Abstract
Research of building ceramics has a great importance for understanding the Roman building activity. Roman forts and civil buildings can provide a large amount of building material.
The material needs to be classified and dated, which is in many cases possible only with the stamp analysis. However, the current classification is mostly based on epigraphy, which is not accurate and creates too many stamp types.
Fortunately, majority of dies used for stamping were made of wood, making every die unique. That means if two stamps were made by the same die, they should have same dimensions, even if some parts are abraded and not readable.
The com-parison of those dimensions might be more effective in classification than standard approaches.In order to classify the stamps accurately, it was necessary to develop a new comparison system. The system was derived from morphometric analyses and involves computer application.
Data are extracted from the vertical photos of stamps and subsequently mathematically compared. Comparative criteria were developed specifically for the Roman stamped brick material.
The system can be applied on both completely preserved stamps and on fragments. In the case of complete stamps, the focus is on the dimensions of the edge.
In case of fragments, the comparison system is more complicated and takes into consideration proportions and po-sition of every preserved letter. The advantage of this system is, that three preserved letters are enough to reconstruct the rest of the stamp.
The presented case study involves analyses of material from Mušov-Burgstall and ancient Vindobona (Vienna). The results show that current typological sorting can be incorrect.
In fact, stamps separated into several types by traditional methods proved to come from one die.