Brickstamp, Rome Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL AN1872.1492.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum AN1872.1492 (8) AshLI 189 Coll. Ref: 8 Roman catalogue: 372

A rectangular stamp (0.03 0.115) on an almost complete brick (0.229 0.2150.028). There is also a sizeable circular mark (0.053) above the stamp, with a jagged patterned edge. The surface of the brick is rather abraded.

The text is stamped on two lines in hollowed letters inset into the brick’s surface.

 0.014 Rome AD 123 (consular date) This brickstamp was part of a collection of brickstamps from Rome, Ostia, and Portus given to the Ashmolean by J.H. Parker, Keeper of Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum (1870-84), after a visit to Rome in the winter months of 1871/2. It is currently in store. Photograph
Aproniano et Paetino consulibus Marci Vinici Herculani

In the consulship of Apronianus and Paetinus. Of Marcus Vinicius Herculanus.

The year AD 123 marked an exceptional and sudden upsurge in the marking of bricks with stamps bearing a consular date, with some 700 different brickstamps known for this one year alone. Quite why this was the case is still the matter for debate, but it is probable that Hadrian’s government imposed a requirement upon brick producers in this year to include a date upon their bricks (Bloch 1959: p.237).

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities MS. Accession Register 1872.1492; CIL XV.1 no.1529.8 (from an impression sent by Waldstein) (Dressel 1891).

Online: EDCS-42300153 [accessed 17.03/15]

Bloch H. 1959 The Serapeum of Ostia and the Brick-Stamps of 123 A.D. A New Landmark in the History of Roman Architecture American Journal of Archaeology 63.3 225-240