Journal · Experimental archaeology

Studying and creating a Roman kiln for firing ceramics

Published on April 27, 2025 by Pernette Betrancourt.

While studying fragments of Gallo-Roman sigillata ceramics, I began looking more closely at the question of kilns.

How were 1st-century kilns built?

Roman brick kilns offered strong thermal inertia and better control over temperature rise.

Experimental archaeology

For the European Archaeology Days, I built and fired a reduced model of a kiln typical of this period.

The target temperature of 950 degrees was reached after eight hours of firing.