Speyer Local Customs

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Parts of the “Barbarian Treasure(s)”, which have been found in the 80ies on several spots in the Rhine, are ancient Roman dishware. It is fascinating how these findings can add to understanding how life in these days must have been.

As already mentioned before, the Romans brought their handicrafters with them when settling in what is now Southern Germany. In the beginning, they also had all their “home ware” brought from Rome. When they had discovered that there are excellent sources for potter’s clay nearby, big manufacturing sites have been founded here, to be precise in Rheinzabern, where a museum is showing history and manufacturing of this special dishware.
It is called Terra Sigillata (modern name) or vas samium (ancient name) and means polished ware. While blazing the clay, oxygen was fed, which gave it the red colour. The gloss was achieved by coating with thin layers of clay, which was mixed with potassium carbonate.

But the museum does not only has exhibits of this clay dishes, but also very much exclusive glass vases and cups (see photos 1 and 2) and metal sieves (photo3), something that fascinated me most (I still don’t know why). These sieves have been used to filter the wine. My god, thinking of these things being nearly 2000 years old, and still have a “modern” design is unbelievable :-)
Nevertheless, all this exclusive dish ware was only used by wealthy Romans. The poorer people could only afford wooden or simple clay ware.

The website below is of a British archaeologic site, about ancient pottery in Europe and shows also some marvellous patterns of Terra Sigillata.

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When browsing through Speyer’s museum of Palatine, it is fascinating to learn about how elaborate Roman culture was in already 2000 years ago. (I should have known, as I learnt it at school and I was in Italy as a kid, but well, sometimes old brains keep forgetting things, lol).

The museum shows how living and dining rooms and kitchen looked like in ancient times and also explains more in showcases and descriptions. Romans’ most important meals were taken in the evenings, and, as we know from movies, they did lie on specifically designed couches. Dining rooms were called Triclinum (means “3 couches”, which of course have been stocked up in case more guests here were expected). The Romans didn’t want to use fork and knife, as this was quite uncomfortable when lying on the sofas. That’s why dishes had to be prepared in palatable sizes. Cooking was done in the kitchen, which was usually a small room tucked away in remote parts of the houses (photo 1).

Romans loved their wine, which they brought to the region. That’s why they did get wine for their journey after death – a lot of tombs have been found with glass containers full of “Roman wine” (photo 3).

Now they also had to build houses, as they have been used to. Apart from the Rhine as transport river and the mild climate, another reason why Romans did chose the Palatine for settlement was the abundance of red sandstone. Many quarries have been located here, one being “Kriemhildenstuhl” near Bad Dürkheim (of course the name has been given to this quarry later, Kriemhild is a figure of Nibelungen Saga of mid 5th century). The museum shows a small model of this quarry and mentions that in Roman days, more than 20.000 m3 of rock was moved within short time.

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Roman blacksmiths did not only manufacture silver kitchenware and dish plates, but also beautiful jewellery (again, given the early time, amazing pieces!). Much of these have been found in the Rhine and is now on display in the Museum of Palatine. The exhibits range from necklaces, bracelets, rings, hair decoration to clasps, which were used to hold the clothes together like buttons.

But also votiv deposits had been found in the mud of Rhine river. These were meant as a donation for rescue from distress. Some have been nailed on wooden pillars, some simply put into sand – depending on the holy site where they have been deposited. Mostly they were made of thin hammered silver, plain or engraved.
One of these votiv deposits has the name of an Obelexxus engraved in. Maybe a hint that Obelix did exist ?

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One of the most amazing exhibits in Speyer’s museum are shown in the exhibition “Prehistory of Palatine”, where artefacts of the last 1500 years before Christ are shown. Among them is the Golden Hat of Schifferstadt, which is dated as far back as 1300 B.C. I saw the photos before I went to see it in reality and was astonished how small it is, only about 30 cm high. But what a work, given its date !! It is a ceremonial hat, worn by priests of most probably the Sun cult. It is made of thin gold plate and has embossings, which are believed to show a lunisolar calendar.
Another old and very delicate work are the bronze wheels, found in Haßloch (a small village in Palatine). Belief is that they have been manufactured in southern France around 9th century B.C. and were used as wheels for a ceremonial wagon.

In total, this prehistory exhibition has more than 1500 pieces of work, also bracelets and other jewellery and instruments.

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Speyer’s museum not only shows the oldest wines, but also has a nice array of old instruments and barrels which have been used to process wine. All wine processing is described in detail here.
At the vineyard, grape presses (photo 2) have been used to pre”grind” the grapes and reduce their volume for the next step. Then, the bigger presses (photo 1) with horizontal pressure blocks and vertical spindle were used to press the liquid out of the grapes. These presses have already been used from Middle age on until just “recently”. Some traditional wine-growing estates still use similar presses today. They were made of oak wood mostly, as this wood gave the wine the traditional taste.

Another fun “instrument”, albeit not much fun for the ones who had to wear it, is the so-called “Schandgeige”, translated into something like shame/dishonour fiddle (fiddle because of the shape; photo 3). This instrument has been put on those who stole grapes or fruit from the field – they had to wear it for several days as punishment. The big hole was meant for the head and the smaller ones for the hands. The bell was an additional punishment – imagine how they “sounded” when they had to walk through town.

But the museum also exhibits the coopers’ instruments and explains about their handicraft (photo 4).

Photo 5 is showing a candle, which was a very necessary even life saving method to control the level of carbon dioxide in wine cellars. The candle was left burning on the wine barrels, and if it was no longer burning, it was a sign NOT to go inside without a mask.

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Already the Romans have used wooden wine barrels to store wine. Wood was abundant and easy to be transformed into barrels. In the beginning, the barrels have been quite simple in style, but from around ancient days the coopers’ skill did develop quite much. The barrels became bigger, stored by being laid instead of standing. This gave focus to the barrel’s bottom, which was now beautifully carved and sometimes painted. Even stories were told on these carvings.
Speyer’s museum has beautiful barrels as well as barrel bottoms on display, such as the one made for Prince Elector Carl Theodor’s 25th wedding anniversary in 1766 (photo 1), showing the initials of him and his wife Elisabeth Auguste and the story of the making of this barrel, including the cooper’s name. These stories about the barrels’ creators have been very popular, and it is fun to read through Palatine’s history by just wandering around in the museum and look at the barrels.
Some have more down-to-earth carvings, such as in photo 4, where a little tub and figures of the cooper and his wife (missing in the photo) are placed in the middle of the barrel bottom.

But not only the wine storage containers but also the drinking ones developed to being art. The “Bembels” as on photo 5 are still produced and used today. Well, these are not exactly Bembels, but a kind of forerunner.

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I am not sure if this eating feast happens on Sundays throughout the summer months, but our cruise moored in Speyer on a Sunday and the whole main street was closed to traffic, and huge long tables, like the ones in the picture, were on either side of the street with the stallholders cooking wonderful smelling food, and the locals were just having a ball, meeting up with friends and families and eating and drinking and generally being merry. It was a lovely hot day, so the German beer flowed.

There were even huge ovens in the street (portable I guess) baking bread, cooking fish, chicken etc., I have taken some pictures to show you.

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… your fish is big enough
Altpörtel, the town gate and tower of Speyer (see to-do tip), has some fascinating features, about which I’d learned only recently. One is the two clocks, which, if one looks closer, show different parts of “the time”. The big clock is only to give the hour and the smaller beneath to give the minutes. This was made in the old days, to help the people approaching the town from the west to see how late it is. Well, this is what the exhibition in Altpörtel tells. It still works, as anyone who is coming from far away, will see the gate tower and can tell if he/she is in time for a date or has to hurry.

The other interesting feature is inside the gateway of the tower: in photo 3 you see an iron bar, mounted inside of the wall. This is the so-called “Speyrer Normalmaß”, something like a calibration standard, also from old days. It was meant to measure the sizes of fish and other goods and is exactly 12 inches in length.

A similar measurement standard is in Heidelberg, see what Christine.j wrote about pretzel size standard.
Other old measurement standards are in Dornoch (Scotland), cloth size (by Joan, @scotishvisitor), Venezia, fish scale and in Norcia, measuring grain.