Giallo Antico in Context. Distribution, Use and Commercial Actors According to New Stratigraphic Data from the Western Mediterranean (2nd C. Bc – Late 1st C. Ad)

This article gives a first overview of the distribution of giallo antico in the Western Mediterranean during the earliest phases of its extraction. It discusses recently excavated, well-dated contexts from Italy, Spain, Gaul, Africa, and from Simitthus itself. The objective is not, as is usually the case, to focus on the marble’s use in spectacular buildings in Rome. The article will rather highlight the variability of the marble’s use in houses, sanctuaries, tombs, inscriptions and municipal buildings. In doing so, some options of naming the actors involved in the trade in the marble and possible trade routes will be discussed. As a result of this approach, it becomes clear that a wide range of private, municipal and provincial actors must have been involved in the marble trade, apart from the hitherto overestimated role of the Numidian kings and Roman emperors. The distribution-maps show the current state of a broader work in progress of the Tuniso-German project (INP/DAI) at Simitthus