The project “Historic-archaeological and scientific investigations on the production of lead in the Roman Empire”, which was conducted from 2009-2015 as a cooperation of the Commission of Ancient History and Epigraphy of the German Archaeological Institute (Dr. Peter Rothenhöfer) and the Department of Archaeometallurgy of the German Mining Museum Bochum. First, a corpus of all Roman lead ingots from the 1^st century BC to the first half of the 5^th century AD was created, which contains about 3000 pieces in this time span. For recording of the material the database iDAI.field is used, in which all relevant epigraphical, scientific and archaeological information of the ingots can be found. The provenance of the lead was determined by the inscriptions and material analyses (lead isotopes and analysis of trace elements: Dr. Michael Bode); the exploitation of the lead deposits within the Roman Empire in its various provinces of the Mediterranean and the surrounding areas. The distribution of the important trading good lead surpassing the borders of provinces can be proven by large loads in shipwrecks and also single finds. New insights on the extraction of raw material, the distribution of metal, the organization of the Roman lead trade, and institutional mining are to be gained by this interdisciplinary research.

Supervision: Dr. Norbert Hanel

Cooperation:

• Commission of Ancient History and Epigraphy
• Department of Archaeometallurgy of the German Mining Museum Bochum

Funding:

• German Research Foundation (DFG)