While per small proportion of this material might constitute leftovers from the production of flooring, revetment or opus sectile, most of it seems to have been second-hand
The most likely answer to the first of these questions is that the panels used on the bars were generated by refurbishment or demolition projects, of either public building or private houses. The range of materials found on the bars matches those attested durante these contexts. Indeed, the higher quantity of polychrome marbles found on the Herculaneum bars compared to their Pompeian counterparts mirrors the view from other structures: the use of polychrome marbles durante the aristocrazia houses at Herculaneum overshadows anything found at Pompeii (Wallace-Hadrill, Reference Wallace-Hadrill 2011: 302). Differences are observable also con public buildings. At Herculaneum, where the most common polychrome material used on the bars is enigma precedente, we know that the orchestra of the theatre, built per the Augustan period, was paved with thick slabs of this material (described by Adolphe Pezant ( Reference Pezant 1839: 306–10)). At Pompeii, in contrast, the theatre seems to have been decorated with cipollino and grey marble revetment, with perhaps Mese lunare marble architectural elements, probably all dating to the Augustan period refurbishment (Pensabene, Reference Pensabene 2005: 80–5).
SOURCES OF MATERIAL
The stripping and recycling of building materials from standing or ruined structures, whether public or private, is often regarded as verso distinctly late antique phenomenon (De Lachenal, Reference De Lachenal 1995; Kinney, Reference Kinney 2001). Indeed at Particola, Russell Meiggs ( Reference Meiggs 1973: 428) assigned all of the marble-clad bars sicuro the third century ad and later, when he reasoned the second-hand market durante marble was at its peak. However, recent analysis has shown that recyclable materials were systematically removed from buildings being remodelled or demolished throughout the late Republican and Imperial periods (Barker, Reference Barker, Camporeale, Dessales and Lagna 2011; Reference Barker, Gutierrez Garcia-Moreno, Mercadal and Roda de Llanza 2012). At Pompeii, salvaging and reuse was common, especially following the ad 62 earthquake: the restorations of the Temple of Venus, Central Baths and Sanctuary of Di straordinaria bellezza, underway at the time of the ad 79 eruption, all used verso combination of new and salvaged material (Richardson, Reference Richardson 1988: 90–1; Jacobelli and Pensabene, Reference Jacobelli and Pensabene 1995–6: 51–2, 72; Bruno et al., Reference Incendiato, Conti, Pensabene, Turi, Herrmann, Herz and Newman 2002: 282–5; Dobbins, Reference Dobbins, Dobbins and Foss 2007: 174). Evidence for the salvaging of materials can be found also durante domestic contexts. The Casa signorile of the Papyri and Villa Verso at Oplontis, for example, were being stripped of opus sectile and revetment when the eruption took place (Guidobaldi and Olevano, Reference Guidobaldi, Olevano and Pensabene 1998: 233–4; Guidobaldi and Esposito, Reference Guidobaldi, Esposito and Zarmakoupi 2010: 23, 45–50). And this was evidently not just per post-earthquake phenomenon, since the opus sectile flooring of room 15 at the Paese delle Vestali sopra Pompeii was completely stripped con the Augustan period (Jones and Robinson, Reference Jones and Robinson 2004: 116–19).
Identifying exactly what proportion of the panels sopra our sample came from public or private buildings is obviously impossible. Unfortunately, the robbing of marble – both ancient and more recent – has been far too extensive (Richardson, Reference Richardson 1988: 25–6, 204–5). There is evidence, however, onesto indicate that public and private sources were exploited. Most of the threshold blocks and window-sills attested on the caffe counters are small and so likely preciso have che razza di from houses. The pieces of opus sectile could have come from either public or private buildings, but the shapes and marble types used on the counters find close parallels con domestic pavements, such as those con the Citta di Cervi (IV.21) and Luogo dell’Atrio per Ibrido (IV.1–2) at Herculaneum, or the Luogo dell’Efebo (I.7.11) at Pompeii (Guidobaldi and Olevano, Reference Guidobaldi, Olevano and Pensabene 1998: tav. 13.2; PPM I: 682–5). The very largest slabs, especially those over 70 cm sopra length and up preciso 6 cm thick, also could have quale from palatial domestic contexts. However, panels of this size and thickness are more common sopra the major public buildings of both cities. Large panels of grey and white marble, as well as cipollino, are still visible on the facade and interior of the Macellum, for example (PPM VII: 331, 349, 352) www.datingranking.net/it/filipinocupid-review. And John Dobbins has argued that the marble revetment on the Sanctuary of the Genius of Augustus and the Eumachia building was also redone after the ad 62 earthquake, along with many of the walls, a process that must have led puro the discarding of earlier damaged panels (Dobbins, Reference Dobbins 1994: 665).
