Abstract:

This publication – Supplying the Roman Empire – is the fourth volume of the LIMES XXV’s congress proceedings and deals with various aspects of the supply and provisioning of the Roman empire, and the role of the Roman armies housed on its fringes herein. The result is a wide-ranging collection of papers dealing with topics such as: finds of organic material; riverine and maritime supply and security; militarily controlled mining; building material procurement and processing; agro-political schemes and water management; military material culture. The proceedings are all arranged around the original sessions, trying to create coherent thematical collections that make the vast output more accessible to generalists and specialists alike.

Frontiers are zones, or lines, of contact and coercion, of exchange and exclusion. As such they often express some of the most typical elements of the socio-political spaces that are defined by them. Spanning some 6,000 km along rivers, mountain ranges, artificial barriers and fringes of semi-desert, the frontiers of the Roman empire offer a wide variety of avenues and topics for a very diverse community of scholars. They are the central subject of the International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies (or just Limes Congress after the Latin word for ‘border’), organised every three years since 1949. This four-volume publication contains most of the papers presented at the 25th edition which was hosted by the municipality of Nijmegen in August 2022.

Find all four volumes of the LIMES XXV Proceedings here.

About the editors

Dr. Harry van Enckevort has been researching the (Roman) past of Nijmegen as an archaeologist since 1990. The first years he worked for the State Service for Archaeological Investigations in the Netherlands (ROB), then for the municipality of Nijmegen, and since the end of 2022 as an independent researcher.

Dr.ir. Mark Driessen, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Archaeology – Leiden University (2011-now); Udhruh Archaeological Project (2011-now).

Erik P. Graafstal (MA), Municipal archaeologist and Director of Museum Hoge Woerd, Utrecht.

Tom Hazenberg (MA), independent archeologist for Hazenberg Archeologie & Coordinator Research and Preservation for the Dutch Limes Association; Project Restoration Collection Roman Ships of Zwammerdam and development of the National Roman Maritime Museum at Museumpark Archeon (2010 – now).

Dr. Tatiana Ivleva is Visiting Research Fellow at Newcastle University (UK).

Dr. Carol van Driel-Murray, Formerly lecturer Provincial Roman Archaeology, Faculty of Archaeology, University of Leiden (retired).

Contents

Preface

Who were the Logisticians? Dispensatores, imperial agents supplying the army
Stephen R. Matthews

Part 1. Organic riches. The impact of organic resources on frontier research

Organic riches. The contribution of organic materials to the understanding of frontier dynamics
Carol van Driel-Murray

An integrated study of organic archaeological environments at Vindolanda. A case-study from the 2nd-century extramural settlement
Elizabeth M. Greene and Barbara Birley

From tree to post. Logistics and organisation around infrastructural works in the Lower Germanic Limes
Silke Lange

Wood, Craft, and People. The potential and challenges of wooden objects from Roman contexts
Rob Sands

Em)bedding the Romans. Rare fragments of a Roman bed in the extra-mural settlement of Marktveld-Weerdkampen, Valkenburg, Zuid-Holland (the Netherlands)
Tamara J.J. Vernimmen, Stephan T.A.M. Mols, Jeroen Loopik and Wouter K. Vos

As good as new? A remarkable find of wooden roof-shingles from Houten, the Netherlands
Ivo Vossen, Tamara J.J. Vernimmen and Sjoerd van Daalen

Part 2. ‘Ripae et litora’. Supply and security on the riverine and coastal edges of the Roman Empire

The River Main (Hesse/Germany) as route of military supply. New archaeological and geoarchaeological research
Thomas Becker, Andreas Vött, Lea Obrocki and Anna-Lena Dixius

The castra Velsen 2
Arjen V.A.J. Bosman

The Roman sea frontier along the Channel and North Sea. Development, nature, tactics, and strategy
Wouter Dhaeze

Were there any repairs to the Rhine bridge Colonia Agrippina. Divitia at the end of the 4th century AD under the magister militum Arbogast the Elder? Dendrochronological data and historical classification
Norbert Hanel and Thomas Frank

Investigating Corbulo’s Canal. A situation report
Wilfried A.M. Hessing

Prisoners of ethno-geography. Transnational dynamics of warfare between Late Iron Age Ireland and the Roman frontier in Britain, 122-163 AD
Al McCluskey

When’s a fleet a fleet? Classes and legions on the water
Christoph Rummel

Defending dunes. Details of the Antonine coastal limes between Rhine and Meuse
Jeroen van Zoolingen

Securing transport of wood over water on the Roman Rhine
Ronald M. Visser

Part 3. Rome’s hunger for metals. Roman mining in and outside the provinces and the part of the Roman military

Roman army and mining
Markus Scholz

Under the eyes of the Roman army. Early imperial mining on the Lower Lahn river (D)
Frederic Auth, Daniel Burger-Völlmecke, Peter Henrich and Markus Scholz

Casting the smith in a new light. Using social theories of technology to understand of Roman military metalworking
Amy J. Baker

A new Roman camp north of the Lower German Limes at Ermelo (The Netherlands)
Mark Driessen and Wouter Verschoof-van der Vaart

The Roman army in the Oriental Pyrenees (2nd-1st century BC). Territorial control and management of provincial resources in the High Lands
Oriol Olesti Vila, Joan Oller Guzmán and Jordi Morera Camprubí

Von Bergleuten, Händlern und römischem Militär im Lahntal (D)
Gabriele Rasbach

Part 4. Brickyards and limes kilns of the Roman army

The brickyards of Legio IIII Flavia Felix in Dacia in the early 2nd century AD
Alexandru Flutur

The newly excavated brick and tile kiln in the Vindolanda North Field
Craig A. Harvey and Elizabeth M. Greene

The Saalburg Tile Kiln Project. Making Roman ceramic building materials the whole way
Rüdiger Schwarz

The lime kilns of Legio II Italica in Lauriacum/Enns (Noricum)
Stefan Traxler, Felix Lang, Herbert Böhm and Gerald Grabherr

Part 5. Water and agriculture

The aqueduct of Noviomagus
Paul M. Kessener

Material traces of viticulture in Southern Pannonia
Jana Kopáčková and Hana Ivezić

The Chesters road bridge and wharf on Hadrian’s Wall
Ian Longhurst

Organization of the water supply for the Trajanic frontier fort in the Nabataean settlement of Hawara (Southern Jordan)
John Peter Oleson and Craig A. Harvey

Vessels with the handle above the opening from Lower Pannonia and Upper Moesia
Ivana Ožanić Roguljić and Angelina Raičković Savić

Irrigating the land, provisioning the caravans. Water decline and military settlement at el-Deir (Kharga Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt), 3rd-5th century AD
Gaëlle Tallet and Jean-Paul Bravard

Erd-Reich – Earthen Empire. Eine Übersicht zu neuen, geoarchäologischen Untersuchungen zum Rasensodenbau am römischen Limes
Tanja Romankiewicz, Ben Russell, Christopher T.S. Beckett, J. Riley Snyder and Rose Ferraby

Part 6. Small finds everywhere

Water and control along the later Roman Empire’s south-eastern border
Walter D. Ward

The Jets vs. the Sharks, a story from the west side of Vindonissa. Comparison of two brooch assemblages from the civil settlement West
Hannes Flück

New insights into the distribution of Roman metal finds in the Netherlands with PAN
Stefanie Hoss

Rittium – Surduk
Hana Ivezić and Jana Kopáčková

Hier auch! Webgewichte in den Legionslagern Neuss und Bonn
Tünde Kaszab-Olschewski

Military small finds from Castra Ad Fluvium Frigidum (Slovenia)
Ana R. Kovačič and Maruša Urek

Militaria in the Cantabrian Wars. The Carisa axis of operations. The cases of Ḷḷagüezos and A Cuaña
Esperanza Martín Hernández

The Roman army on the Rhine and the monetization of the rural hinterland
Rahel Otte

Military equipment and horse gear from the Nijmegen castra and canabae legionis
Vincent van der Veen

Semi-rigid scale armour. Characteristics, dating and distribution of a Roman body armour
Martijn A. Wijnhoven

Military artefacts in the civil province of Britannia. A case study: Trompetenmuster mounts
Edwin Wood