CFIR: Noric-Pannonian Costume

As part of the project »CFIR: Noric-Pannonian costume«, the OeAI is working on the development of a web-based digital research infrastructure, with the help of which archaeological artefacts will be made freely accessible in the form of 3D data, images and metadata.

Starting point

Half a century has passed since the publication of Jochen Garbsch's fundamental monograph »Die norisch-pannonische Frauentracht im 1. und 2. Jahrhundert« (1965). The resumption of a detailed examination of this topic has therefore long been a desideratum of provincial Roman archaeology. In this context, reference should be made to the now improved source situation, i.e. numerous new finds of fibulae and belt components as well as Roman stones with corresponding representations, to changed questions and the further development of archaeological methods and technical possibilities.

Method

A first step is the development of www.cfir.science, a web platform that provides information on Roman fibulae and costume components. The focus of the web database is currently on the surviving components of the ›Noric-Pannonian costume‹, i.e. brooches and belt components, which are mostly made of bronze, but also of silver and gold. The majority of the data collection comprises the artefacts published in the specialist literature, which are recorded in a PostgreSQL database. All recorded artefacts are ordered and described according to common classification schemes (typologies). The inventory of images and especially of 3D models is under construction and is constantly being enlarged through cooperation with museums and collections (Museum Carnuntinum, Savaria Múzeum, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Narodni Muzej Slovenije, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) by means of on-site autopsies.

The structure of the PostgreSQL/PostGIS database consists of three basic building blocks: Find Site - Find Context - Object. Each object is assigned to a find context, each find context belongs to a find location. The latter can be addressed in a standardised way via gazetteers and a GIS interface, so that they, including the find contexts and the objects, can be geographically linked with other web initiatives (concept of geographical interoperability). Various standard formats and ontologies, such as Dublin Core, www.nomisma.org etc., will be used for the preparation of the metadata.

The technical implementation of the web platform is in the hands of the multimedia company 7reasons. The ÖAI and the Institute for Archaeology at the University of Innsbruck are responsible for the content of the database www.cfir.science.

Cultural-historical questions

In addition to the further development of technical methods in the context of indexing and processing archaeological sources, the cultural-historical interpretation of the sources is a project goal. In this respect, the appropriately prepared data basis, which can be retrieved via the database, allows for numerous possibilities of evaluation. The conditions under which a specifically Noric-Pannonian women's costume developed, its relationship to men's costumes or to other costumes in the Imperium Romanum in general, regional differences manifested in so-called costume groups and/or workshop circles, the mobility of the wearers of this costume and finally the conditions that led to its end and disappearance are to be investigated.