Project Description

In Book XXXVI of his Natural History, Pliny the Elder strongly criticises the intensification of mineral exploitation in the Roman period, which he links to a frenzy of extraction and transport driven by luxury. He describes a world in which “mountains are cut through” in order to move materials across seas and territories, highlighting the unprecedented scale of these practices and their landscape, technical and economic consequences at the end of the first century CE. Often quoted for its moral and ideological dimension, this passage also provides an important testimony to the massive expansion of marble exploitation across the Empire and to the gradual integration of new territories into supply networks.

The Pyrenees are fully part of this dynamic. The Saint-Béat area is well known for the exploitation of white marbles, widely distributed in Roman Aquitania and attested in many architectural and decorative contexts (revetments, votive altars, inscriptions and statuary). Some coloured ornamental stones, easily recognisable, such as the Lez breccia or the griottes, have also been identified with reasonable certainty. By contrast, other coloured varieties, whose facies closely resemble those of imperial marbles or imports regarded as prestigious, remain far more problematic and today represent one of the main gaps in research.

Among these coloured stones, rosso antico and Africano are among the most emblematic materials of Roman architecture and decoration. Their presence on Aquitanian sites has long been interpreted as evidence of long-distance imports from major imperial quarries, notably from the Greek Mani peninsula for rosso antico and from Teos in Turkey for Africano, based solely on their macroscopic appearance. This approach, largely inherited from historiographical tradition, has helped to fix attributions to distant sources, often considered obvious and rarely questioned. Yet the use of coloured marbles was central to Roman architectural practice: from the first century BCE onwards, they became markers of wealth, prestige and power, contributing to the development of a decorative language shared across the Empire.

Recent research has shown that materials with very similar facies may come from different deposits, sometimes geographically close to the places where they were used. The work we have carried out has identified, in the Pyrenees, regional materials that are visually equivalent to certain imperial marbles. However, no systematic petrographic and geochemical analysis has yet confirmed their actual use in Roman productions in Aquitania. This methodological gap currently prevents a clear assessment of their real status: substitute marbles, regional equivalents fully integrated into decorative choices, or alternatives reflecting specific economic and symbolic strategies.

The project therefore aims to reconsider the exploitation and use of coloured ornamental stones in Roman Aquitania by examining the possible role of Pyrenean marbles in relation to the major imperial marbles traditionally cited. It is based on an interdisciplinary approach bringing together archaeologists, archaeometrists, geologists and art historians, and relies on strong collaboration with museums, as well as new partnerships with museum institutions and local associations.

Methodology

The project seeks to test the hypothesis of the use of Pyrenean coloured marbles in Roman Aquitania by comparing archaeological materials with stones collected through targeted geological surveys in the Pyrenees, particularly in the Saint-Béat area, but also in the Louvie-Soubiron and Campan zones. The approach is based on the creation of a geological reference framework and on the comparative analysis of archaeological materials selected for their typological and contextual relevance.

The materials will be characterised using petrographic thin-section analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDS) and chemical analyses by ICP, allowing for detailed comparison between archaeological and geological facies. These data will help to clarify provenance and to examine the meaning of material choices in the Roman period: substitute marbles, regional equivalents or alternatives fully integrated into Roman decorative strategies.