02-12-2007, 06:40 AM
Quote:Without seeing crosssection and publications about this castrum I 'll post few of mine thoughts.
- I see only differencies in colour ( tiles creating the merlons )
- Regarding building crews. THis is very specific kind of castrum wall since that it was built of bricks. I was considering if is it possible that civilian- building with bricks- experts built praetorian castrum in Rome(I dont know the word in english for common worker that builds with bricks)? There are two main parts in this wall that maybe need different kind of workers - foundation and wall courtain. I can not find any reason why you would change the crew when building the finishing part of the wall height - passageway with its merlons?
-regarding different colours of red bricks - different parts of structure behave differently through the centuries, especially regarding moisture-maybe this is why you observe different colours in lower and upper parts?
-in brick kiln do all the bricks have the same burning temperature achieved?
It isn't just bricks we are talking about here as this, like most of Rome, is made of brick-faced concrete (opus latericium). It is almost certainly civil brick manufactories providing the material (more than one?) and possibly even a civil labour force who would be more versed in building this stuff (would any emperor seriously have expected the Praetorians to do their own building work?!) but the basic building processes, working in gangs etc, would probably hold true.
Brick and tile do vary widely in colour when excavated. Most are shades of the usual red, but can range from black to yellow according to the conditions under which they are fired, so batches (fired at the same time in the same kiln) tend to be of the same colour. Of course, in the UK, we never excavate them in quite the quantity you see here!
Mike Bishop
