The economics of the Roman stone trade /
The use of stone in vast quantities is a ubiquitous and defining feature of the material culture of the Roman world. In this volume, Russell provides a new and wide-ranging examination of the production, distribution, and use of carved stone objects throughout the Roman world, including how enormous...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, United States of America :
Oxford University Press,
2013.
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Series: | Oxford studies on the Roman economy.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | CONNECT |
| Summary: | The use of stone in vast quantities is a ubiquitous and defining feature of the material culture of the Roman world. In this volume, Russell provides a new and wide-ranging examination of the production, distribution, and use of carved stone objects throughout the Roman world, including how enormous quantities of high-quality white and polychrome marbles were moved all around the Mediterranean to meet the demand for exotic material. The long-distance supply of materials for artistic and architectural production, not to mention the trade in finished sculpture, such as statues and sarcophagi, is one of the most remarkable features of the Roman economy. Despite this, it has never received much attention in mainstream economic studies. This study provides a new synthesis of all aspects of this phenomenon. The first two chapters focus on the market for stone and its supply, dealing with the administration, distribution, and chronology of quarrying, based on a dataset of nearly 800 quarries. These are followed by a detailed assessment of the practicalities of stone transport, including a new evaluation of the shipwreck evidence, and the distribution patterns of stone in different areas of the Roman world. The final three chapters concentrate on the question of production and carving techniques, dealing in turn with architectural elements, sarcophagi, and statuary, exploring how the relationship between producer and customer functioned even over considerable distances. |
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| Item Description: | EBSCO eBook Academic Comprehensive Collection North America EBSCO eBook Business Collection |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xxi, 449 pages) : illustrations, maps |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780191630408 0191630403 9781306300285 1306300282 9780191765193 0191765198 |
