Roman quarries in Austria and Germany – a brief sight-seeing tour
That is the third of 4 articles on the quarries of the traditional world and later, and, particularly, the marble that was quarried there and the artworks comprised of it. The primary (Mining in Historic Greece and Rome) was revealed in Problem 41 of this journal and the second (Marble from the Isle of Paros – a tour of the traditional quarries) appeared in Problem 51.
The traditional strategies used
An vintage quarry is fascinating as a result of it’s a place the place uncooked materials for buildings and sculptural works was extracted to particular styles and sizes with the technical strategies of that point. The mining methods didn’t change very a lot from the earliest phases of human civilization till the tip of antiquity, despite the fact that the strategies used repeatedly improved over time. In historic Greece, single blocks of the stone had been separated by smashing a number of key holes into the rock wall, into which picket wedges had been pushed. After that, the wedges had been moistened, inflicting their growth and the cracking of the block alongside the road of holes. For a greater management of the rock fracture, lengthy groves had been carved into the blocks with iron instruments, into which key holes had been subsequently inserted. Alternatively, the blocks had been utterly break up off from the rock partitions by deep cuts within the rock after which separated from the bottom utilizing crowbars (Fig. 1).
Since archaic instances, rock saws have additionally been used. Within the Roman period, these instruments had been changed by so-called ‘pendulum saws’, with single blades measuring 6m in size. The reducing effectivity of the saws was elevated by utilizing quartz sand that was suspended in water and flushed into the groove.
Work on the uncooked materials mined within the quarry often began on the place from which it was extracted. That is indicated by the various semi-finished columns, capitals, obelisks and sculptures that may be discovered at a few of these websites. Probably the most well-known instance of a half-finished sculpture is the so-called Kouros of Naxos, which remains to be connected to its block. The primary purpose for the preliminary work on the rock being carried out within the quarry was the excessive price of renting transport, which turned less expensive after the removing of pointless rock ballast from the half-finished architectural items. Transport of the fabric away from the quarry was carried out utilizing carts or, within the case of very heavy items, on specifically produced slides. If the quarry was located close to the ocean or within the direct neighborhood of a river, transport of the fabric was ideally performed alongside the waterway.
Whereas in historic Greece, quarries had been typically within the possession of the state, within the Roman Republic, they largely handed into personal arms. Beneath Emperor Augustus, the founding father of the Roman Empire, most quarries got here again into public or imperial possession and had been managed by public servants or leased to entrepreneurs. Within the fourth century AD, Emperor Constantius, the daddy of Constantinus the Nice, once more tried to privatize the quarries, however had solely very marginal success.
For the heavy work together with the separation of large stone blocks, prisoners of struggle and slaves had been primarily used. Together with these folks, free craftsmen and troopers had been additionally used to extract and work the rocks. The primary rock varieties, which had been topic to in depth use in historic instances, included marble, limestone, granite, porphyry and sandstone.
Well-known Roman quarries in Austria
1) The lime-sandstone quarry in St Margarethen (Jap Austria)
The so-called ‘Roman quarry’ of St Margarethen is the oldest energetic place concerned within the extraction of rock in Austria. The limestone/sandstone uncovered on this quarry was already used for the constructing of the well-known imperial metropolis of Carnuntum 2,000 years in the past. Within the sixteenth century, the quarry attained supra-regional significance and got here into the possession of the well-known landowning Esterházy household. Presently and within the following centuries, the limestone/sandstone was primarily used for cathedrals and quite a few buildings constructed on the good highway that circled Vienna. In 2001, the quarry attained ‘World Cultural Heritage’ standing attributable to its immense cultural significance. These days, a 150,000m2 space of the quarry is used as an open-air museum, which is freely accessible to guests. Fossil finds, which had been made within the mine up to now centuries, are exhibited in a small museum. This exhibition corridor additionally accommodates quite a few sculptures made up to now few many years (Fig. 2).
2) The marble quarries within the county of Salzburg
South of the town of Salzburg, two well-known marble quarries had already achieved a noticeable significance in Roman instances. The primary one is the quarry on the northern flank of the ‘Untersberg’, a 1,800m-high mountain about 6km from the town, which is a well-liked vacationer attraction (Fig. three). Strictly talking, the marble extracted on this mine is simply a vivid and pure limestone, and the time period ‘marble’ was given to this rock primarily as a result of it was used as a sculptural and ornamental materials. Moreover, the stony materials may be lower and polished like regular marble. Geologically, the limestone of the ‘Untersberg’ is from the Higher Cretaceous (about 70 Ma), whose color varies from beige to pink and pink and, very hardly ever, yellow. Along with its use through the Roman period, the rock has been mined for the reason that early eighteenth century and is in very excessive demand even at this time.
The marble quarry of the village of Adnet, 15km south of Salzburg, was utilized by the Romans within the second and third centuries AD (Fig. four). The limestone uncovered on this mine was used for aid sculptures, buildings and likewise mosaics, a few of that are exhibited within the Salzburg Museum. Within the Center Ages, the rock nonetheless loved nice recognition and was used for (amongst different issues) sacral sculptures, columns and varied different monuments. Quite a few gothic masterpieces created by Veit Stoß, Tilman Riemenschneider and Niclaes Gerhaert van Leyden are composed of the limestone from right here, which was fashioned through the Mesozoic interval. Small quantities of hematite give the rock its typical pink color. Nevertheless, if the focus of limonite is enhanced, the limestone is characterised by a brownish to yellow color.
Well-known Roman quarries in Germany
1) The sandstone quarry of the Kriemhildenstuhl within the Rhenish Palatinate (Central Germany)
This well-known sandstone quarry is located close to the town of Unhealthy Dürkheim (Rhenish Palatinate) and was managed by the 22nd legion of the Roman military stationed in Mainz in 200 AD and the next many years. Mining exercise was continued till the center ages. Presently, the rock was primarily used for buildings and partitions (Fig. 5).
The semicircular quarry of the Kriemhildenstuhl turned well-known attributable to its whitish quartzitic sandstone, whose look is paying homage to a vivid marble. Mining of the rock was mainly carried out close to the plateau, as a result of at this place, the sandstone was solely coated by a skinny layer of earth. The stone blocks hauled within the quarry had a size between 1.2m and 3m, a width starting from zero.6m to 1.4m, and a top of zero.6m. In sure instances, capitols and rounded blocks supposed for columns had been additionally produced. The blocks had been transported to the valley on runners and log rolls.
2) The quartz-diorite of the Felsberg within the Odenwald (Central Germany)
The so-called ‘Felsenmeer’ within the German Odenwald represents a big deposit of rounded quartz-diorite blocks fashioned by so-called ‘wool-sack weathering’. On the base of this sediment, 15 workshops from the Roman period may be discovered. They include 300 unfinished or broken historic work items, which signify the primary sights for vacationers from all around the world (Fig. 6).
Some concluding remarks
The length of the Roman presence on this pure deposit is restricted to the second to fourth centuries AD. The ‘Felsenmeer’ is visited by 100,000 folks yearly, who primarily come to the deposit on the weekends. As we speak, it represents a so-called Natura 2000 space (that’s, a nature safety space within the European Union) on account of its historic and ecological significance.
Additional studying
Sturm, R.: Cameos from historic Greece and Rome: small however treasured treasures. Deposits Journal, 34, 44-46 (2013).
Sturm, R.: Tauern gold: the historical past of gold mining within the Central Alps. Deposits Journal, 37, 39-40 (2014).
Sturm, R.: Mining in historic Greece and Rome. Deposits Journal, 41, 43-45 (2015).
Sturm, R.: Marble from the Isle of Paros – a tour of the traditional quarries. Deposits Journal, 51, 48-49 (2017).
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