R. Arana – J. A. Antolinos – J. M. Noguera – B. Soler – S. Arana, Quarrying, use and scope of Cabezo Gordo and Rambla de Trujillo marbles (Murcia, Spain) in the Roman era, en: Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone. Proceedings of the IX ASMOSIA Conference, Tarragona, 2012, 657-664 (original) (raw)
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Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone. Proceedings of the IX ASMOSIA Conference (Tarragona 2009), 2012
The quarrying of ornamental stones of Hispanic origin is directly related to the development of the earliest monumental programmes on the provinces and to the participation of cities in a luxury goods market. Carthago Nova (modern-day Cartagena, Murcia) and its territory feature some of the earliest examples of the extraction and use of these local marmora, their use being documented as early as late 2nd century BC in the decoration of certain houses and functional rooms. There are also epigraphic and architectural examples from pre-Augustan times, but the use of these marbles became more widespread from the 1st century AD onwards. Among these materials are two white-grey varieties characterized by low grade regional metamorphism, green schist facies and granoblastic texture, but of significantly diverse mineralogical composition. The study of the quarry fronts and the formal analysis of items made with these materials enabled us to perform a diachronic study of the use of these rocks which, especially in the case of Cabezo Gordo marble, played a very important role in the implementation of the main decorative programmes documented in the colony, especially as regards the manufacture of architectural pieces, epigraphic supports and other decorative elements.
Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference of ASMOSIA
In a region located near the large-scale quarry areas of the Estremoz Anticline (district of Evora, Portugal) and the Almadén de la Plata Core (province of Seville, Spain), the Aracena Massif (Ossa-Morena Zone, Spain) includes a series of marble outcrops that were exploited in Roman times. Among these materials, the lithotypes of Aroche and Fuenteheridos-Navahermosa have been identified indiverse archaeological pieces recovered in this south-western sector of modern Andalusia. The ongoing research has focused, in a first phase, on the archaeometric definitionof the different lithotypes by means of the intensive field-sampling of the marble varieties and their petrographic analysis in thin section. The outcrops of Aroche are located in the hill range immediately to the south of the Roman town of Arucci (locality of Aroche) and, in turn, very close to the coetaneous Roman town of Turobriga (hermitage of San Mamés, Aroche). Those of Fuenteheridos-Navahermosa on the contrary do not appear, at present, to be linked to a Roman settlement of similar importance. These different situations with respect to the relationship between exploitation and settlement suggest two possible well-differentiated patterns of exploitation, distribution and use: the materials of Aroche may have been exploited mainly for the towns’ own use and local distribution, while those of Fuenteheridos-Navahermosa may have been subject to commerce on a wider scale. This was the initial hypothesis that we aimed to test through the study of the patterns of distribution of the marble products of this area of the Aracena Massif. With this aim, we have analysed a broad selection of archaeological materials -architectural elements, sculpture, inscribed materials- recovered from sites of the southwest of Baetica and currently held in several museums of the province of Huelva.
1-Application to specific archaeological questions - Use of marble B. Adembri, S. Di Tondo, F. Fantini, Architecture with concave and convex rhythms and its decoration in Hadrian age: the Maritime Theatre and the Southern pavilion of Piazza d' Oro in Hadrian' s Villa. J. Andreu Pintado, H. Royo Plumed, P. Lapuente, M. Brilli, Imported marbles found in three Roman cities of the territory of Cinco Villas (Zaragoza), north of Hispania Citerior. F. Bianchi, M. Bruno, S. Pike, Pentelic marble in the Severan Complex in Leptis Magna (Tripolitania, Libya). C. Previato, N. Mareso, Marbles from the Domus of Bestie ferite' and from the Domus of Tito Macro' in Aquileia (UD), Italy. M. Bruno, F. Bianchi, The limestone quarries of Wadi Gadatza in the territory of Leptis Magna. M. Bruno, C. Gorgoni, P. Pallante, Provenance and distribution of white marbles in the arches of Titus and Septimius Severus in Rome. F. Cavari, F. Droghini, M. Giamello, C. Mascione, A. Scala, The imitation of coloured marbles in a first style wall painting from the Etruscan-Roman town of Populonia (LI - Italy). M. Chidiroglu, Small Euboean quarries. The local community markets. J. Collins-Clinton, Lumachella at Cosa: late Republican? S. Costa, F. Marri, Ancientmarbles.org: an open community for sharing knowledge about ancient marble from different approaches. M. Cruz Villalón, The use of marble in Lusitania betwen Rome and Islam. M. David, S. Succi, M. Turci, Marmora Ostiensa. New results from the Ostia marina project. M. De Angelis d' Ossat, S. Violante, M. Gomez Serito, A column shaft in verde rana ondato' from the archaeological excavations in Palazzo Altemps . A. De Stefano, The exploitation of coralline breccia of the Gargano in the Roman and late antique periods. M. De Nuccio, Gigantism and marble sculptures: the Pie' di marmo in Campo Marzio. G. Di Stefano, G. Ventura, Ships lapidariae and the wreck, with marmor numidicum, discovered in Camarina : hypotesis of route. Fellague Djamila, Savay-Guerraz Hugues, Masino Filippo, Sobrà Giorgio, The use of marble in the roman architecture of Lugdunum (lyon, france). Ana Garrido, Aureli Àlvarez, Ana Doménech, Anna Gutiérrez, Isabel Rodà, Hernando Royo, Marmora And Other Stones In The Architectural Decoration Of Early Imperial Barcino (Barcelona, Spain) Maria Teresa Giannotta, Giovanni Quarta, Arcangelo Alessio, Antonio Pennetta, Provenance Of The Roman Marble Sarcophagi Of The San Pietro In Bevagna Wreck. Pia Kastenmeier, Giuseppina Balassone. Maria Boni, Giovanni di Maio, Michael Joachimski, Provenance, Distribution And Trade Of The Local Building Materials In The Sarno River Plain (Campania) From The 6th Century Bc To Ad 79. T. Lappi, White And Coloured Marble On Pantelleria P. Lapuente, H. Royo, J.A. Cuchi, J. Justes, M. Preite-Martinez, Local Stones And Marbles Found In The Territory Of Alto Aragon (Hispania), In Roman Times. Z. Mari, The marbles from the Villa of Trajan at Arcinazzo Romano (Roma) F. Masino, The introduction of marble in the cavea of the Theatre of Hierapolis: building process and patronage. Igor Mihajlovi, Igor Miholjek, Shipwrecks With Sarcophagi In The Eastern Adriatic. S. Nava, The marble decoration of the peristyle building in the sw quarter of palmyra (Pal.M.A.I.S. Mission). T. Nogales-Basarrate, P. Lapuente, H. Royo, M. Preite-Martinez, Stone Materials In Lusitania Reflecting The Process Of Romanization. Salvador Ordóñez, Ruth Taylor, Oliva Rodríguez, Esther Ontiveros, Sergio García-Dils, José Beltrán, José Carlos Saquete, A uotorumnuncupatio from colonia Augusta Firma. An analytical approach.
Archives of Control Sciences, 2016
In spite of the great leap forward experienced in our understanding of the use of marble and other ornamental stones in Roman Spain, provenance studies are still quite uncommon in some territories of the Iberian Peninsula. This was the case of the northwesternmost part (modern Galicia), where no significant work had been done until now. Within the framework of an interdisciplinary study, a significant number of objects studied did not match with the main well-known Classical marbles but seemed to have been produced with a local stone known as O Incio marble, which had never been yet archaeometrically analysed. Therefore, the quarries near the small village of O Incio were located and sampled, and a multi-method approach combining polarized-light microscopy, cathodoluminescence, X-ray powder diffraction and stable C and O isotope analysis as well as spectrophotometry was applied to characterize the different outcropping marble varieties as the first and basic step to correctly differentiate them from other Iberian and foreign marbles with similar macroscopic features. Résumé : De grandes avancées ont été réalisées récemment concernant l'emploi des marbres et des autres roches ornementales dans l'Espagne romaine. Cependant, certains territoires de la péninsule Ibérique ne font l'objet que de rares études de provenance. Ceci était le cas du nord-ouest (actuelle Galice), où aucun travail n'avait été mené jusqu'à présent. Dans le cadre d'une étude interdisciplinaire, un nombre important d'objets ne correspondaient pas avec les principaux marbres classiques, mais semblaient avoir été mis en oeuvre à partir d'un matériau local connu sous le nom de marbre d'O Incio qui n'avait jamais été objet d'une caractérisation archéométrique. Par conséquent, les carrières avoisinant le petit village d'O Incio ont été localisées et échantillonnées, et une approche multi-méthode combinant analyse pétrographique, cathodoluminescence, diffraction de rayons X, analyse des isotopes stables de C et O et spectrophotométrie a été appliquée afin de caractériser les différentes variétés de marbre. Cela constitue la première étape fondamentale pour les différencier d'autres marbres ibériques et étrangers macroscopiquement similaires.