Pliny’s <i>Marmor Augusteum</i> and the Eastern Desert of Egypt

Pliny the Elder mentions two Egyptian stones he names as marmor Augusteum and marmor Tibereum ( NH 36.55–56). The implied imperial connections and early dates make it of great interest to identify the stones and sources. Recent survey work and new documents prove that Tibereum was quarried at Wadi Barud, just south of Mons Claudianus, and is the granito bianco e nero of the Italian artisanal tradition. The fact that this quartz diorite was used in imperial palaces on the Palatine Hill (the Domus Tiberiana and the Domus Transitoria) – and hardly elsewhere – further raises the stakes for m. Augusteum. This paper examines the evidence assembled to support a proposal, the only one to date, to identify Augusteum with ophites ( granito della sedia) from Wadi Umm Wikala/Semna, and concludes that it is insufficient. It then assesses other possibilities and ends with a tentative suggestion for another identification. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Amanda Claridge, with whom I first went to Egypt. [Formula: see text]