DOI Artikel:
Bunsch, Eryk: Four small votive altars from the Valetudinarium in Novae: remarks on execution technique
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41865#0079
Eryk Bunsch
Warsaw
FOUR SMALL VOTIVE ALTARS FROM THE
YALETUDINARIUM IN NOVAE.
REMARKS ON EXECUTION TECHNIQUE
In 1996, an Archaeological Expedition of Warsaw University under Dr. Piotr
Dyczek, working in the courtyard of the valetudinańum at Novae, discovered a
set of stone objects that were identified as smali votive altars. The site of the
discovery lay close to a smali tempie of Asclepios situated in the center of the
hospital courtyard.
These four objects of similar form and approximately the same size (their
height varies between 286 and 370 mm) are surprisingly dissimilar otherwise.
Two of them bear Latin dedicatory inscriptions carved in one of the surfaces of
the shaft. On the third there are only obliterated traces of some letters, while the
fourth revealed no traces of an inscription of any kind. After a comprehensive
analysis of the form, it has tumed out that the four altars are in reality two fin-
ished altars with carved inscriptions, one anepigraphic altar and one błock of
stone that could have become an altar had work on it not been inteirupted at an
early stage of the process. Unexpectedly, objects that were anticipated as testi-
mony of the fortunate healing of four men two thousand years ago tumed out to
be a visiting card of the stone-carving workshops operating in Novae.
An analysis of traces of tooling and kinds of surface texturing left on the
altars by ancient craftsmen in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD has revealed little
change in the techniąues of dressing stone manually over the past two millennia.
During this long period modifications of tool mounting, variations in weight and
differences in techniąue were dependent on regional factors and the tradition of
particular workshops. Significant changes are the result of the last few decades
of the 20th century and are due to the employment of mechanical eąuipment and
the introduction of technologically advanced materials, such as sintered Carbide
and diamond abrasives. But until a set of iron chisels with hardened edges re-
mained a stonecarver’s principal tool, the properties of stone imposed a certain
specific dressing seąuence.
The point of departure in the case of an altar was a błock of stone shaped
morę or less like a parallelepiped, slightly bigger than what the commissioned
votive object reąuired. The surface of such a błock of stone was leveled provi-
Warsaw
FOUR SMALL VOTIVE ALTARS FROM THE
YALETUDINARIUM IN NOVAE.
REMARKS ON EXECUTION TECHNIQUE
In 1996, an Archaeological Expedition of Warsaw University under Dr. Piotr
Dyczek, working in the courtyard of the valetudinańum at Novae, discovered a
set of stone objects that were identified as smali votive altars. The site of the
discovery lay close to a smali tempie of Asclepios situated in the center of the
hospital courtyard.
These four objects of similar form and approximately the same size (their
height varies between 286 and 370 mm) are surprisingly dissimilar otherwise.
Two of them bear Latin dedicatory inscriptions carved in one of the surfaces of
the shaft. On the third there are only obliterated traces of some letters, while the
fourth revealed no traces of an inscription of any kind. After a comprehensive
analysis of the form, it has tumed out that the four altars are in reality two fin-
ished altars with carved inscriptions, one anepigraphic altar and one błock of
stone that could have become an altar had work on it not been inteirupted at an
early stage of the process. Unexpectedly, objects that were anticipated as testi-
mony of the fortunate healing of four men two thousand years ago tumed out to
be a visiting card of the stone-carving workshops operating in Novae.
An analysis of traces of tooling and kinds of surface texturing left on the
altars by ancient craftsmen in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD has revealed little
change in the techniąues of dressing stone manually over the past two millennia.
During this long period modifications of tool mounting, variations in weight and
differences in techniąue were dependent on regional factors and the tradition of
particular workshops. Significant changes are the result of the last few decades
of the 20th century and are due to the employment of mechanical eąuipment and
the introduction of technologically advanced materials, such as sintered Carbide
and diamond abrasives. But until a set of iron chisels with hardened edges re-
mained a stonecarver’s principal tool, the properties of stone imposed a certain
specific dressing seąuence.
The point of departure in the case of an altar was a błock of stone shaped
morę or less like a parallelepiped, slightly bigger than what the commissioned
votive object reąuired. The surface of such a błock of stone was leveled provi-