Details

LOT 255409

Polished Imperial Porphyry Gaming Pieces

ROMAN, 4TH-6TH CENTURY A.D. OR LATER

5/8 - 7/8 in. (125 grams total, 15-23 mm).

A group of twelve hand-cut and hand-polished globular gaming pieces. [11, No Reserve]

Provenance

Acquired in the 1990s from the Bath Antiques Centre, Somerset, UK.
From the private collection of a Somerset gentleman.

Footnotes

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.