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pavonazzetto have squared or rectangular “steps” cut into their surface, while those from
Proconnesus are uniformly more rectangular.
Parallels from the Quarries (Proconnesus, Docimium), and Rome (Fiumicino)
The quarries of Proconnesus have revealed only 13, and not very large, marble
blocks, a low number considering the widespread use of this particular type of stone
throughout antiquity. Probably most of the evidence for Greek and Roman times does not
exist anymore, considering that the quarries stayed open into the Byzantine period and
are active even today. 148 The lengths of these surviving quarried blocks range between
0.75 and 1.85 m, their widths between 0.47 and 0.87 m, and thicknesses between 0.47
and 0.87 m. 149 Similar to BLC 4, BLC 5, and BLC 7, the items still at the quarry do not
have a stepped surface. According to Asgari and Pensabene this is evidence that the
marble blocks quarried there, the least expensive in Diocletian’s Edict on Maximum
Prices, were going to be used as building blocks without undergoing further
modifications in shape, and were exported ready for use. 150 Pensabene notes that in all the
shipwrecks in which Proconnesian marble blocks are found, they are of large size and
regular shape. 151 This is indeed true for the three known cargoes of Proconnesian blocks
at Capo Granitola, Isola delle Correnti, and, mixed with green porphyry from Larissa,
Marzamemi 2. 152 The Kızılburun shipwreck, however, represents the exception, since it
148 Asgari 1978, 469.
149 Asgari 1990, 110.
150 Asgari 1990, 110; Pensabene 2002a, 29.
151 Pensabene 2002a, 29.
152 Capo Granitola: see Purpura 1996, 328-336; Isola delle Correnti: see Kapitän 1971, 296-8; Marzamemi
2: see Kapitän 1969, 122-33; Van Doorninck 1972, 136-7; Kapitän 1980, 71-136.
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