Diffusion of Egyptian stones during the Roman Empire
Ancient Egyptian were masters in stone working like Greeks for bronze
and Etruscans for ceramic. The different rocks used for sculpture or
architecture, were esteemed either for their colour or hardness, and in some
ways associated to the sacred world.
When Romans occupied Egypt shew a great interest towards its classical
stones, principally Aswan’s red granite, but also opened new quarries of other
rocks, seldom used or completely ignored, by Ancient Egyptians.
The Roman emperor, successor of Ptolemaic Sovereigns and ancient
pharaohs, were the absolute owner of the Country with all its resources, and
importation of rocks, either worked or row, was directly regulated by the
imperial administration.The Aswan’s red granite, principal material for
obelisks building, was one of the most common imported stone from Egypt, not
only for Rome, but for all the Empire.
The majority of
other Egyptian stones came from the Oriental Desert, where from Wadi Hammamat
(Eg. rohanu ) was quarried one of the most appreciated rock by Ancient
Egyptians: the “bekhen” stone or greywacke, almost used
for sculptures of gods and kings, was especially employed for imperial
portraits. Pliny defined it:” ferrei coloris atque duritiae” (with
colour and hardness of iron).
Greywacke statue of Hercules, Parma Galleria Nazionale
From Wadi Hammamat also came the so called “Green breccia of
Egypt” or Hecatontalithos (hundred stones) very appreciated in Rome
and Constantinople.
The Traian’s Forum named a famous stone of Rome: the Granite of the
Forum, in reality a grain-diorite with which were built the columns of the Basilica
Ulpia. It was quarried in the Gebel Fatireh named honouring emperor
Claudius: Mons Claudianus.
An other appreciated stone was the ophite (dioritic gabbro), so
called for the similarity to the skin of some snakes, quarried in the
Eastern Desert, next to the castellum of Uadi Semnah.
Romans installed real penal colonies next to the quarries of Mons
Porphyrites, (Gebel-Dokhan) and Mons Claudianus, in which, the
majority of the workers, were the condemned “ab metalla”.
But the most famous stone of the Oriental Desert, the imperial stone in
its excellence, becoming soon the main symbol of Caesars’ power, is red
porphyry, named from the imperial purple “porphyra”. The fortune of
porphyry during the Roman Empire, (probably since the Ptolemaic Age), is tied
either to its natural beauty and to the conception of purple as imperial
colour. Its employment outside Rome must be considered exceptional. Even if
porphyry was abundantly used in Rome before, it will be with Diocletian
that knew its greatest fortune: when the emperor acquired those aspects of
supernatural and sacred creature, incarnation of the divinity, in that concept
of royalty making him more similar to an ancient pharaoh than to the first
official of the citizens.
The deepest reason of this widened use of porphyry must be found in the
new and suggestive ceremonial, elaborated for the consolidated monarchy, where
purple was fully confirmed in its meaning of royal colour, essentially reserved
to the emperor.
Caracalla, marble and red porphyry, Rome M. Capitolini
From Constantine,
until the half of V century, the emperors were buried in immense red
porphyry sarcophagi, and Marcian (450-457) was the last to be honoured with
such a burial. For many emperors this stone was the first thing they saw, and
the prestigious title “Porphyry Born” common within the emperors of
Constantinople, meant they saw the light in the magnificent room called “born
in the purple room”. It was a squared room of the Imperial Palace, roofed with
a pyramid, all covered with red porphyry, where the empress gave birth to the
imperial heirs.
Red porphyry sarcophagus of S. Helen, Vatican
The great porphyry “rotae” (circles) decorating floors of the Imperial
Palaces, had a great importance in the protocols regulating the complicate
court’ ceremonials. Before entering the Palace the emperor prayed on one
specific “rota”, the same on which one day would be placed before his burial.
Ambassadors had to prostrate on these rotae before reaching the emperor, and
the last one was next to the porphyry stairs taking to the throne.
Numerous porphyry rotae were also in Rome, and in the ancient Basilica
of St. Peter gained a particular importance in occasion of emperor’s
coronation. On the surviving one in St. Peter in Vatican, kneeled Charles
the Great receiving the crown in year 800.
The quarries of porphyry were definitively abandoned in V century, and
when is mentioned in later contests must be considered recycled or re-employed.