Abstrakt
The bricks and the tiles were in the Roman age important building material not only in the civilian context but also in the military one. This technology was quickly spread from the capitol city to the provinces and subsequently beyond their boarders.
On Limes Romanus the building terracotta can be found mainly at camps and military stations. During the reign of Emperor Claudius the units started to stamp the material used for the constructions.
These stamps are the important source of information not only about their producer but might also reveal their origin and dating. The common research methods like the typology and the epigraphy have reached their limits.
The result of their application are hundreds of various types from which only the small percentage is dated. The high amount of finds and bad preservation are complicating the research even more.
Therefore it was necessary to develop new, more efficient method of classification. Morphometry may offer the solution.
The method is examining the shape of the objects and, in the case of the stamps, their dimensions. The principle is in their digitalization.
The stamp is covered with the set of points, then the coordinates for each point are extracted and compared. With appropriate combination of the documentation set with the software it was possible to achieve the accuracy of 0,25mm.
With such precision it is possible to identify which stamps came from the same die almost with certainty. It is also possible to identify some of the fragmentary pieces.
In the project the focus is on the production centre in Vindobona, which supplied the whole area on the Danube down to Brigetio. Thousands of bricks and tiles can be found in this area.
There is not only need to newly document these finds but also to create the database which will be accessible to other researchers. The objective is to combine this database with the morphometric analysis and therefore make the research more effective and simple.