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Tools and Techniques of the Roman Stonemason in Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

T. F. C. Blagg
T. F. C. Blagg
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, 31 Gordon Square, London W.C.1.
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Extract

The material upon which this study is based is the ornamented architectural stonework of Roman Britain. The decoration of architecture was an accepted feature of the way in which the Romans built, and is one which appears in Britain at all levels of achievement—in the comparative grandeur of the Corinthian capitals of the basilica at Silchester, in the neatly-turned columns which adorned such a villa as Great Witcombe (PL. XIX, A), and in the humble column-bases of the auxiliary fort at Housesteads.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 7 , November 1976 , pp. 152 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © T. F. C. Blagg 1976. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 I am grateful for their helpful comments and suggestions to Dr. J. B. Ward-Perkins and Mr. M. W. C. Hassall who read an earlier draft on which this paper is based, to Professor J. M. C. Toynbee and Miss Amanda Claridge, and to Mr. P. D. C. Brown who read the draft section on lathes; naturally, I take responsibility for surviving imperfections; I owe much to the encouragement of the late Professor D. E. Strong, under whom I began my research on Roman architectural ornament in Britain; and I thank the excavators, curators of museums and owners and custodians of sites who have generously made available to me the material in their care.

2 Fox, G. E. and Hope, W. H. St. John, Archaeologia liii (1893), 552 and pl. XXXVIII.Google Scholar

3 They have been considered by Manning, W. H., Non-Military Ironwork in Roman Britain (University of London unpublished Ph.D. thesis, 1969).Google Scholar

4 C. Bluemel, Griechische Bildhauerarbeit (JdI Ergänzungsheft xi, 1927), English translation, Greek Sculptors at Work (London, 1953)Google Scholar; Casson, S., The Technique of Early Greek Sculpture (Oxford, 1933); Adam (1966). Sources cited in abbreviated form in these footnotes are listed in full below, p. 171.Google Scholar

5 Deonna (1932); Lugli (1960).

6 E.g. a funeral monument erected by Pettia Ge for herself, her patron C. Pettius Pylades, C. Clodius Antiochus marm(orarus) and others (CIL xi, 961Google Scholar; Deonna (1932), 428 No. 6 and fig. 1 7). but cf. the tombstone of Aebutius Agatho, curator peculi reipublicae, sevir, nauta Araricus (CIL xii, 689, Arles) and commemorations of women and children.Google Scholar

7 Deonna (1932), 459.

8 Hatt, J. J., La Tombe Gallo-Romaine (Paris, 1951), 85–107.Google Scholar

9 Colchester (RIB 204), Lincoln (RIB 258) and York (Eburacum (1962), 124 No. 77) have each produced one tombstone with mason's tools. Six are known from Chester (Wright and Richmond (1955), Nos. 37, 61, 67, no, 112 and 151; fig. 3), of which one (No. 37 = RIB 491) has, with a mason's mallet and square, the inscription sub ascia d carved on its left-hand side, the only instance of this formula yet found in Britain. I do not include representations of axes on altars, where they are often associated with other sacrificial utensils and do not necessarily represent a mason's tool.

10 In particular, Adam (1966); Varène, P., Sur la Taille de la Pierre antique, médiévale et moderne (Dijon, 1974)Google Scholar, containing his detailed observations of the tools and techniques still used by two Provençal craftsmen; Richter, G. M. A., ‘The Drove’, AJA xlvii (1943), 188–193CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Martin, R., Manuel d'Architecture Grecque, i. Matériaux et Techniques (Paris, 1965).Google Scholar

11 Williams, J. H., Stone Building Materials in Roman Britain (University of Manchester unpublished M.A. thesis, Sept. 1968), considers the evidence for the organisation of quarrying and gives (pp. 20–21) a list of quarries of probable Roman date in Britain.Google Scholar

12 F. H. Thompson, Roman Cheshire (Chester, 1965), 52–53.

13 E.g. RIB 998–1016, 1442, 1946–1952.

14 AA4 xxxvi (1958), 313.Google Scholar

15 Ward-Perkins, J. B., ‘Quarrying in Antiquity; Technology, Tradition and Social Change’, Proc. Brit. Acad. lvii (1971).Google Scholar

16 That from Housesteads is in the Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Newstead: Curie, J., A Roman Frontier Post and its People: the Fort of Newstead (Glasgow, 1911), pl. LVIII.5. A pick is among the tools carved on the side of a Chester tombstone, Wright and Richmond (1955) No. 110 and fig. 3.Google Scholar

17 B. Champion, ‘Outils en Fer du Musée de Saint-Germain’, Rev. Arch. 5e, iii, pl. vi, Nos. 15863, 15863a and 15863b. Dr. Ward-Perkins tells me that there is an unpublished example of this tool in the museum at Turnovo in Bulgaria, found at the Trajanic quarries of Nicopolis ad Istrum.

18 See note 10.

19 As at Fishbourne: Cunliffe, B. W., Excavations at Fishbourne (Oxford, 1971), i, 59.Google Scholar

20 Dundee Museum; information from Professor J. J. Wilkes.

21 Lugli (1960), i, 220–1 and ii, tav. xxv.

22 Silchester: unpublished; Newstead: Curie, op. cit. (note 16), pl. LVIII, 12; Templeborough: T. May, The Roman Forts at Templeborough (Rotherham, 1922), 77, pl. XVII, 6.

23 Manning, op. cit. (note 3), gives additional examples.

34 Of numerous examples, the inscription from the governorship of Lollius Urbicus from Corbridge (RIB 1147) is a good one.

25 Lugli (1960), i, 220. The type is exemplified by the implement from Bull's Wharf in the City of London: British Museum, Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain (London, 1964), 53 and fig. 24.

26 Lincoln: RIB 258; Chester: Wright and Richmond (1955), 44 and fig. 3, No. 110.

27 Reading Museum. Illustrated by J. Evans, Archaeologia liv (1894), 148, fig. 13.

28 Adam (1966), 11.

29 Wright and Richmond (1955), 57.

30 Petch, D. F., J. Chester Archaeol. Soc. lvii (1970–1971), 14–15 and pl. V.Google Scholar

31 Richmond, I. A. and Webster, G., J. Chester Archaeol. Soc. xxxvii (1950), 35.Google Scholar

32 Ibid. 34.

33 Hope-Taylor, B., Under York Minster (Dean and Chapter of York, 1971), pl. 15.Google Scholar

34 RIB 1147.

35 Richmond and Webster, op. cit. (note 31), 21.

36 Richter, op. cit. (note 10).

38 Champion, op. cit (note 17) fig. 5, 15913 and 60956.

37 Adverse soil conditions might well cause the teeth to be corroded beyond recognition.

39 Corinium Museum, unpublished; information from Mr. David Viner.

40 Strong, D. E. in Cunliffe, B. W. (ed.), Fifth Report on the Excavations of the Roman Fort at Richborough, Kent (Oxford, 1968), on cornice and base mouldings (66, Nos. 12, 15 and 17) and fluted column casings (65 and 67, No. 19); pls. XIII, b and c, XIV, d and XVI, a.Google Scholar

41 I am grateful to Miss Amanda Claridge for this observation. It would appear to account for a provincial preference; Dr. Ward-Perkins tells me that it contrasts with the practice he has observed in Italy, Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, where marble was extensively used and where the claw's toolmarks are seen more often than those of the drove at equivalent stages of the dressing.

42 D. E. Strong in Cunliffe, op. cit. (note 19), ii, 14.

43 Casson, op. cit. (note 4), 193 and fig. 72. The edge of a small gouge is delicate and thin, which led Adam to deny that there was any reason why ancient sculptors should have used the tool; but this criticism has less force in the case of larger versions (such as are present in the Silchester collection, for example) and their use on softer stones than marble.

44 Adam (1966), 40 ff.

45 See note 42.

46 Roman Baths Museum, Bath. See Liversidge, J. in Rivet, A. L. F. (ed.), The Roman Villa in Britain (London, 1969), 157, fig. 4.10.Google Scholar

47 Eburaeum (1962), 112; the illustration (pl. XLVIII, no 9) does not, unfortunately, bring out this detail clearly.

48 Kenyon, K. M., Archaeologia lxxxiv (1934), 238 and pl. LXIV.Google Scholar

49 NH xxxvi, 90Google Scholar; Loeb translation, which adds ‘on the lathe’. The Latin, however, is not so specific: quarum in officina turbines ita librati pependerunt ut puero circumagente tornarentur. It is significant, though, that Pliny uses the same term for turning the utensils from the stone of Siphnos: tornaturque (NH xxxffi, 159).Google Scholar

50 Kretzschmer, F., Technik und Handwerk im Imperium Romanum (Düsseldorf, 1958).Google Scholar

51 Mutz, A., Die Kunst des Metalldrehens bei den Römern (Basel and Stuttgart, 1972).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

52 Pollard, S., Proc. Devon Archaeol. Soc. xxxii (1974), pl. XXIV.Google Scholar

53 Brodribb, C., Hands, A. R. and Walker, D. R., Excavations at Shakenoak ii (Oxford, 1971), 51–52, No. 18.Google Scholar

54 Vitruvius, De Architectura x, 2, 11, notes another use, for affixing attachments by which the columns of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus were drawn by oxen from the quarries, rolling along the ground; this ingenious device would seem to be exceptional.

55 Goodall, I. H., Yorks. Arch. J. xliv (1972), 32–37Google Scholar, considers examples from a number of sites; also, Brown, P. D. C., Cornish Arch. ix (1970), 107–110.Google Scholar

56 Braun, H., Parish Churches: their Architectural Development in England (London, 1970), 92–93. Mr. George Boon kindly told me about this source.Google Scholar

57 Mutz, op. cit. (note 51), 39, Bild 58.

58 Dodwell, C. R., Theophilus: De Diversis Artibus (London, 1961).Google Scholar

59 Wright and Richmond (1955), fig. 3, No. 61 (Annius Felix), Nos. 112 and 151.

60 Deonna (1932), fig. 5, 11 (Burnum), 12 (Carthage). Eburacum (1962), 124, mentions a mason's square and hammer (? mallet) on the tombstone of Flavia Augustina, No. 77. They also appear on one of the Chester tombstones: Wright and Richmond (1955), No. 37.

61 Wright and Richmond (1955), 32.

62 Susini, G., Il lapicida romano (Bologna, 1966)Google Scholar; English translation, The Roman Stonecutter (Oxford, 1973), 30 ff.Google Scholar

63 All unpublished; a drawing by Baddeley, W. St. Clair, TBGAS xxx (1907), 246, included one of the Great Witcombe bases, but there are inaccuracies of detail in the profile.Google Scholar

64 Kenyon, op. cit. (note 48), 221 and pl. LXVI.

65 Information from Mr. M. Biddle; cf. Antiq. Journ. lv (1975), 113.Google Scholar

66 Figured by Davey, N., Britannia iii (1972), figs. 8 and 9 (Leicester), 13 (York).Google Scholar

67 Frere, S. S., Antiq. Journ. xxxix (1959), 13.Google Scholar