Behind the Bricks and under the Roof Tiles: Stamped Roman Building Ceramics from the Legionary Camp at Novae in Light of Historical and Physico-Chemical Analysis

Abstract The article is devoted to stamped ceramic building material from the legionary fortress at Novae in Lower Moesia. It combines historical and epigraphic analysis with physicochemical analyses of selected bricks and roof tiles. The aim of the study was to assess whether laboratory analyses of ceramic fabrics can support the dating of stamps, the reconstruction of the organisation of military production, and the identification of relationships between legionary workshops and possible civilian producers. The study examined samples of roof tiles, bricks, and tegulae mammatae bearing stamps of legio I Italica, legio I Minervia, and legio XI Claudia, as well as name stamps C.ATON.MAG and ALBV. Chemical analysis by WD-XRF analysis and an abridged MGR analysis were applied, and the results obtained were compared with those of earlier studies of ceramic materials from Novae. The results indicate that selected artefacts bearing different variants of the stamps of legio I Italica have been made from the same ceramic body. This makes it possible to refine their chronology and associate them with the early Trajanic period. The analyses also confirm cooperation between legio I Italica and legio I Minervia within a shared system of raw-material supply. The involvement of legio XI Claudia, however, requires further verification on a larger number of samples, especially roof tiles.The analysis of the name stamps suggests that C.ATON.MAG and ALBV should be interpreted in the context of military rather than civilian production. The former is associated with legio I Italica, while the latter is linked to legio XI Claudia. The article demonstrates that laboratory analyses constitute an important supplement to archaeological, epigraphic, and typological studies. They enable a fuller reconstruction of the chronology, organisation of production, and distribution of Roman building materials from Novae.