Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T16:48:29.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Roman miliarium from a private bath house in northern Gaul: from water technology to ritual offering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2016

Séverine Hurard ,
Luc Leconte ,
Aurélien Lefeuvre  and
Pascal Raymond
Séverine Hurard*
Affiliation:
UMR 7041 ArScan, Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques préventives, 36–38 avenue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier, 93120 La Courneuve, France
Luc Leconte
Affiliation:
UMR 6298 ArTeHis, Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques préventives, 36–38 avenue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier, 93120 La Courneuve, France
Aurélien Lefeuvre
Affiliation:
Service Départemental d'Archéologie du Val-d'Oise, rue Alexandre Prachay, 95310 Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, France
Pascal Raymond
Affiliation:
Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques préventives, 36–38 avenue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier, 93120 La Courneuve, France
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The rare discovery of a well-preserved miliarium—a water boiler—in a rural bath house in Gaul suggests that the technology of water supply had penetrated the remoter parts of the Roman world. Such boilers were frequently recycled for their valuable metal content. This example, by contrast, was buried close to where it once stood—perhaps in connection with the ritual deposit of complete animal carcasses around the bath house. The symbolic associations of the boiler are suggested by decorative elements including the mask of a bearded man, argued to represent Okeanos, a divine personification of the sea. The near-complete state of the boiler also provides new insight into the processes used in its manufacture from lead and copper alloys.

Keywords

FranceGaulRomanbath housewater boilerdepositionproductionlead
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 90 , Issue 354 , December 2016 , pp. 1562 - 1575
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archéologie en Vaucluse. 1999. Saignon, Tourville. Journal d'Information du Service départemental d'Archéologie du Conseil Général de Vaucluse 34.Google Scholar
Beard, M., North, G. & Price, S.. 1998. Religions of Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bossert, M. 1979. Eine römische Bleiwanne aus den thermen von Iolumagus (Bei Schleitheim). Zeitschrift fûr schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 36: 205–19.Google Scholar
Bouet, A. 2003. Les thermes privés et publics en Gaule Narbonnaise (2 volumes). Rome: École française de Rome.Google Scholar
Cochet, A. 2000. Le plomb en Gaule romaine. Techniques de fabrication et produits (Monographies Instrumentum 13). Autun: Mergoil.Google Scholar
Cochet, A. & Hansen, J.. 1986. Conduites et objets de plomb gallo-romains de Vienne (Isère) (Gallia supplement 46). Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Dessales, H. 2004. La distribution de l'eau dans l'architecture domestique de l'Occident romain (Pompéi, Herculanum, Ostie). Unpublished PhD dissertation, Université de Provence.Google Scholar
Dubuis, B. 2013. De la consommation au recyclage du plomb. L’étude des déchets de l'agglomération antique de Mathay-Mandeure Epomanduodurum (Doubs). Les Nouvelles de l'Archéologie 131: 39–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.4000/nda.1790 Google Scholar
Duvauchelle, A. & Monteix, N.. 2013. Comprendre la métallurgie du plomb. Un exemple pompéien. Les Nouvelles de l'Archéologie 131: 34–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.4000/nda.1787 Google Scholar
Fiches, J.L. & Rebière, J.. 2010. Caisson décoré et tuyaux de plomb découverts à Ambrussum: questions d'adduction d'eau dans l'agglomération routière. Revue Archéologique de Narbonnaise 43: 313–30.Google Scholar
Foucher, L. 1961. Inventaire des mosaïques de Sousse: feuille no 57 de l'Atlas archéologique. Tunis: Institut national d'archéologie et d'art.Google Scholar
Groot, M. 2011. Dealing with deposits in the Dutch River area: animals in settlement rituals in the Roman period, in Pluskowski, A. (ed.) The ritual killing and burial of animals: European perspectives: 137–51. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Kerenyi, K. 1974. The gods of the Greeks. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Lepetz, S. & Van Andringa, W. (ed.). 2008. Archéologie du sacrifice animal en Gaule romaine. Rituels et pratiques alimentaires. Autun: Mergoil.Google Scholar
Loiseau, C. 2009. Le métal dans l'architecture publique de l'ouest de la Gaule Lyonnaise. Approches méthodologiques, techniques de construction et structures de production (Ier–IIIe siècles après J.-C.) Unpublished PhD dissertation, Université du Maine.Google Scholar
Manderscheid, H. 2000. The water management of Greek and Roman baths, in Wikander, Ö. (ed.) Handbook of ancient water technology: 467–538. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Naveau, J. 1997. Les thermes du complexe fortifié, in Naveau, J. (ed.) Recherches sur Jublains (Mayenne) et sur la cité des Diablintes: 303–309. Rennes: Presses universitaires du Rennes.Google Scholar
Nielsen, I. 1993. Thermae and Balnea: the architecture and cultural history of Roman public baths. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Plommer, H. 1973. Vitruvius and later Roman building manuals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Romana Domus. 1933. VIII Congresso Internazionale delle Proprietà Edilizia. Roma, 14–19 Maggio 1933—XI. Roma: Federazione nazionale fascista della proprietà edilizia.Google Scholar
Yegül, F. 1995. Baths and bathing in Classical Antiquity. New York: Architectural History Foundation.Google Scholar
Yegül, F. 2010. Bathing in the Roman world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar