Holdeurn earthenware

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Holdeurner Earthenware ( Dutch Holdeurns aardewerk ; also called Nijmeegs aardewerk or Nijmeegs-Holdeurns aardewerk ) is a type of ceramic that was produced by Roman legionnaires in the first and second centuries AD of the Roman Empire in the area of ​​today's Dutch municipality of Berg en Dal .

Production site

Area of ​​the sites on the Holdeurn (status summer 2018)

Berg en Dal is a community merger of the formerly independent communities Groesbeek , Millingen am Rhein and Ubbergen in the province of Gelderland southeast of Nijmegen, which came about in 2015 . Holdeurn is one belonging to Groesbeek peasantry near the German-Dutch border. The sites are on the site of the former Holthurnschen Hof, a 19th century estate that is now a hotel-restaurant. Two of the sites are as imperial monuments designated a south, one north of Oude Kleefsebaan , one of Nijmegen to Kranenburg leading side street.

Findings and history

Extensive excavations between 1938 and 1942 uncovered a total of five large oval brick ovens, four pottery ovens and several smaller field ovens, as well as at least three buildings for drying and storing brick and ceramic products, cellars and workshops, as well as traces of residential buildings that could also indicate the existence of a villa rustica . The production facilities were in the north, the living areas in the south of the site. This area was subdivided by a stream that has now fallen dry, but in ancient times provided the necessary fresh water for production and residents. The excavations were under the direction of Jan Hendrik Holwerda and Wouter Cornelis Braat . The first publications on the finds and findings appeared in 1944 and 1946.

The production facilities were probably built in the early Flavian period by specialized work units of the Legio X Gemina , which had been stationed in the fort on the Hunnerberg in Noviomagus Batavorum since the year 71 AD . Even after the Legio X withdrew in 104, production continued, possibly through the vexillations that followed the Legion . Overall, the production of ceramics and bricks on the Holdeurn can be proven up to the reign of Severus Alexander (222–235).

Ceramics

Pitcher made of earthenware from Holdeurn with incised VERICCI inscription,
dating around 105–125
FO: Hunnerberg
AO: Museum Het Valkhof

The Holdeurner earthenware stands out primarily because of its orange to slightly yellowish color. Different categories can be differentiated on the basis of different qualities and surface properties.

Fine Holdeurner goods

The so-called fine Holdeurner earthenware is usually thin-walled, often polished or - similar to the terra sigillata - covered with a fine layer of glossy clay ( engobe ). In addition to the smooth-walled vessels, mostly plates, bowls or beakers, there are also different types of decorated ceramic shapes:

  • Lamps, jugs and crockery, which - not unlike Terra sigillata in this regard - were made using relief-forming molds.
  • Applied plastic decorative elements such as faces that were partially or wholly handmade.
  • Barbotine decor was mainly used on large bowls and mugs. The figurative elements vary from simple fronds and leaves to more complex depictions of animals. Sometimes the decoration consists of white clay slip , but usually the decoration is the same color as the actual vessel.
  • Some shapes mimic vessels that were usually made of metal or glass.

The quality of the terra sigillata coating was not achieved in any of the finds. Viscous engobes , such as are known from Wetterauer Ware, for example , do not occur either. It remains to be seen whether these two circumstances are due to a lack of manual skill and experience or the inferiority of the clay available on site, although the latter appears more plausible in view of the long production period.

Coarse-grained goods

The range of shapes of the coarse-grained, rough-walled goods is made up of pots, large bowls, crockery, jugs and Mortaria , like the comparable gray, coarse utility ceramics used throughout the empire , but sometimes has different edge profiles than the conventional material.

Transitional forms

The mass of the vessels that were produced on the Holdeurn is less coarse than the goods described last, but by no means reaches the quality of the fine Holdeurn earthenware. With the exception of the color, it is most likely to be compared with the smooth white ceramic that was in use almost everywhere during the last quarter of the first and the beginning of the second century.

brick

In addition to ceramics production, the production of bricks was naturally one of the main activities of the legionnaires assigned to the Holdeurn. In particular, the two tile shapes of the Tegulae and Imbrices , as well as various other tile shapes , were part of the product range.

distribution

Even the discoverers of the brick and pottery center in De Holdeurn, Holwerda and Braat had assumed that the Holdeurn earthenware would only be distributed locally. This assumption was confirmed by a recent re-evaluation of the excavation findings and finds. Thereafter, the distribution of this ceramic remains essentially limited to the camp on the Hunnerberg and the Canabae legionis , where it accounts for 19.6% and 21% of the ceramic finds, respectively. The fine earthenware could also be detected in Castra Herculis . However, it can only be found sporadically in the Batavian settlements in the area.

The bricks of the Legio X Gemina, on the other hand, could be detected by their stamps in the entire province of Germania inferior , from the North Sea coast up to Bonn.

presentation

In the entrance area of ​​the Holthurnschen Hof, a mini-exhibition was realized with artefacts from the holdings of the Gelders Archeologische Centrum (GAC) (German: Gelderland Archaeological Center). The finds presented there are complemented by photographs from the excavations at the end of the 1930s / beginning of the 1940s. In addition, a showcase in the form of a video time window was installed through which additional knowledge about the Roman production site is conveyed audiovisually.

literature

  • Lenneke Cuijpers: Romeinse potten - en pannenbakkerij op de Holdeurn . In: Paul van der Heijden: Grens van het Romeinse Rijk. De Limes in Gelderland . Matrijs, Utrecht 2016, ISBN 978-90-5345-327-8 , p. 109.
  • Jan Kees Haalebos and Jan RAM Thijssen: Some remarks on the legionary pottery ('Holdeurn ware') from Nijmegen . In: BL van Beek, RW Brandt, W. Groenman-van Waateringe (eds.): Ex Horreo . Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1977, pp. 101-113, ( digitized version ).
  • Jan Hendrik Holwerda : Het in de pottenbakkerij van de Holdeurn gefabriceerde aardewerk uit de Nijmeegsche grafvelden. Vol. 3, Brill Archive, Leiden 1944.
  • Jan Hendrik Holwerda and Wouter Cornelis Braat : De Holdeurn bij Berg en Dal. Centrum van pannenbakkerij en aardewerkindustrie in the Romeinschen tijd . Vol. 45, Brill Archive, Leiden 1946.
  • Petrus JJ Stuart: Gewoon aardewerk uit de Romeinse legerplaats en de bijbehorende Grafvelden . Brill, Leiden 1963, ( digitized version ).
  • Stephan Weiss-König: New investigations into fine ceramics from De Holdeurn . In: Bernd Liesen (Hrsg.): Roman ceramics in Lower Germany. Production - trade - use. Contributions to the conference of the Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautores . 21-26 September 2014, LVR-RömerMuseum in the Xanten Archaeological Park . Xantener reports 27, Von Zabern, Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-8053-4850-8 , pp. 137-174, ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Terrein Holdeurn, Groesbeek  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Images of Holdeurner Earthenware on the website Collectie Gelderland , an image database with more than 700,000 exhibits (Dutch), accessed on November 8, 2018

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official website of the Landgoed Hotel Holthurnsche Hof in Berg en Dal (Dutch, German), accessed on November 6, 2018.
  2. ↑ Rijksmonument 45420: Terrein waarin overblijfselen van een centrum voor vervaardiging van aardewerk en dakpannen in Groesbeek in Rijksmonumentenverzeichnis the Netherlands, accessed on November 6 2018th
  3. ↑ Rijksmonument 46057: Terrein waarin overblijfselen van een centrum voor vervaardiging van aardewerk en dakpannen in Berg en Dal in the Rijksmonumentenverzeichnis of the Netherlands, accessed on November 6, 2018.
  4. ↑ At 51 ° 49 ′ 0 ″  N , 5 ° 56 ′ 2.5 ″  E
  5. ↑ At 51 ° 48 '53 "  N , 5 ° 55' 54"  E
  6. ^ Jan Hendrik Holwerda: Het in de pottenbakkerij van de Holdeurn gefabriceerde aardewerk uit de Nijmeegsche grafvelden. Vol. 3 . Brill, Leiden 1944.
  7. ↑ Jan Hendrik Holwerda and Wouter Cornelius Braat: De Holdeurn bij Berg en Dal. Centrum van pannenbakkerij en aardewerkindustrie in the Romeinschen tijd . Vol. 45. Brill Archive, Leiden 1946.
  8. ↑ Jules Bogaers refers in this context, among other things, to a mortar with the incised inscription JG VIIII HIS, which was found on the Holdeurn. Julianus Egidius Bogaers: The occupation troops of the legionary camp of Nijmegen in the 2nd century AD In: Studies on the military borders of Rome. Lectures at the 6th international Limes Congress in southern Germany. Bonner Jahrbücher, supplements 19, Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1967, pp. 54–76, ( digitized version )
  9. ↑ a b c d Lenneke Cuijpers: Romeinse potten- en pannenbakkerij op de Holdeurn . In: Paul van der Heijden: Grens van het Romeinse Rijk. De Limes in Gelderland . Matrijs, Utrecht 2016, ISBN 978-90-5345-327-8 , p. 109.
  10. ↑ a b c d Jan Kees Haalebos and Jan RAM Thijssen: Some remarks on the legionary pottery ('Holdeurn ware') from Nijmegen . In: BL van Beek, RW Brandt, W. Groenman-van Waateringe (eds.): Ex Horreo . Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1977, pp. 101-113, ( digitized version ).
  11. ↑ a b Stephan Weiss-König: New studies on fine ceramics by De Holdeurn . In: Bernd Liesen (Hrsg.): Roman ceramics in Lower Germany. Production - trade - use. Contributions to the conference of the Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautores. 21-26 September 2014, LVR-RömerMuseum in the Xanten Archaeological Park . Xantener reports 27, Von Zabern, Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-8053-4850-8 , pp. 137-174, ( digitized version ).
  12. ↑ About the GAC on its website (Dutch), accessed on November 27, 2018.