The Stone Finds from Magdalensberg

The present project deals with stonemasonry in the Roman settlement on Magdalensberg Mountain and contributes to basic research. Being a temporally and spatially limited find complex and having a history of settlement of about 70 up to 80 years, the Magdalensberg settlement provides excellent preconditions for research on stone processing during the early Roman period of Southern Noricum. Representative single objects have been the main focus of archaeological stone research during the excavation, which has been conducted for about 60 years. As a consequence, the broad range of objects and types of finds made of stone in the Magdalensberg settlement will be categorised and scientifically examined for the first time now. Typologically, the approximately 2000 finds can be classified as architectural fragments, round sculptures, inscriptions/reliefs and objects of everyday life; an unspecified volume of building stones has been found as well. The foundations that the investigations will be based on are the creation of a diverse and fine-typologically defined basis of material, the attribution of finds to individual building complexes and building phases, and geological research to identify the rocks used and to analyse the related provenance of rocks. Interdisciplinary approaches allow for a wider range of points of view on research questions. The objective of the project is to take a closer look at ancient stonemasonry from the mining process to the finished objects, referring to Magdalensberg as a case example. Fields of interest apart from locating the sites of local, regional and possible over-regional quarries are mining techniques and transport. A further issue is to verify the existence of individual workshops of sculptors and stonemasons and to locate their positions within the area of settlement. Still another point of vital importance are stylistic and iconographic comparisons with objects from Northern Italy, as well as analogies between features of marble and stone in comparison to later Municipia in Noricum, in particular Virunum, the follow-up settlement on Magdalensberg. The correlations in the different fields of stone processing make it possible to draw conclusions regarding social, religious and economic aspects of everyday life in Noricum during its early Roman period. Moreover, the project will serve as a basic contribution to Austrian as well as international research on stonemasonry in Roman provinces.

Being carried out by a combination of archaeological investigations and geological methods for identifying types of rock as well as practical sculptural know-how and expert knowledge about the ancient world, the recording of the stone monument finds from Mount Magdalensberg in Carinthia, Austria (3600 stone finds excavated from 1948 to 2011) and their evaluation serve as the basis for the monograph attending to said stone finds. At a first glance, the monograph might appear to be the ending point for the research on Roman provincial stone processing on Mount Magdalensberg while, in fact, it does not only set new methodical standards for academic work on finds from older excavations, but also highlights the cultural and historical importance of non-architectural stone artefacts, which were considered insignificant in research until recently, for tracing the urban development of central provincial settlements.This means that the diverse range of stone objects and different types of stone finds from the settlement on Mount Magdalensberg has been catalogued, categorised and been subjected to scientific research for the first time, thereby constituting an example for similar research in the future.The foundation for the investigations is comprised of the creation of a diverse and fine-typological basis of material, the attributing of finds to individual complexes of buildings and building phases, and a geological identification of the rock material used for the respective finds in order to learn more about the provenience of local and imported types of rock.According to the projects results, the stone processing in the town on Mount Magdalensberg has been defined as a Hellenistic-Roman Mediterranean line of production covering the whole process from first access to the raw materials to the manufacturing in at least one specialist business in a central location. The level of workmanship in this business was approximately equal to its counterparts in the large cities of Upper Italy, and the product range included the entire scope of known stonemasonry products during the era of the early Roman Emperors, so the town was self-sufficient in virtually all stone objects from make-up pallets to tombstones. The only objects from specialist workshops with shorter temporal stays in town are parts for large architectural building projects. Taken as a whole, the project on the stone finds from Mount Magdalensberg is not only a basic contribution to Austrian and international research on Roman provincial stonemasonry, providing interdisciplinary scientific investigations of the stone finds from the town on Mount Magdalensberg, but compiles comprehensive knowledge about a Julio-Claudian stonemasons workshop in an urban setting in Upper Italy for the first time. The findings are exemplary in nature and restricted to a clearly defined period of time.