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Abstract
The Forma Urbis Romae (F.U.) was a 3rd-century-AD monumental map of ancient Rome consisting of 151 rectangular marble slabs. Several efforts have been made to reconstruct it from its current incomplete and fragmentary condition. In this paper, we explore the potential of an archaeometric approach to serve this purpose. Almost a hundred F.U. fragments have been characterized, particularly focusing on cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy and stable isotopes (δ18O and δ13C). Different statistical methods have been used to quantify the similarity between samples. The central assumption is that samples from a given slab share similar CL colors and isotopic ratios. The assumption has been verified for samples from single fragments and then it has been used to check ten debated reconstruction hypotheses. The measured isotopic ratios confirm the Proconnesian nature of the F.U. marble, except for a fragment. Beyond provenance, the results cast doubts on four out of the ten checked reconstruction hypotheses and support the other six. The reconstruction of the F.U. remains a fascinating challenge, and both isotopic and CL analyses have demonstrated their potential to tackle it. Further research could extend the presented methodology to a higher number of samples. The innovative use of CL to reconstruct a fragmented artwork could be applied to other projects.
Highlights
Stable isotope and CL data have been analyzed following a similar approach. For both types of data, similarity has been computed as a measure of the relative distance between the confronted data within the point cloud formed by the whole database
The few cases in which the similarity values are low stress the fact that both CL and stable isotopes can be subjected to natural heterogeneities
The results from petrography, C and O isotopy, and cathodoluminescence analyses of the F.U. samples indicate that almost all of them are typical of Proconnesian marbles, confirming an origin from Marmara (Turkey) [63,65,70,71,72]
Summary
The Forma Urbis Romae (abbreviated, in this paper, as F.U. or the plan) was a sculpted marble plan of Rome. It was commissioned between 203 and 211 AD by the emperor Septimius Severus, as part of the reconstruction of the Templum Pacis Peace) destroyed by a severe fire in 192 AD [1,2]. It was located in one of the rooms of the Templum Pacis, on a wall surface that, around the 6th century, was incorporated into the basilica complex of Santi Cosma e Damiano (Rome). An earlier version of the plan was probably installed in the same place when Vespasian first built the Temple of Peace in 70–75 AD [3,4]
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