Dr. Andreas Immenkamp

Reconstruction of the Roman military brick kiln excavated in Dormagen – experimental archaeology at the Lage Brickworks of the LWL Museum of Industry

»1 The kiln with the provisional protective roof after tempering

»2 According to a set scheme, a total of 18 NiCr-Ni thermocouples were distributed within the setting, on four levels

»3 View into the stoking channel of the kiln during firing, the provisional metal door was used as a heat shield to protect the kiln workers

»4 The firing cycle was recorded by Eon measurement technicians

»5 View of the kiln roof with some open flue gas holes

»6 Brushwood was constantly supplied to reach the required temperature

»7 Fired brick in the size 37 cm x 37 cm x 6 cm

In 2009, the LWL Museum of Industry devoted exhibitions at its Brickworks Museum in Lage to the topic of the Romans and Roman building ceramics. This marked the anniversary of the “Battle of Varus” 2000 years ago, which the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) commemorated with several special exhibitions. At the Brickworks Museum, an exhibition on Roman building ceramics was arranged, but focus of the year’s feature programme was the reconstruction of a Roman garrison brick kiln.

1 Objective

The objective of this project was to contribute to research into Roman firing techniques. For the first time a kiln was to be reconstructed on 1:1 scale and put into operation. The project provided a first opportunity to implement the archaeologists’ reconstruction theories in practice, so as to obtain reliable data on the production volumes, design and construction methods, firing cycles and capacity of Roman brick kilns.

2 Project

The basis of this project was excavated finds discovered by LVR archaeologists at the Overath site in 1964 and during later excavations in Dormagen in...