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possible that “EL” represents the Greek number 35, H the number 8, and “SATOP” is the
abbreviation for the name Sator[ninos], one of the workers or supervisors at the quarry.
At the time of C. Moss’ 1988 study of 800 marble furniture pieces found in Italy, only
four carried Greek lettering. 164 If, before the discovery of Punta Scifo A, the evidence for
imports of marble furniture from the East was scanty, this shipwreck testifies that
consignments of finished and almost finished artifacts were shipped to Italy.
Dimensions
In Table 13 are compared, both in meters and Roman feet, the measurements of
each pedestal, the diameter of the upper disc, height, width, and length at the base.
Looking at the artifacts’ dimensions in Roman feet alone, one notes that the increase in
height is inversely related to a decrease in diameter, in increments of one quarter of a
Roman foot (Table 14). As with the column shafts, it is clear that these items too were
quarried using a well-defined system of proportions.
Even if the pedestals are stylistically similar, there is a marked difference in size,
height, and diameter. The highest pedestals are the most slender, with upper diameters
between 0.40-0.50 m (1 ¼ - 1 ¾ R. ft); the pedestals of medium height have diameters of
circa 0.60 m (2 R. ft), and the lowest have basins that are 0.68 m in diameter (2 ¼ R. ft).
These are large pedestals, when compared with similar artifacts of Roman date. F.
Slavazzi, for instance, studied 38 Roman cylindrical supports dating from the first
century B.C. and first century A.D from northern Italy. Slavazzi noticed that their
164 Moss 1988, 197-8.
115