Animal Footprints on Roman Tiles from Perge and Aizanoi

Abstract

For many years, tremendous interest has been reserved for the most beautiful, the largest, and the most spectacular of finds. This is especially true in the field of Classical archaeology. This has often resulted in an unfortunate disregard for other finds such as traces. Indeed every object from the past has valuable information to convey to us. The task of archaeologists is to examine the object at hand without prejudice. This study focuses on terracotta building materials with such traces. Examples from Perge and Aizanoi are analyzed from an ichnoarchaeological viewpoint, and interpretations regarding the environment and the economy of the relevant time period are offered on the basis of this analysis. The finds revealed that the environment surrounding the workshop area in Aizanoi was wider than the one in Perge. In this period, it is thought that Aizanoi had an open geography with little forestation and climatic conditions similar to current times.

Keywords

• ichnoarchaeology
• animal footprint
• brick
• tile
• Perge
• Aizanoi

References

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