The quarries at Dokimion were visited by Leake and Texier, and a recent examination of them by M. Leonti[355] disclosed all shades of “violet and white, yellow, and the more familiar brecciated white and rose-red.” This beautiful material is best called Synnadan, as the modern Italian name Pavonazzetto is also used for the streaked marble quarried at Carrara.
Marmor Hierapolitanum.—“The stone from the sacred city Hierapolis.” This marble has been identified by Professor Ramsay.[356] It was found at Thiounta about ten miles N.W. of Hierapolis in Asia Minor. It is variegated like Synnadan, and was much used for sarcophagi; indeed Professor Ramsay says, “On every occasion when its use is mentioned, it was employed to make sarcophagi.” It was called by the name of the great city which is not far distant, “and to which doubtless orders from the outer world were sent. Similarly the marble found at Dokimion was always called Synnadic marble from the time of Strabo, yet Dokimion was thirty-two miles from Synnada.”
Marmor Iassense.—The “Iassian, with slanting veins of blood-red on livid white,” was used for the phiale. Corsi identifies this with Porta Santa, but Porta Santa, Garofalo says, came from Chios, and this conclusion we believe is now accepted. Garofalo thought Iassian to be the same as the Carian marble mentioned by Porphyrogenitus in his Life of Basil the Macedonian, and says it was quarried on the island quite close to the coast of Caria. A “stone mingled with streaks of red” is also mentioned by Paulus as brought from “the Lydian Creek.” Possibly the port of Iassus is again intended. The ordinary Lapis Lydius was a black touchstone. The “rosy cipollino,” in which wide bands of deep red alternate with white, used in the panelling of the aisles does not seem to be mentioned specifically by Paulus; unless this is the Iassian marble to which his words would very well apply. A variety of rosy cipollino, the splendidly figured red and white marble, is obtained in Laconia.
Marmor Numidicum.—“The stone, nurtured in the hills of the Moors, crocus colour glittering like gold,” is the beautiful warm yellow African marble from Semittu Colonia, about fifty miles from Tunis, so highly prized by the Romans, and now called giallo antico. It is used in S. Sophia in the sectile work.
Marmor Celticum.—“The product of the Celtic crags, like milk poured on a flesh of glittering black,” has been identified as the Bianco e Nero Antico, quarried in the Pyrenees.[357] The black marble with white streaks, which occurs in some of the panels in the nave, is probably the one to which the poet refers.
Onychites.—“The precious onyx” mentioned by the poet is the alabastrites or onychites of the ancients. It is the oriental alabaster (aragonite) used in the horizontal bands of the nave, and some of the panels. It is a translucent, fibrous stalagmite formation, generally of a clear honey-colour. Some of the varieties are strongly veined with white, and others are much darker. Large ancient quarries of this Egyptian alabaster have been discovered on the east bank of the Nile.
Paulus appears to make no mention of the dusky black with dull golden veins used in the bema apse, which closely resembles the “Porto Venere” quarried at Spezzia.
The marble blocks were roughly hewn into shape with picks while still attached to the rock, and were then separated by the aid of metal wedges. Many objects discovered show that they were sometimes completed at the quarry, at other times the blocks were roughly brought to the sizes and forms required. The quarries appear to have been officially inspected. Texier found many architectural fragments and blocks at Dokimion bearing the signs of the inspectors of the block. Professor Ramsay writes: “The route from Dokimion to the coast is commercially almost the most important in Asia Minor. The road along which the enormous monolithic columns were transported passed through Synnada, where the central office for managing the quarries was situated.”
Fig. 46.—Marble Slabs and Frieze in Narthex.