About this website
The Roman Pottery in the Tongeren reference collection from the 'Vlaams Instituut voor Onroerend Erfgoed' (VIOE) is the only collection of it's kind in the Dutch area. This reference collection is assembled, described and partly published by drs. Sonja Willems under supervision of drs. Alain Vanderhoeven: Willems, S. 2005, 'Romeins aardewerk in de Tongerse referentiecollectie: wrijfschalen en gewoon aardewerk' VIOE-rapporten 01. It forms the basis for the digital version; this website.|
This website is developed by drs. P. J. Boon for the scientific project; Reading Images In Cultural Heritage (RICH) and for the 'Nationale Referentie collectie' at the RACM.
The RICH project is part of the research programme 'Continuous Access to Cultural Heritage' (CATCH)
of The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
The main addition to the information from existing publication is the ability to inspect sherds with fresh breaks from different angles. For each ware in the collection a series of images of a rotating fragment has been acquired. The photography was performed by Hans Denis from the VIOE using the system developed by the RICH project. The setup being used is shown on the right. Some examples:
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The Collection information was extracted from: VIOE-RAPPORTEN 01, Roman Pottery in the Tongeren reference collection: mortaria and coarse wares, by Sonja Willems.
For more information about this publication; read the introduction below.
Introduction (from the printed version)
This booklet in the series of reports of the Institute for
the Flemish Heritage (VIOE, former IAP) about Roman
Pottery, is meant to serve as a practical handbook for
field archaeologists in Flanders wanting to study their
pottery beyond simple typology. The contents are
based on pottery research from Tongeren and Tienen,
extended by evidence from the rest of Flanders. The
first outlines of a reference collection for Flanders were
formed while studying the mortaria from the vicus of
Tienen in 1999-2000. This proces would not have been
possible without the help and knowledge of R. Brulet,
Fabienne Vilvorder and their colleagues at CRAN
(Université Catholique de Louvain) and my colleagues
at the Institute as well as the other Flemish and Dutch
archaeologists whose co-operation was indispensable
for the building up of the collection.
This first volume deals with part of the reference
collection, namely the mortaria and the coarse wares.
The essence of this work is formed by the photographs
of the fabrics and of the pots themselves, trying to give
a good overview of the pottery found in the löss region
of the Civitas Tungrorum and taking as an example the
National Roman Fabric Reference Collection in Great-
Britain. The research is far from complete and lome
fabric groups will almost certainly be subdivided into
different groups at a later stage. Only the fabrics that are
clearly defined are mentioned here, besides, up till now
most of the pottery has only been studied by means
of a binocular microscope, which has its limitations.
Though, we are convinced that one can get reasonably
far by only taking a good look at the sherds and by
handling them day in day out. Since this is meant to be
a handbook for archaeologists who have not more than
a binocular microscope, or a x20 lens at hand, if they
are lucky, chemical analysis and thin sections are not
our primary concern, although the information will be
given when it is available.
We would also like to address a word of thanks to
the following people: Bernd Liesen (Xanten), Constanze
Höpken (Cologne), Marion Bruggler (Jiilich), Guy
De Mulder (PAMZOV Velzeke), Wim De Clercq
(University Ghent), Yann Hellevoet (Heritage, Brussels),
Xavier Deru (University Lille 3), Harry Van Enckevort
and jan Thijssen (Nijmegen), Fabienne Vilvorder
(CRAN, UCL -Louvain-la-Neuve) and Marleen
Martens (VIDE, Tienen) for their useful comments. I
was also sustained and encouraged by an enthusiastic
team and I therefore thank Monique Vanvinckenroye,
Marc Coenen, Marijke Willaert and Betty Pauly for
the drawings, Hans Denis for taking the photographs
and Rob Vanschoubroek, Daisy Van Cotthem, Nele
van Gemert en Edwin Boeckxstaens for the lay-out and
design of this booklet. Also warm thanks to Robert Pitts
for the English corrections.
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