Rituals, Rubbish and Retrieval: new approaches to Roman river finds

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Eckhard Deschler-Erb; Dr. Ferdinand Daniel Heimerl
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology ; Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 527670139

From Excalibur to the Nibelungen, objects thrown into water have exercised the poetic and popular imagination, and finds from wet contexts represent a major archaeological research theme. For the Roman period, progress has been hampered by both theoretical and methodological issues. Our project will bring together approaches taken by German scholars, who usually favour ‘rational’ explanations for Roman river finds (such as rubbish disposal or accidental loss) and British archaeologists, who generally lean towards votive deposition. Regarding previous work, there are regional overviews available for Germany but not for Britain, while the UK applicants recently produced the first publication of an entire riverine assemblage in direct comparison with finds from a nearby settlement, highlighting how deposition on land and in water varied. We will apply lessons learned at Piercebridge to one of the largest and most significant riverine assemblages in the Roman world at Trier, a major urban centre with a sequence of well-documented bridges. Thousands of objects were retrieved by private collectors during periods of low water (1970s-90s), but only the most spectacular were published, skewing interpretation. For Britain, we will produce the first overview of all riverine finds, exploring the impact of changing river channels, associations with river crossings and comparing selected assemblages to nearby material on land. We will further contextualize the riverine material by comparing it to finds in springs and bogs and to the distribution of attested water deities. We will explore differences in depositional practices between provinces, with British rivers, for example, producing far fewer weapons than German ones. Trier also provides an exceptional opportunity to examine, for the first time, the motives of collectors. For river finds of all periods, there is very little information on the circumstances of recovery and the finders. Archaeologists in Germany have long distrusted amateurs as some provide unreliable or even falsifying information but British archaeologists often work closely with detectorists, exploring their motivations and collection biases. No equivalent research has ever been conducted on the collectors of river finds. We have secured permissions from eight collectors to document their finds and record their practices and motivations. We will review the newspaper coverage of the 1970s ‘goldrush’ and compare it to the current boom in ‘mudlarking’ on the Thames. We see the theoretical and methodological differences in our training as sources of inspiration and innovation, and will develop a new, integrated methodological and theoretical framework to transform research on Roman river finds. The research will shed new light on ancient artefact deposition, votive practices and ritual engagement with past landscapes as well as produce a detailed social history of riverine collecting -findings relevant to all archaeological periods.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Partner Organisation: Arts and Humanities Research Council
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Hella Eckardt