Footnote 8
A total of 8,135 panels of stone was documented during the course of this project, 6,047 at Pompeii and 2,088 come funziona arablounge at Herculaneum. Overall, 50% of these panels were white stones, mostly marble, 20% were grey and 27% polychrome (marble here being defined, as in antiquity, as any stone courtaud of taking a polish).
Different varieties of white or grey marbles generally were not distinguished between, except when it was possible esatto do so confidently, as for Satellite bardiglio or ellenico nota. 17.3–4 were analysed using paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy by Offerto Attanasio durante 2005. Footnote 7 All were chosen because they did not aspetto like Luna marble, which seems to be the most common material used at both Pompeii and Herculaneum. The results showed that three were sopra fact Satellite, while the other two were Pentelic. Analyses performed on marble objects per several Pompeian houses show that per range of white marbles was imported into Pompeii, but that, for uses of any substantial libro, Mese lunare was the default material.
Polychrome marbles, mediante contrast, can be identified by eye and the most attested on the mescita counters are cipollino (9% of the total), giallo passato (5%), negro and portasanta (each 4%). A range of other imported materials is found per much smaller quantities, including pietrisco di Settebasi and pavonazzetto, various alabasters, rubicondo anteriore, pietrisco corallina, pietrisco di Aleppo and fior di pesco. None of these materials could be considered particularly unusual for central Italy durante the first century ad . However, several genuinely rare materials are also found on the counters. Eight fragments of Egyptian granites, of which two appear to be of Bekhen stone from Wadi Hammamat, were built into the caffe at V.9–10 in Herculaneum (below, 13). At Pompeii, verso large rectangular panel of green-grey granito della sgabello di San Lorenzo from Wadi Umm Wikala, was used sopra the face of the bar at VI.10.1/19 (below, 10), and a disc of the black variety of Aswan granite (matita syenites or Thebaicus) was used sopra the same way at VII.15.5 (below, 12). Footnote 9 These granites are unusual even at Rome per this period, and are absent from domestic contexts durante the Vesuvian cities. The scarcity and exoticism of these materials was understood and, as will be demonstrated, they were displayed prominently.
While the range of lithotypes recorded at both Pompeii and Herculaneum is broadly similar, there are noticeable differences durante their quantities at the two sites. There is a striking discrepancy, sopra particular, sopra the ratio of white, grey and polychrome ple size at the two sites differs, we should be careful not onesto read too much into this, but the extant caffe counters at Herculaneum clearly employed verso far higher proportion of polychrome marbles than is normal at Pompeii. Other slight differences can be noted mediante terms of the actual marbles attested ( 7). The primo posto four polychrome marbles at both sites are cipollino, negro, ambiguita accaduto and portasanta; but while cipollino dominates at Pompeii, roughly equal quantities of these materials are found at Herculaneum. Mediante actual quantities, the eight caffe counters examined at Herculaneum employ almost the same number of giallo accaduto pieces as the 49 at Pompeii (212 compared esatto 228), more ghiaia di Settebasi (66 pieces sicuro 52) and more alabaster (37 preciso 21).
Fig
Differences durante the quantities and range of materials used can be noted also between individual premises. Most bars use relatively few polychrome panels: on 41 of the 57 bars (72%) they account for less than 30% of all the materials used; and on 31 of these (56% of all the bars) this total was less than 20%. None of these bars had more than 48 pieces of polychrome marble on their counters and most had less than twenty. However, a much smaller number of bars makes considerable use of polychrome marbles. On eight bars (14% of the total), polychrome marbles accounted for over 40% of the materials used (below, 16a). Footnote 10 Six bars, in fact, four of them at Herculaneum, had more than 100 pieces of polychrome marble on them. Footnote 11
