Wetterauer goods

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Various forms of Wetterauer ware in the Archaeological Museum in Frankfurt .
Painted Wetterauer ware plate from the Salisberg fort , exhibited in the Steinheim Castle Museum in Hanau .
Wetterauer goods in the Saalburg Museum .

As Wetterauer goods (abbreviated often WW) is a ceramic referred to in the Roman Empire in the hinterland of the Limes in the southern Wetterau ( Civitas Taunensium ) was produced. Like the closely related Terra Sigillata (TS) widespread in the Roman world , it imitated metal vessels, but did not reach the technical standard of TS and was not widely used. It is considered a testimony to Romanization and adaptation to the Roman way of life in the border region of the Roman Empire .

Classification and exploration

The tableware, which is finer in contrast to everyday ceramics, usually had glossy clay coatings in the Roman Empire, which were made from finely washed clay . In addition to the Terra Sigillata, various marbled goods belong to the range of finds, especially in the vicinity of the legionary sites in Britain, Germania and the Danube region . Elisabeth Ettlinger coined the term legionary crockery or legionary ware for this type of ceramics based on the finds from Vindonissa in 1951 . Later studies from Great Britain and the Netherlands showed that this assignment is questionable.

The Wetterau goods, which are distributed regionally in the Rhine-Main area , have a special position within these goods in many ways. Compared to most marbled goods, it has a much wider range of shapes and a greater variety of decorations. The Wetterau goods were not limited to tableware, the potters also produced lamps, cult vessels, canteens, sieve vessels and funnels. The high quality of the goods may have contributed to the fact that they could not initially be distinguished from the Terra Sigillata - for example in the publication of the Saalburg by Louis Jacobi in 1897. In 1899, Georg Wolff recognized the temporally and spatially limited distribution of the characteristic thin-walled and painted vessels. It was not until Karl Bettermann's dissertation in 1934 that a more precise distinction was made between Wetterauer goods and local marbled goods. Bettermann's death in World War II prevented a planned reprocessing of the Wetterau goods.

During the post-war period, major construction work in the area around Frankfurt resulted in numerous new finds, including from the vici of Nida-Heddernheim and Heldenbergen , so there was no monograph on the typology of shapes and decorations. This only appeared in 1988 with Vera Rupp's dissertation and contained an investigation into the chemical composition of Roman ceramics from the Rhine-Main area.

Description and manufacturing technique

The color of the fired clay usually varies between orange-red and wine-red. Light brown or beige clays were only used in exceptional cases, mostly when a stronger contrast was wanted with coarse marbling. The coating was much more varied than with related goods and consisted of different shades of red, with the painted vessels also white and delicate pink. In contrast to the TS, the coating is much thicker. He does not appear shiny, but dull, probably by using a less finely elutriated and more viscous clay slurry was caused.

The production does not differ significantly from the TS production: unscrewing on the potter's wheel, pre-drying, subsequent turning and molding. The thin-walled vessels required a great deal of craftsmanship, especially in the last step. In the next step, decorations could be applied. Shaped bowls like those used in the production of the relief sigillata were used less often, apparently there were difficulties with the production. For the decorations, the potters made their own hallmarks , of which there are only a few finds instead of using molded TS hallmarks or models .

When applied with a sponge or brush, the glossy coating could appear either flamed or marbled. With the exception of a few thick-walled vessels, the Wetterauer goods are almost always very hard fired, as otherwise the coating would only stick with difficulty. At some sites the material is floury-soft due to unfavorable conservation conditions in the soil, the glossy coating then rubs off easily.

to form

175 different types of vessels are currently known from WW. While it used to be believed for a long time that the WW would be limited to tableware and lamps, funnels, sieve vessels, field and so-called “pilgrim bottles”, pots, lids, cult dishes and masks have been added to the finds. The production of cups, plates, bowls and bowls was the priority and dominated the range of shapes and found material. Different flat plates and bowls that can be put together to create combinations of place settings and service are conspicuously common. Hand washing sets were also part of the repertoire, but are only available in one form.

Direct imitations of TS forms are limited to a few forms in use at this time. Obviously, the potters did not try to copy metal vessels true to the original, but based the shapes and decor on their own skills and the taste of the customers. Apparently the pottery also did commissioned work. This includes a gladiator's mug from Langenhain , an athlete's mug from Heddernheim and a Mithric cult vessel from Mainz.

Ornaments

Common decorations are barbotine jewelry , chatter decoration , notch cuts, groove decorations or incised ornamentation . The sometimes exotic vessel shapes and decorations indicate an origin from Greek-influenced countries or Italy. The models for the decorations come from TS picture bowls, picture lamps, votive sheets and the vascular gothic . The barbotine decorations are similar to the so-called " hunting cups " of engobed goods , many chatter and notch decorations are common in other pottery.

Production and distribution

The place of manufacture of the Wetterau goods cannot be given with complete certainty, as there are no kiln finds with their contents or pottery waste. The provincial capital Mainz ( Mogontiacum ) or Nida-Heddernheim were therefore assumed . A model for a lamp from Wetterauer Ware has been found in Heddernheim. Such model finds are also available from the military brickworks in Frankfurt-Nied . Excavations on the brickworks site in 1961/62 yielded not only a special kind of utility ceramics but also a particularly large amount of Wetterau goods. It is therefore highly likely that the production site will be in Frankfurt-Nied . The chemical composition of the clays, which corresponds very precisely to the brickwork products there, also speaks in favor of Nied.

The Wetterau ware has been produced since the late Flavian period, the most technically accomplished pieces date from the 1st half of the 2nd century. The earliest finds are from the Hofheim stone fort , Bad Nauheim and the Salisberg fort near Hanau and can be dated around 100 AD. The end of production is more difficult to indicate. A collar bowl of the genus comes from the famous Heddernheim painter's grave ; Further finds from the Altenstadt fort (period 4) and an earth cellar from the vicus of the Ober-Florstadt fort show that it was still in use in the middle of the 2nd century. However, it no longer occurs in the stone fort of the Saalburg (around 135/139) and in period IIB in Heddernheim (after 140). It can therefore be assumed that production will end in the late Hadrian or early Cantonese period. The production time should have been around 30 to 40 years.

The distribution is limited to local markets such as Nida-Heddernheim, Wiesbaden and the Saalburg. In the forts of the Wetterau-Limes it seems to have had only a minor importance. In a civil context, it can be found in the holdings of many vici and villae rusticae in the Wetterau, the Rhine-Main area and today's southern Hesse. Individual finds are more likely to have reached more distant areas through their owner than through regular trade. This includes pieces from Nijmegen , Woerden , Heidelberg , Offenau and Heilbronn-Böckingen .

Due to the mostly thin-walled vessels, the finds are usually heavily fragmented. The Wetterau goods played no special role as grave goods, which is why the number of completely preserved vessels is very low. Around 2500 vessels had been found up to the publication of V. Rupp's dissertation in 1988, and since then a manageable number may have been added. Assuming that only 5-10% of the output of the pottery was found, the total production would be 25,000 to 50,000 vessels. Compared to the production of the large TS manufacturers, that is negligible. It can be assumed that WW specifically served the customer requirements of a local market. With the relocation of sigillata production to the large Rhineland manufacturers in Trier ( Augusta Treverorum ) and Rheinzabern ( Tabernae ) in the 2nd century AD, this market niche could have closed. Since little is known about the pottery, there may also be private reasons for the closure of the manufacture.

literature

  • Karl Bettermann: The painted ceramics of the early Roman Empire in Germania in the Rhineland. In: Saalburg-Jahrbuch 8, 1934, pp. 97–129.
  • Susanne Biegert: Roman pottery in the Wetterau. Frankfurt 1999, ISBN 3-88270-334-2 ( publications of the Frankfurt Museum for Pre- and Early History 15).
  • Ingeborg Huld-Zetsche : The Roman pheasant jug from Mainz. For figurative painting of Wetterauer goods. Krach, Mainz 1984, ISBN 9783874391061 ( Archaeological reports from Rheinhessen and the Bad Kreuznach district 2).
  • Ingeborg Huld-Zetsche in: Dietwulf Baatz and Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (eds.): The Romans in Hessen. 3. Edition. 1989. Licensed edition Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , pp. 285-288.
  • Karl Heinz Lenz : Fine ceramics. In: Thomas Fischer (Ed.): The Roman Provinces. An introduction to their archeology. Theiss-Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1591-X , pp. 290-293.
  • Vera Rupp : Wetterauer Ware - A Roman pottery in the Rhine-Main area. Frankfurt 1988, ISBN 3-7749-2317-5 ( writings of the Frankfurt Museum for Pre- and Early History 10).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elisabeth Ettlinger: Legionary Pottery from Vindonissa. In: Journal of Roman Studies 41, 1951, pp. 105–111.
  2. ^ Louis Jacobi: The Roman fort Saalburg near Homburg in front of the height. Homburg vor der Höhe 1897.
  3. ↑ Georg Wolff: Roman pottery in the Wetterau. In: Westdeutsche Zeitschrift 18, 1899, p. 219 .
  4. ↑ Karl Bettermann: The painted ceramics of the early Roman Empire in Germania in the Rhineland. In: Saalburg-Jahrbuch 8, 1934, pp. 97–129.
  5. ↑ Vera Rupp: Wetterauer Ware - A Roman pottery in the Rhine-Main area. Frankfurt 1988 (writings of the Frankfurt Museum for Pre- and Early History 10).
  6. ↑ Vera Rupp: Wetterauer Ware - A Roman pottery in the Rhine-Main area. Frankfurt 1988 ( Writings of the Frankfurt Museum for Pre- and Early History 10), p. 38, cat.-no. M 1.1, B 9.1 and N 1.1.
  7. ↑ Ingeborg Huld-Zetsche in: The Romans in Hessen. 1989, p. 288.
  8. ↑ Vera Rupp: Wetterauer Ware - A Roman pottery in the Rhine-Main area. Frankfurt 1988 (writings of the Frankfurt Museum for Pre- and Early History 10), pp. 23–28; Susanne Biegert: Roman pottery in the Wetterau. Frankfurt 1999 (Writings of the Frankfurt Museum for Prehistory and Early History 15), p. 101.
  9. ↑ Vera Rupp: Wetterauer Ware - A Roman pottery in the Rhine-Main area. Frankfurt 1988 (Writings of the Frankfurt Museum for Pre- and Early History 10), p. 27; Gerwulf Schneider: Chemical composition of Roman ceramics in the Rhine-Main area. In: Vera Rupp: Wetterauer Ware - A Roman pottery in the Rhine-Main area. Frankfurt 1988 (Writings of the Frankfurt Museum for Pre- and Early History 10), pp. 303–327.
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Czysz / Hans-Gert Bachmann: The grave of a Roman painter from Nida-Heddernheim. In: Germania 55, 1977, pp. 85-107.
  11. ↑ Vera Rupp: Wetterauer Ware - A Roman pottery in the Rhine-Main area. Frankfurt 1988 (Writings of the Frankfurt Museum for Pre- and Early History 10), pp. 54–57.
  12. ↑ Numbers according to Vera Rupp: Wetterauer Ware - A Roman pottery in the Rhine-Main area. Frankfurt 1988 ( Writings of the Frankfurt Museum for Prehistory and Early History 10), p. 40.
  13. ↑ Vera Rupp: Wetterauer Ware - A Roman pottery in the Rhine-Main area. Frankfurt 1988 ( Writings of the Frankfurt Museum for Pre- and Early History 10), p. 56f.