Stone monuments and Stone Quarrying in the Carnuntum - Vindobona Area

The objective of this project proposal is the scientific recording and revision of Roman-period stone monuments from the CarnuntumVindobona area as well as their comprehensive analysis using an interdisciplinary approach. The recording focusses on cult-related monuments from the area surrounding Carnuntum; whereby defining the limitations of the area to be examined in an expedient way is one aim of the matter in question. The source material will compare the previously published evaluation of sacral and consecration monuments of the Carnuntum area (Corpus signorum imperii romani, Carnuntum Supplement 1) and the stone monuments from Vindobona. The core of this concept consists of two equal parts: on the one hand to develop, using the enhanced CSIR concept, the fullest possible state of historically significant monuments that have been both conservationally and scientifically neglected. The publication complements and is parallel to an image database that is under construction. On the other hand, historico-cultural value will be added to this source material by cross-linked research results from different disciplines and in comparison with other, already recognized monument groups. Innovative methods both in the humanities (archeology, ancient history, epigraphy, art, religion and cultural history), and in the natural and social sciences (facies and environmental investigations, geo-information and economic history) will be used. The development of a database for determining the provenance of local stone from the Vienna Basin and the Leitha area (Geodatabase) will be a major focus. Other new data will be developed through the analysis of ancient building stones and the localization of historic mining sites. This gives rise to emerging issues and questions such as workshop-, economic- and settlement-history or problems related to dating and the development of styles, among other things. Practical application of the results in the fields of restoration and museology is anticipated. The collaboration of individuals and institutions involved in the project, in addition to optimal professional expertise, will ensure accessibility to the necessary source material and existing databases. In this way significant amounts of knowledge and data resources from such institutions as the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Geological Survey of Austria, the Vienna University of Technology, the University of Vienna as well as the Archaeological Museum Carnuntinum and the Wien Museum will flow into this project. These may be well used for the development and treatment of new issues. Involving young professionals will make the development of longer-term research goals possible.

The main objective of the CarVin project was the recording and archaeological-geological analysis and evaluation of Roman stone monuments made of local and regional rocks from the Roman settlements of Carnuntum and Vindobona, the Vienna Basin and the Leitha region. Through the determination of provenance of the rocks used in antiquity, new insights were gained into the mechanisms of stone extraction and craftsmanship as well as into the history of settlements, transport, economy and culture in the investigated area. A significant advance in provenance determination of archaeological objects has been achieved through the geological small-scale differentiation of seven different quarry regions in the Leitha Mountains, the Hainburg Mountains and at the West rim of the Vienna Basin. The development of a simplified petro-graphic identification key for the macroscopic determination of rocks now enables the classification of relevant rock types. It emerged that about two thirds of the analysed monuments in Carnuntum are made of rocks from the Leitha region, one third being provided by the local quarries in the Hainburg Mountains. Also in Vindo-bona, about one third of the monuments used rocks from the Leitha Mountains, whereas two thirds were mined in quarries at the West rim of the Vienna Basin. In all relevant quarry regions, exploitation has been attested from the beginning of military presence in Carnuntum (since the middle of the 1st c. AD) respectively Vindobona (since the end of the 1st c. AD) up to late antiquity. The exploration of mining areas appears to have been carried out at an early stage, before the construction of the legionary fortresses. Military units transferred their knowledge about topography and raw material occurrences to subsequent units. Rocks from the Rust Hills are scarcely represented among the monuments of the investigated area and seem to occur frequently in more southern areas and towns such as Scarbantia/Sopron. Both in Carnuntum and in Vindobona, building material was preferably but not exclusively extracted in local quarry areas, whereas high-quality material for sculptures came mainly from the Leitha Mountains. The same pattern appears in the rural area in the hinterland. Some work-shops seem to have processed raw material or semi- finished products from different quarry regions. The analysis of possible transport routes shows that in the area of investigation, stone blocks were moved via the existing road network, which was probably enlarged and consolidated in the course of the regional development. As the different quarry regions were apparently exploited simultaneously, the determination of provenance of the rocks does not contribute to precise dating of the monuments. It gives however precious indications regarding the detection of forgeries, the restauration of objects and the re-use of material during the subsequent centuries.