DOI article:
Bunsch, Eryk: Four small votive altars from the Valetudinarium in Novae: remarks on execution technique
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41865#0080
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sionally using mallets, pointed and toothed chisels. Transport of stones prepared
in this way was appreciably easier, especially in the case of blocks imported
from far away. This preliminary dressing also revealed possible flaws in the stone,
e.g. calcite veins of greater hardness. In the workshop the stonecutter used a
toothed chisel to smoothen the lateral surfaces of the błock, making surę that
adjacent sides formed right angels.
Just below the boundary of crumbling caused during the preliminary stage of
dressing in the ąuarry and during transport, the stonecutter marked a horizontal
linę that was perpendicular to the side edges of the błock. Another linę, parallel
to the first, was traced in the bottom part of the błock. The space between the
two lines eąualed the total height of the intended altar. The stone materiał out-
side these two lines had to be removed. In order to have an even edge, a fiat
chisel was used to carve a groove. Excess stone was then broken away and the
upper and łower surfaces leveled with a toothed chisel. The result of this work
was a parallelepiped with a rectangular or sąuare base.
The next stage reąuired the height of the base and the crowning element to
be determined. These two elements had to contain the molding, acroteria and the
focus. Once these horizontal lines had been traced, excess materiał between them
was removed to a depth imposed by the dimensions of the incipient altar. At this
stage of the proccess any relief decoration on the lateral surfaces of the altar
shaft was also produced.
The junction between the base and top of the altar and its shaft was cut with
a toothed chisel, initially as a fiat band. Sometimes this band was left fiat, at
other times it was additionally molded using fiat narrow chisels, occasionally
with rounded comers of the cutting edge. The most freąuently employed mold-
ing was a combination of fillets, half-round and throat molding and cyma.
Further work was carried out with the help of narrow toothed chisels and fiat
chisels. The objective now was to sculpt the top of the altar, including the acro-
teria and focus.
In some cases, the sides of the altar meant to be viewed were additionally
polished.
The last phase in the percussive stage of stone dressing, occasionally done by
someone else, was the carving of the inscription in the epigraphic field.
This is in brief the typical production seąuence of a stone votive altar. It should
be noted, however, that each of the four objects here discussed has certain char-
acteristic features that distinguish it from the others and depart from the manu-
facturing scheme presented above.
The votive altar “AESCLA /PO-ET HI / GIAE-(...) ”*, which is 286 mm high,
* I have not included the reading of particular inscriptions. Both were analyzed by Jerzy
Kolendo [in:] Inscriptions en 1’honneur d’Esculape et d’Hygie du valetudinarium de Novae,
Archeologia 49, Warsaw 1998, 55-71.
sionally using mallets, pointed and toothed chisels. Transport of stones prepared
in this way was appreciably easier, especially in the case of blocks imported
from far away. This preliminary dressing also revealed possible flaws in the stone,
e.g. calcite veins of greater hardness. In the workshop the stonecutter used a
toothed chisel to smoothen the lateral surfaces of the błock, making surę that
adjacent sides formed right angels.
Just below the boundary of crumbling caused during the preliminary stage of
dressing in the ąuarry and during transport, the stonecutter marked a horizontal
linę that was perpendicular to the side edges of the błock. Another linę, parallel
to the first, was traced in the bottom part of the błock. The space between the
two lines eąualed the total height of the intended altar. The stone materiał out-
side these two lines had to be removed. In order to have an even edge, a fiat
chisel was used to carve a groove. Excess stone was then broken away and the
upper and łower surfaces leveled with a toothed chisel. The result of this work
was a parallelepiped with a rectangular or sąuare base.
The next stage reąuired the height of the base and the crowning element to
be determined. These two elements had to contain the molding, acroteria and the
focus. Once these horizontal lines had been traced, excess materiał between them
was removed to a depth imposed by the dimensions of the incipient altar. At this
stage of the proccess any relief decoration on the lateral surfaces of the altar
shaft was also produced.
The junction between the base and top of the altar and its shaft was cut with
a toothed chisel, initially as a fiat band. Sometimes this band was left fiat, at
other times it was additionally molded using fiat narrow chisels, occasionally
with rounded comers of the cutting edge. The most freąuently employed mold-
ing was a combination of fillets, half-round and throat molding and cyma.
Further work was carried out with the help of narrow toothed chisels and fiat
chisels. The objective now was to sculpt the top of the altar, including the acro-
teria and focus.
In some cases, the sides of the altar meant to be viewed were additionally
polished.
The last phase in the percussive stage of stone dressing, occasionally done by
someone else, was the carving of the inscription in the epigraphic field.
This is in brief the typical production seąuence of a stone votive altar. It should
be noted, however, that each of the four objects here discussed has certain char-
acteristic features that distinguish it from the others and depart from the manu-
facturing scheme presented above.
The votive altar “AESCLA /PO-ET HI / GIAE-(...) ”*, which is 286 mm high,
* I have not included the reading of particular inscriptions. Both were analyzed by Jerzy
Kolendo [in:] Inscriptions en 1’honneur d’Esculape et d’Hygie du valetudinarium de Novae,
Archeologia 49, Warsaw 1998, 55-71.