The importation of white marble into Paestum during the Republic and at the beginning of the Empire

• M. Cipriani ^[2] ; Lorenzo Lazzarini ^[1] ; Stefano Cancelliere ^[1]
  1. [1] Università Iuav di Venezia

     Università Iuav di Venezia

     Venezia, Italia

     
  2. [2] Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Paestum
• Localización: Interdisciplinary studies on ancient stone: proceedings of the IX Association for the Study of Marbles and Other Stones in Antiquity (ASMOSIA) Conference (Tarragona 2009) / coord. por Anna Gutiérrez García-Moreno, María Pilar Lapuente Mercadal, Isabel Rodà de Llanza, 2012, ISBN 978-84-939033-8-1, págs. 384-389
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Roman Paestum became "Colonia Latina" in 273 BC, and enjoyed a wealthy economy for all the Republican period as evidenced by the numerous existing ruins of the period, and demonstrated by the very early import ( end of the 3rd century BC) of marble used for inscriptions, and later in the 2nd and 1st century BC also for statuary and small objects. A selection of these Republican marble artefacts and of some of Early Imperial age, including 10 inscriptions, several statues, among which that of a "togatus", a male portrait and an altar, was submitted to archaeometric investigation for the identification of the constituent marble. This included minero-petrographic analyses by X-Ray powder diffraction and optical microscopy on thin section, as well as the determination of the C and O stable isotope ratios. The results indicate the use of "marmor Lunense" from Carrara for the inscriptions and the altar, and that of Pentelic and Parian marbles for statues and portraits. The very early use at Paestum of marbles from the Apuan Alps is really remarkable, especially if one takes into account that this marble arrived only around the middle of the 1st century BC in Rome, and its use was rather limited till the late Augustan period.