide us with a "Hazor reference group" that can be used to test whether or not finished vessels from Hazor and contemporary sites were produced in the Hazor workshop.

show abstract

“…While archaeological research invests considerable efforts to produce correlations between artefacts and specific outcrops of raw materials in the landscape (e.g., Campbell-Smith 1965;Gluhak & Hofmeister 2009;Özbek 2011), we still know very little about how behavioural patterns and procurement strategies differed between the extraction of common raw material and raw materials of some "special" significance. In this paper we attempt to explore such differences through an in-depth investigation of the basanite bifacial production site of Giv'at Kipod, Menashe Hills, Israel, the only basaltic axe production site known in the Levant, and comparison to other flint workshops.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The organization of basanite bifacial production at Giv’at Kipod Quarry, Israel: Towards an ‘Alyawara Day’ model of extraction

Shimelmitz

Rosenberg

2016

JLS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Hunter gatherers as well as farmers used a variety of lithic raw materials to shape their world, in which some were perceived as having symbolic or mythical content. While the anthropological literature demonstrates that the extraction of raw materials of special significance was often performed differently from that of other more 'ordinary' raw materials, identifying this in the archaeological record is difficult. In this paper we wish to shed new light on this topic using the Late Neolithic-Early Chalcolithic basanite bifacial tool production site of Giv‛at Kipod, Israel. In the southern Levant basalt axes and adzes have long been understood to embody greater symbolic content than the flint axes and adzes that dominate the Neolithic and Chalcolithic bifacial assemblages. By comparing the results from our excavations at the site of Giv‛at Kipod to other production and extraction sites we exhibit how the organization of production was different than that related to the more common flint extraction in the region. While at most production and extractions sites the manufacture of various types of items is documented and the presence of tools, especially ad hoc tools, indicates that a variety of activities were performed at the locale of extraction, in the case of Giv‛at Kipod the production was focused solely on the manufacture of bifacials with a marked lack of evidence of other significant activities. We attempt to provide guidelines to characterize different exploitation patterns between raw materials of varied social significance using these differences.

show abstract

Roman lava quarries in the Eifel region (Germany): geochemical data for millstone provenance studies

Cited by 20 publications

References 23 publications

Querns and mills during Roman times at the northern frontier of the Roman Empire (Belgium, Northern France, Southern Netherlands, Western Germany): Unraveling geological and geographical provenances, a multidisciplinary research project

Querns and mills during Roman times at the northern frontier of the Roman Empire (Belgium, Northern France, Southern Netherlands, Western Germany): Unraveling geological and geographical provenances, a multidisciplinary research project

Raw material variability as archaeological tools: Preliminary results from a geochemical study of the basalt vessel workshop at Iron Age Tel Hazor, Israel

The organization of basanite bifacial production at Giv’at Kipod Quarry, Israel: Towards an ‘Alyawara Day’ model of extraction

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About