Estudio cualitativo y cuantitativo de las tipologías marmóreas presentes en el conjunto de elementos decorativos conservados en las estancias de servicio de la villa del Casale (Piazza Armerina, Sicilia).

This article provides a preliminary report on the 2013 field season of the “Marmo al Mare” Project. The principal object of our project is to undertake the first comprehensive study of the lithic decoration for the most prominent elite houses within the Vesuvian area. This was the first field season for the Project, in which our efforts were focused on a survey of the overall marble use at the Villa Arianna (and the so-called secondo complesso) and the Villa San Marco, including but not limited to marble thresholds, pavements and wall crustae. At the Villa Arianna work was focused on systematically documenting the marble insert pavement in room M and an initial survey of the opus sectile pavements of the thermal complex. Examination of the spoliated floor in room 13 of the so-called secondo complesso led to the discovery that the floor had been re-laid due to subsidence. At San Marco examination of opus sectile floor in room 16 has allow for a preliminary reconstruction of the pavement that will be tested in later seasons. This report outlines these results, as well as our initial impressions of the marble décor at both villas, and our approach to the quantification of marble varieties and prestige levels, especially with regard to insert pavements.

This article provides a preliminary report on the 2013 field season of the Marmo al Mare Project. The principal object of our project is to undertake the first comprehensive study of the lithic decoration for the most prominent elite houses within the Vesuvian area. In the first field season our efforts were focused on a survey of the overall marble-use at the Villa Arianna (and the so-called secondo complesso) and the Villa San Marco, including but not limited to marble thresholds, pavements and wall crustae. This report outlines our initial impressions of the marble décor at both villas, as well as our approach to the quantification of marble varieties and prestige levels.

Marble was a characteristic part of the decoration of Roman public and private buildings. It was used in imperial residences in Rome as well as in private houses and villas. From the Late Republican period onwards in central Italy, as the taste for coloured marble in interior decoration grew, elite patrons began to exploit marble for wall revetment. By the end of the mid-1st century A.D., literary and archaeological evidence indicate that marble revetment had replaced wall painting as the most prestigious form of elite wall decoration. To examine this change, the paper focuses on two aspects of marble – its aesthetic dimensions and the specific decorative qualities it offered. To this end, the first part of the paper examines the ancient perception of marble as a material and the technical requirements for its use as revetment. In the second part, it examines revetment schemes in the Vesuvian area, initially by looking at the sizes of slabs, the marble types and their organisation within schemes, and then by looking precisely at the decorative effects of wall revetment in specific settings and in relation to other decorative features to understand how revetment helped create different room atmospheres.

The paper presents the preliminary results of the Marmo al Mare Project (co-directed by the authors), an on-going campaign to undertake the first comprehensive study of the lithic decoration for the most prominent elite villas and houses within the Vesuvian area. Presented here are the initial results of three seasons of fieldwork at the Villa Arianna (and the so-called Secondo Complesso) and the Villa San Marco at Ancient Stabiae (modern Castellammare di Stabia, Italy). We present a comparison of the level of marble décor at both villas, the range of stones represented at each site, their qualities and quantities, and how the villas compare to other houses within the wider Vesuvian area in the use of marble in domestic décor.

Villa A at Oplontis, the so-called Villa of Poppaea, is well known for its painting, but its equally exceptional lithic decoration has not received due attention due to its spoliation prior to AD 79. This paper examines the marble pavements and wall revetment of Diaeta 78 and its context within the decorative lithic program at Villa A. Through a thorough examination of surviving evidence it is now possible to present a reconstruction of the marble decoration, which reveals opus sectile flooring in polychrome marbles with two distinct patterns and wall revetment up to a high of c. 1.05 m. Overall this work has resulted in several new findings that enrich the understanding of the marble decoration in Diaeta 78 and its context within Villa A.