Aurisina Limestone in the Roman Age: from Karst Quarries to the Cities of the Adriatic Basin

Abstract

Aurisina limestone is a type of stone extracted in the Karst region, just a few kilometers away from Trieste (northeastern Italy), which was much used in the Roman Age. The Aurisina quarries belonged to the territory of Aquileia and were exploited at least from the 2nd century BC. In ancient times they provided huge quantities of stone, that was used to realize buildings and infrastructure as well as artifacts (e.g. statues, inscriptions, weights, etc.), and was exported to the north of Italy, along the Adriatic coasts and their inland regions. This paper aims at reconstructing the different steps of the production process of Aurisina limestone, analyzing different topics: the quarrying, transportation, diffusion and use of this stone in the Roman Age.