Rituals, Rubbish and Retrieval: new approaches to Roman river finds

仪式、垃圾和检索：罗马河流发现的新方法

• 批准号: 527670139
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Eckhard Deschler-Erb
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Fachbereich III - Klassische Archäologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/527670139?language=en
• 关键词: Rituals; Rubbish; Retrieval; new; approaches

From Excalibur to the Nibelungen, objects thrown into water have exercised the poetic and popular imagination, and finds from wet contexts represent a major archaeological research theme. For the Roman period, progress has been hampered by both theoretical and methodological issues. Our project will bring together approaches taken by German scholars, who usually favour ‘rational’ explanations for Roman river finds (such as rubbish disposal or accidental loss) and British archaeologists, who generally lean towards votive deposition. Regarding previous work, there are regional overviews available for Germany but not for Britain, while the UK applicants recently produced the first publication of an entire riverine assemblage in direct comparison with finds from a nearby settlement, highlighting how deposition on land and in water varied. We will apply lessons learned at Piercebridge to one of the largest and most significant riverine assemblages in the Roman world at Trier, a major urban centre with a sequence of well-documented bridges. Thousands of objects were retrieved by private collectors during periods of low water (1970s-90s), but only the most spectacular were published, skewing interpretation. For Britain, we will produce the first overview of all riverine finds, exploring the impact of changing river channels, associations with river crossings and comparing selected assemblages to nearby material on land. We will further contextualize the riverine material by comparing it to finds in springs and bogs and to the distribution of attested water deities. We will explore differences in depositional practices between provinces, with British rivers, for example, producing far fewer weapons than German ones. Trier also provides an exceptional opportunity to examine, for the first time, the motives of collectors. For river finds of all periods, there is very little information on the circumstances of recovery and the finders. Archaeologists in Germany have long distrusted amateurs as some provide unreliable or even falsifying information but British archaeologists often work closely with detectorists, exploring their motivations and collection biases. No equivalent research has ever been conducted on the collectors of river finds. We have secured permissions from eight collectors to document their finds and record their practices and motivations. We will review the newspaper coverage of the 1970s ‘goldrush’ and compare it to the current boom in ‘mudlarking’ on the Thames. We see the theoretical and methodological differences in our training as sources of inspiration and innovation, and will develop a new, integrated methodological and theoretical framework to transform research on Roman river finds. The research will shed new light on ancient artefact deposition, votive practices and ritual engagement with past landscapes as well as produce a detailed social history of riverine collecting -findings relevant to all archaeological periods.

从王者之剑到尼伯伦根，被抛入水中的物品激发了诗意和通俗的想象力，从潮湿环境中发现的物品代表了一个主要的考古学研究主题。在罗马时期，进步一直受到理论和方法问题的阻碍。我们的项目将汇集德国学者和英国考古学家所采取的方法，前者通常倾向于对罗马河发现(如垃圾处理或意外损失)做出理性的解释，后者通常倾向于宣誓沉积。关于以前的工作，德国有区域概述，但英国没有，而英国申请者最近发布了第一份完整的河流组合与附近定居点发现的直接比较的出版物，突出了陆地和水中沉积的变化。我们将把在Piercebridge学到的经验应用到特里尔的罗马世界最大和最重要的河流集合之一，特里尔是一个主要的城市中心，有一系列有充分记录的桥梁。在低潮时期(20世纪70年代至90年代)，私人收藏家收回了数千件文物，但只出版了最壮观的作品，这是一种扭曲的解释。对于英国，我们将制作所有河流发现的第一份概览，探索改变河道的影响，与河流渡口的联系，并将选定的组合与陆地上附近的材料进行比较。我们将通过将其与在泉水和沼泽中发现的以及经证实的水神的分布进行比较，进一步将江河材料置于背景中。我们将探索各省之间沉积实践的差异，例如，不列颠河流生产的武器比德国河流少得多。特里尔还提供了一个难得的机会，第一次检查收藏家的动机。对于所有时期的河流发现，关于打捞情况和发现者的信息很少。长期以来，德国的考古学家一直不信任业余考古者，因为一些考古学家提供的信息不可靠，甚至是伪造的，但英国考古学家经常与探测器密切合作，探索他们的动机和收藏偏见。对于河流发现的收藏者，还没有进行过类似的研究。我们已经获得了8名收藏家的许可，可以记录他们的发现，并记录他们的做法和动机。我们将回顾报纸对20世纪70年代“黄金潮”的报道，并将其与目前泰晤士河上的“浑水”热潮进行比较。我们将培训中的理论和方法差异视为灵感和创新的源泉，并将开发一个新的、集成的方法和理论框架来转变对罗马河发现的研究。这项研究将为古代文物沉积、宗教仪式和与过去景观的接触提供新的线索，并产生一部详细的河流收集社会史--这些发现与所有考古时期有关。