Mario Bloier | Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (original) (raw)

Books by Mario Bloier

"In publishing all finds and findings from the 1996/1997 underwater investigations in the bay of ... more "In publishing all finds and findings from the 1996/1997 underwater investigations in the bay of Val Catena (Istria/Croatia), this study constitutes the first extensive discussion of archaeological materials from archaeological excavations in the Brionian Islands. Despite more than a century of archaeological research that saw numerous excavation campaigns, detailed studies of material culture had so far been lacking. A culture of detailed study and evaluation of finds and architectural remains from earlier excavations developed only recently. It resulted in the publication of a study on ›Laecanius-Amphorae‹ as well as that of an overview of the fine-ware pottery recovered to date. A fuller understanding of the history of the Island in Roman Antiquity, however, can only be reached through a complete evaluation of all earlier excavation data. Unfortunately in this respect, the finds from excavations carried out by the Croatian heritage service in the early 1990s still remain to be evaluated and published. In a first step, the coins found in the bay of Val Catena were published recently.
The limited excavation area of only 8m2 produced a total of more than 3700 finds. A clear and structured stratigraphy makes it possible to associate the finds directly with chronological periods and occupation phases.
Within a joint project between the Bavarian Association for Underwater Archaeology (BGfU), the Department for the Archaeology of the Roman Provinces of the University of Passau and the Croatian Heritage Service, two field seasons were conducted at the site. These aimed to address remaining questions regarding the settlement history of the island through up to date excavation methods and inclusion of related scientific methods. Despite the relatively small excavation area and although natural soil levels could not be reached, the data recovered in the course of the project provides new insights into the settlement history of the island from the mid 1st century AD onwards. In addition, it was possible to prove continued occupation of the structures in the bay of Val Catena until at least the 5th century AD.
Analysis of the excavated strata made it clear that previous theses regarding the disposal of spoil from earlier excavations in the early 20th century can no longer be maintained. Instead, there is evidence for a clearly datable regular stratigraphy in the area around the northern breakwater. One of the key tasks in the analysis of excavation data was the dating of these layers. As no closed contexts from this area had been published previously, the presented interpretation is based on parallels with individual finds and findings from the wider region. This, however, means that this study ought to be seen as an important contribution to current understanding of the general historic development of southern Istria.
Even though the excavated area is limited in size, the study at hand suggests a model for settlement development in the bay of Val Catena that is based on precisely recorded finds. This is particularly important as no hypotheses regarding settlement development have ever been developed for the region.
A vast quantity of finds (a total of more than 3700 individual artefacts) and the thickness of individual layers meant that natural soil levels could not be reached during the two field seasons. The earliest excavated layer (context 8) dates to the Claudian period, the time when the two earlier villae on the bay of Val Catena were joined and redesigned to become the largest and most luxurious villa maritima on the coast of the Eastern Adriatic known to date.
Manual interventions and drill cores made it possible to identify at least three more layers. The lowest of these appears to correlate with the earliest Roman settlement activity on the island in the late Republican/early Augustan period. The most recent layer (context 2) contained large quantities of amphorae and coarse-wares dating to the 5th century AD or later. At this time the villa no longer acted as focal point for life on the island – this had shifted to the ›Byzantine Castrum‹ in the western part of the island. The most recent layer (context 1) contained practically no finds of relevance and appears to indicate that settlement activity ceased in the northern part of the bay.
The bay of Val Catena with its natural landing places and docking facilities would have been one of few, if not the only, points of contact with the mainland. In the course of the investigations, however, it became clear that the two breakwaters served different functions. The northern breakwater appears to have served an economic role while the southern breakwater had a primarily representative function. The excavations along the northern breakwater therefore made it possible to reconstruct some aspects of the economic activities on the island.
As such, it could be confirmed that strong links with Italy existed in the first two centuries AD. There is further evidence that Brioni enjoyed the benefits of its position on a key East-West communication route of the Ancient World at this time, although it is not clear whether this is due to its proximity to Aquileia or its capacity to provide safe mooring and accommodation. In later periods, trade patterns clearly changed: the majority of goods were now imported from North Africa. At the same time, the economic conditions of the entire bay area appear to have changed.
Traditional scholarship long ago proposed that grape processing and wine production ceased at some point in the history of the island. The archaeobotanic investigations carried out as part of this project, however, put this interpretation to the question. They furthermore cast doubt on the frequently voiced argument that a reduction in the production of olive oil was caused by climatic change. Finds from the 3rd century AD indicate a strong reduction in prosperity levels on the island. This is particularly evident in a drastic increase in locally produced coarse-ware pottery as well as a larger proportion of imported transport vessels.
The excavation results confirm insights gained in several smaller studies that dealt with constructional changes to building remains on land. This applies also to other identified but as yet undated modifications to structures on the northern shore of the bay such as the reuse of the thermae as a church with a baptisterium as well as the establishment of a fullonica."

Papers by Mario Bloier

Biricianis. Kernprovinz – Grenzraum – Vorland, Schriften der Museen Weißenburg 3, 2022

Bezirk Mittelfranken/A. May (Hrsg.), Der Limes. Rekonstruktionen, Nachbauten und andere Visualisierungsmöglichkeiten, Geschichte und Kultur in Mittelfranken 6, 2019

Beiträge zur Archäologie in Mittelfranken 9, 2019

C. Sebastian Sommer/Suzana Matešić, (Hrsg.), Proceedings of the XXIII. Limes Congress in Ingolstadt 2015. Akten des 23. Internationalen Limeskongresses in Ingolstadt 2015 (Oppenheim 2018), 2018

Der LIMES. Nachrichtenblatt der Deutschen Limeskommission, Heft 1, 2017

W. Irlinger/G. Suhr (Hrsg.), Archaeological Sites in Forests. Strategies for their Protection, Inhalte – Projekte – Dokumentationen. Schriftenreihe des Bayerischen Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege Nr. 14, 2017

M. Pfeil (Hrsg.), Römische Vici und Verkehrsinfrastruktur in Raetien und Noricum. Colloquium Bedaium Seebruck, 26.-28. März 2015 =Schriftenreihe des Bayerischen Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege 15, 2016

Johann Schrenk (Hrsg.), Altmühlfranken. Der Landkreis Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen, 2016

villa nostra. Weißenburger Blätter, 2015

L. Bekić (Hrsg.), Luka Veštar - Der Hafen von Veštar (Zadar 2014), 2014

Passauer Jahrbuch 55, 2013

Römische Wehrbauten. Befund und Rekonstruktion = Schriftenreihe des Bayerischen Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege 7, 2013

Jahresbericht Bayerische Gesellschaft für Unterwasserarchäologie e.V. 13, 2012

Vorträge des 30. Niederbayerischen Archäologentages, 2012

Jahresbericht Bayerische Gesellschaft für Unterwasserarchäologie e.V. 12, 2011