Life at the Tilery: Animal and Human Footprints on Ceramic Building Materials from Bracara Augusta, Portugal

Braga was known as Bracara Augusta during the Roman period and artifacts recovered include ceramic building materials (CBM) with animal footprints. This study provides one of the largest samples of CBM with prints that has been analyzed. These marks offer a means to understand the environment of the tilery, the animals present, and the everyday life of those who worked and lived in the area. In this study, 152 tiles were examined with 420 prints of humans, dogs, cats, sheep, and goats. The only wild animals were represented by a few wild bird prints. The human prints included both bare foot and shoe prints. Dogs are the most common prints found and were from small and medium sized dogs. Only a few cat prints were present but help us to understand the spread of this domesticated animal. The presence of domesticated sheep and goats suggests small settlements and farms once existed near the tilery. The sheep and goats provided meat, milk, and wool for spinning and garments. The rain cycles and the presence of prints from young sheep and goats, suggest that production relating to forming and drying tiles started in the spring and ended in early fall.