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Source Image: PR228_01_16 of Carrara Quarries

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Description

Detail of a quarry at Carrara.

Monument
Carrara Quarries 
Monument Type
Quarry 
Material(s)
Luna Marble (Archaeometric identification)  
Date
post bc 50 
Keywords
Quarryface  
Collections
Carrara  

Location

Original Location
Carrara 

Evidence for working practices

1. Toolmarks

Process
Quarrying
Tool
Pick
Method
Angle: Steep (60-70°)
Force: Hard
Description
The marks of the Roman quarry pick are visible on the quarry-face on the right, where they mark out the edge of a channel, and on the left where the same tool was used to cut a groove under a block.

2. Toolmarks

Process
Quarrying
Tool
Saw
Description
On the left is a surface which has been sawn in the modern period. Today wire saws are used to extract large blocks of stone from the quarries.

Notes

The quarries at Carrara, near ancient Luna, are among the largest in the world and an important hub of the international marble trade. Large-scale quarrying in this region started under Julius Caesar and continued through the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. For much of this period Luna marble was the most commonly imported white marble at Rome. Later quarrying has destroyed many of the remains of ancient quarrying at Carrara. Several varieties of white marble are quarried at Carrara as well as a streaked grey variety called Bardiglio.

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