The red travertine of Mula (Murcia, Spain)management and administration of quarries in the Roman period

Resumen

The province Citerior Tarraconensis was an early source of ornamental stone used to complete the monumentalisation of the province's principal civic buildings and centres. So far, the evidence points to a scarcity of marble deposits and the much more frequent presence of a range of ornamental rocks, including limestones, travertines and vividly coloured limestones, which, it seems, began to be quarried in Augustan times. Most were destined for local or regional use, except the broccatello from Tortosa and "marmor Saetabitanum", which found their place in the monuments of Rome itself. Among this catalogue of ornamental stone, we must include red travertine, a deep red limestone whose limit of distribution as we know it so far seems to be the conventus Carthaginiensis and in particular its capital, Carthago Nova (Cartagena, Murcia, Hispania Citerior). The mineralogical characteristics of the rock and its distinct colour made it one of the most widely utilised in the city's monuments, being used as architectural and epigraphic support along with other, imported "marmora". A study of the formal, stylistic and palaeographic characteristics of the various elements found within and outside clear archaeological contexts points to the Augustan period as the start of its extraction and use, which continued until well into the 7th century AD