Stones for the Roman Empire – on the beginnings of the ancient quarrying and mining district between Eifel area and Rhine

Abstract

In the region between Andernach at the Rhine and Mayen at the edge of the Eifel area, one of the largest European mining districts for minerals in Roman and Medieval times was located. Millstones of basalt lava, building material of tuff and pottery coarse ware were exported with great success for centuries with a distribution in Switzerland as well as England and Scandinavia.
The identification of the provenance of the millstones from the well-dated military camps along the Lippe river Oberaden, Anreppen and Haltern with mineralogical archaeological methods leads to a closer date of the enormous boom of the millstone quarries at Mayen which hitherto was postulated for the early Roman period only. Moreover, the monument of the Ubii in Cologne demonstrates that roughly at the same time the deliberate exploitation of the tuff quarries in this district begins. Apparently both quarries were systematically developed in the context of a state programme during or even in preparation of the campaigns against the Germans under Augustus.