Lead for Rome!
What does Stolberg have to do with Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula?

Lecture
Copper Court Rosenthal
Wednesday, 16.9.2026
7 p.m.
Admission: free

Simplistic lead ingots with inscriptions, which were primarily discovered in Roman shipping in the western Mediterranean, provide new insights into the economic connections between the mining regions in Germania and the Italian peninsula. Some of these lead ingots bear the inscription “STOLBERG,” thus identifying the Stolberg area as the region of origin. Through archaeometric investigations, particularly through lead isotope analyses, these assignments could be further substantiated. The region around Stolberg/Kelmis is therefore among the first clearly archaeologically identifiable districts from which lead was already exported in large quantities to Italy via long-distance trade during the reigns of the first Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula.

with:

Dr. Norbert Hanel
Ruhr University Bochum, Institute for Archaeological Sciences / Chair of Classical Archaeology
University of Cologne, Archaeological Institute

Dr. Michael Bode
German Mining Museum Bochum, Research Department