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Giallo antico
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<h2 id="description">Description</h2> <p>It was extracted in quarries which can be seen today near the ancient city of <a href="/facts/Simitthus/y3NyouAb">Simitthus</a>, near the current village of <a href="/facts/Chemtou/y3NyouAb">Chemtou</a>, Tunisia.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p><p>Its colour varies from intense yellow to lighter, almost white hues, with dark yellow, reddish or brown veins, and angular clasts of various sizes and colours (shades of yellow, rosy red, brown).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> Varieties with a uniform background were considered more valuable than the brecciated ones, especially the "golden", and the very rare "of a colour similar to the rose".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p><p>It is a crystalline limestone compacted by marked <a href="/facts/Diagenesis/F1nATwdp">diagenesis</a>. </p> <h2 id="history">History</h2> <p>For the second half of the 2nd century BC, giallo antico was used by the <a href="/facts/Numidian/ErVpEwob">Numidian</a> kings. Once <a href="/facts/Carthage/MXGPRNFA">Carthage</a> was conquered and the province of <a href="/facts/Africa_(Roman_province)/MIYYrhIF">Roman Africa</a> was established, the quarries soon became state property and then, under the <a href="/facts/Principate/v3Vh1aop">Principate</a>, imperial property as elsewhere in the empire. The marble was widely used for column shafts and wall and floor coverings in public buildings of cities closest to the coast of the Mediterranean. The Romans began to import it in increasing quantities across the empire where it was also used in prestigious rich private villas.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p><p>Pliny<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> attributes its introduction in Rome to <a href="/facts/Marcus_Aemilius_Lepidus_(consul_78_BC)/jL0QYxWz">Lepidus</a> in 78 BC who used blocks of it for the thresholds of his house. Suetonius<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> reports that the people had an honorific column of Numidian marble dedicated to Caesar erected in the Roman Forum. Augustus used the marble for the columns of the peristyle of his <a href="/facts/House_of_Augustus/9fkQ1I9q">house on the Palatine</a> together with portasanta and <a href="/facts/Pavonazzo_marble/914wmRcG">pavonazzetto</a> marble, and he also made extensive use of it in his Forum.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> It was also used for statues of particularly of barbarians or wild beasts. In the 3rd century the quarries gradually became exhausted and the giallo antico was progressively replaced by yellow breccias of other origins and of lesser value. </p><p>It is mentioned in <a href="/facts/Diocletian/l4Inf5wa">Diocletian</a>'s <a href="/facts/Edict_on_Maximum_Prices/x8jmqcCp">Price Edict</a> at the beginning of the 4th century, where a high price is established. </p> <h2 id="bibliography">Bibliography</h2> <ul><li>Dennis Mario Beck, <i>Marmor numidicum. Gewinnung, Verarbeitung und Distribution eines antiken Buntmarmors</i> [Marmor numidicum. Extraction, processing and distribution of an ancient coloured marble], Reichert, Wiesbaden 2024, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-3-7520-0755-8</li> <li>Gabriele Borghini, <i>Marmi antichi</i>, Leonardo De Luca editori, Roma 1992, pp. 214–215</li> <li>Raniero Gnoli, <i>Marmora Romana</i>, Edizioni dell'Elefante, Roma 1988 (III ed.), pp. 166–168.</li> <li>Lorenzo Lazzarini, "La determinazione della provenienza delle pietre decorative usate dai Romani", in Lucrezia Ungaro, Marilda De Nuccio (a cura di), <i>I marmi colorati della Roma imperiale</i> (catalogo mostra), Roma 2002, pp. 243–244.</li></ul> Wikimedia Commons has media related to Giallo Antico. <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Pliny, Natural History, 36, 8 <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Corsi, Catalogo ragionato d’una collezione di pietre di decorazione (1825) http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi/stones/view/33 <a href="http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi/stones/view/33" target="_blank">http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi/stones/view/33</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Michael Mackensen: Militärlager oder Marmorwerkstätten. Neue Untersuchungen im Ostbereich des Arbeits- und Steinbruchlagers von Simitthus/Chemtou. von Zabern, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3461-3 <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Röder, G. (1988). Numidian Marble and Some of its Specialities. In: Herz, N., Waelkens, M. (eds) Classical Marble: Geochemistry, Technology, Trade. NATO ASI Series, vol 153. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7795-3_10 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7795-3_10" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7795-3_10</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Virtual Museum of Geological and Historical Collections/Litho-mineralogical collections/Litho findings/Ancient yellow https://www.isprambiente.gov.it/it/attivita/museo/collezioni-litomineralogiche/lito-reperti/giallo-antico <a href="https://www.isprambiente.gov.it/it/attivita/museo/collezioni-litomineralogiche/lito-reperti/giallo-antico" target="_blank">https://www.isprambiente.gov.it/it/attivita/museo/collezioni-litomineralogiche/lito-reperti/giallo-antico</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Bugini, R., Folli, L., Marchisio, R. (2019). “Giallo Antico” in Roman Architecture of Lombardy: A Preliminary Survey. In: Chenchouni, H., Errami, E., Rocha, F., Sabato, L. (eds) Exploring the Nexus of Geoecology, Geography, Geoarcheology and Geotourism: Advances and Applications for Sustainable Development in Environmental Sciences and Agroforestry Research. CAJG 2018. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01683-8_23 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01683-8_23" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01683-8_23</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Pliny, Natural History, 36, 49 <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Suetonius, Julii, 85 <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Bradley, M. (2006). Colour and marble in early imperial Rome. The Cambridge Classical Journal, 52, 1-22. doi:10.1017/S1750270500000440 <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>