Giallo antico

 ( Types Of Marble ) 

Giallo antico (antique yellow) is a precious yellow marble used first by the ancient Africans and later by the Ancient Rome (which they called marmor numidicum (marble of Numidia).Pliny, Natural History, 36, 8 It was one of the marbles most favoured by the Romans because of its beautiful yellow colour.Corsi, Catalogo ragionato d’una collezione di pietre di decorazione (1825) http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi/stones/view/33

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Description It was extracted in quarries which can be seen today near the ancient city of Simitthus, near the current village of Chemtou, Tunisia.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

/ref> 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" /ref>

It is a crystalline limestone compacted by marked diagenesis.

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History For the second half of the 2nd century BC, giallo antico was used by the Numidian kings. Once Carthage was conquered and the province of Roman Africa was established, the quarries soon became state property and then, under the /ref>

PlinyPliny, Natural History, 36, 49 attributes its introduction in Rome to Lepidus in 78 BC who used blocks of it for the thresholds of his house. SuetoniusSuetonius, Julii, 85 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 house on the Palatine together with portasanta and Pavonazzo marble marble, and he also made extensive use of it in his Forum.Bradley, M. (2006). Colour and marble in early imperial Rome. The Cambridge Classical Journal, 52, 1-22. doi:10.1017/S1750270500000440 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.

It is mentioned in Diocletian's Price Edict at the beginning of the 4th century, where a high price is established.

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Bibliography

• Dennis Mario Beck, Marmor numidicum. Gewinnung, Verarbeitung und Distribution eines antiken Buntmarmors Marmor, Reichert, Wiesbaden 2024,
• Gabriele Borghini, Marmi antichi, Leonardo De Luca editori, Roma 1992, pp. 214–215
• Raniero Gnoli, Marmora Romana, Edizioni dell'Elefante, Roma 1988 (III ed.), pp. 166–168.
• Lorenzo Lazzarini, "La determinazione della provenienza delle pietre decorative usate dai Romani", in Lucrezia Ungaro, Marilda De Nuccio (a cura di), I marmi colorati della Roma imperiale (catalogo mostra), Roma 2002, pp. 243–244.

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