The Marbles - Area 8 - Bigio africanato

Panel 103 - Location

This variegated type of africano marble was probably already exhausted by the Flavian period (late 1st century AD), by which time the quarries were only producing a greyish variety rarely traversed by red veins, as attested by the numerous blocks still present at the extraction site of Karagöl near Teos.

Panel 103 - Figure 1Seferihisar, Teos. Large stepped blocks of bigio africanato lying at the quarry of Karagöl

The fragments of inlaid column (A-B, X) are unique today and also provide evidence of the complex and laborious attempt to artificially recreate the original polychromy of africano marble, by then difficult to find, by inserting small curved pieces of the rosso brecciata variety into a grey-coloured shaft.

Panel 103 - Figure 2Recovery of the large shaft in bigio africanato from the Tiber near the Ponte della Scafa in 1988 Panel 103 - Figure 4Column shaft in bigio africanato, inlaid with pieces of africano rosso
Panel 103 - Figure 3Detail of the inlaid column shaft with a bracket from restoration work, empty depressions with cavities for pins inserts
(Bruno M. 2008)

See also:

The marbles