Corpus informatisé d'estampilles sur mortiers : projet pour le Nord de la Gaule

Details

Supervisors

Coquelet, Catherine ; Willems, Sonja

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en histoire de l'art et archéologie, orientation générale, à finalité spécialisée: théories, gestion et sciences de l'archéologie

Abstract

enIf ceramic mortars, essential vessels in Roman cooking, are well known throughout the conquered territory, Northern Gaul has the particularity of counting a large number of rim-stamped examples. These marks generally mention a name, of Gallic or Roman origin, that of the potters who made them or the owner of the pottery; they may also be anepigraphic. The aim of this thesis is to examine the feasibility and relevance of the project to publish a systematic computerised inventory of these stamps, which would eventually allow us to understand the trade in these vessels, the organisation or even the identification of the workshops producing them. Through this survey, the census of the corpus and the criticism of computer tools dealing with ancient epigraphy, we have highlighted the successes and shortcomings of the scientific documentation available for the geographical region under consideration, the methodological biases caused by the survey techniques used in the latter, the problems encountered during the development of such undertakings, the ambitions of which sometimes exceed the means, and the need for cooperation between researchers. The observation of these successes and shortcomings has helped to build a method and a viable project.