Alfred Michael Hirt - Imperial Mines and Quarries in the Roman World: Organizational Aspects 27 BC-AD 235

OXFORD CLASSICAL MONOGRAPHS

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Organizational Aspects 27 BCAD 235

ALFRED MICHAEL HIRT

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

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Alfred Michael Hirt 2010

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First published 2010

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Fr Mueter u Vater, Gotte u Gtti, fr e Michael u dr Heinz

Roman mines and quarries have emerged in recent years as a topic of study by scholars interested in the Roman economy. Archaeologists in particular have directed their attention to specific mining sites like Las Mdulas, Roia Montan, and Dolaucothi, or offered detailed analysis of quarrying sites such as Gebel Dokhan, Gebel Fatirah, or Chemtou. These archaeological studies set aside, numerous finds of Latin and Greek inscriptions on stone monuments, quarried items, ingots, or bronze tablets, as well as writing tablets, ostraca, and papyri provide additional insights but have been published disparately. The main aim of this study is to unite the various snippets of information with respect to their archaeological and historical context in order to gain an overview of various aspects of the internal organization of mining and quarrying ventures under imperial control and their place within the administrative framework of the Roman empire.

An initial version of this study was submitted as a DPhil thesis at Oxford University in 2004. The thesis as a whole was reworked in the following years in order to include additional material and completed in late 2007. The study owes much to numerous discussions with Michael A. Speidel who freely shared his profound insights into the workings of the Roman empire; and to Heinz E. Herzig who at the University of Berne created the ideal academic environment and supported this endeavour from the beginning. At Oxford, my supervisor Andrew Wilson pointed the reluctant ancient historian towards the relevancy of the archaeological data and offered superb advice on many of its aspects. Many more at Oxford contributed (knowingly or not) to the genesis of this study. Alan Bowman and David Mattingly provided helpful comments on the thesis and encouraged publication of the work, Alan taking on the timeconsuming task of correcting a draft version. Further thanks must go to J. J. Coulton and Nicholas Purcell, Bill Leadbetter, Adam Blow-Jacobsen, Michael Crawford, Peter Herz, Stefanie Martin-Kilcher, for advice and bits and pieces of helpful information. Caillan Davenport, Caroline Brehaut, Charlotte Walden, Lesley Cousins, and, last but not least, Oskar Kaelin, read the texts at different stages and improved it by eradicating various remnants of my Helvetic syntax. Galina Rusak and Colin Hughes helped me with the index and Kathleen Fearn and Abigail Coulson at OUP turned the submitted text into the typescript presented here. Any remaining mistakes are of course mine. Adam Blow-Jacobsens Mons Claudianus Ostraca graeca et latina IV (2009) was published too late to be included in this survey.

My stay at Oxford was made possible by generous grants by the Swiss National Fund, the Janggen-Pehn Stiftung in St Gallen, Switzerland, the Krmn-Stiftung of the University of Berne, Switzerland.

Finally, I would wish to thank my parents, the extended Hirt-Bolliger clan, and my friends who endured my gravamina and offered their encouragement and support.

A.M.H.

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