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LOT 2543
Historic Roman Cut and Polished Roman Imperial Porphyry Fragment Group
1 1/4 - 6 1/8 in. (270 grams total, 3.3-15.5 cm).
Comprising cut and polished pieces, probably recycled material mined in ancient Roman times between the 1st and 5th centuries A.D. [12, No Reserve]
ProvenanceEx Mineral Imports, London, UK.
Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd (Gregory's), Harwich, UK.
Mons Porphyrites (today Jabal Abu Dukhkhan) is the mountainous site of a group of ancient quarries in the Red Sea Hills of the inhospitable eastern desert in Egypt, a five-day trip from the Nile during Roman times. They were discovered by Caius Cominus Leugas in 18 A.D., and during the Roman Empire, the mines officially belonged to the emperor and were the only known source of the Imperial Porphyry, Mons Porphyrites. This dark purple stone was associated with royalty and used for prestigious sculpture and architecture. The location of the mines was lost sometime in the 5th century and rediscovered in the early 19th century. Excavations in the area have revealed the well-preserved quarries and the dwelling places of the quarrymen, and also thousands of ostraca have been discovered containing messages that provide details of how the quarrying took place, and of how the highly skilled quarrymen ordered their food.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 2543
Historic Roman Cut and Polished Roman Imperial Porphyry Fragment Group
Sold for (Inc. bp): £364
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Woolly Mammoth Bone Bead Necklace String
Pleistocene Epoch, 2.6 million-11,700 years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £65
Restrung, using recently polished Mammuthus primigenius spherical bone beads. 150 grams total, 58 cm
Ex Ancient Art Shop, Windsor, UK, 1990s. Ex private West County, UK, collection.
The mammoth lineage branched from the Asian elephant around 6 million years ago, and later on, the Woolly Mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, evolved in eastern Siberia. Woolly mammoths, being slightly smaller than living African elephants, were foragers and ate grass, as well as small, nutritious flowering plants that flourished in the environment where they lived. They may also have used their curved tusks to dig through snow and eat plants that other foragers were unable to reach. -
Polished Orthoceras Fossil Display Plaque
Devonian Period, circa 400 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
An irregular matrix with several polished bullet-shaped Orthoceras specimens. 3.2 kg, 26 cm high
Ex Cambridgeshire, UK, collection. -
Knightia Double Fossil Fish Plate
Eocene Period, circa 58-36 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £46
An oval matrix with Knightia alta specimens. 47.5 grams, 10.2 cm
From Wyoming, USA. From a Cambridgeshire, UK, collection.
In southwest Wyoming (and parts of Colorado and Utah), in the Green River Formation, are found some of the world's most outstanding specimens of fossil fish. The Green River system was composed of three lakes: Lake Uinta, Lake Gosiute and Fossil Lake. These Eocene lakes lay in a series of intermountain basins formed by geological events that uplifted the Rocky Mountains during the early Tertiary time. The climate was much different from the desert-like climate of this area today. Both the fauna (crocodiles, alligators, boa constrictors and some subtropical fish families) and the flora (such as large palm trees) indicate a climate much like that found along the Gulf Coast today. Large amounts of ash found in the sediments indicate that volcanoes were particularly active at this time.
