MORTAR EGYPTIAN PORPHYRY

No other stone in Western civilization has achieved the same prestigious status as that of porphyry. A stone that has embodied the power of emperors and rulers since ancient times, and from the beginning of the Roman Empire it has been a means of legitimizing and underlining the power of any pretender to the throne. According to Pliny's Naturalis Historia, the bullet-hard volcanic rock, of a deep purple color with white speckles, was quarried by legionary Caius Cominius in AD 18 AD at a site now called Mons Porphyrites (Mount Porphyry), in the eastern desert of Egypt , discovers. The Romans gave the stone a name: "porphyry", derived from the Latin word for purple, the color of nobility. With exceptional strength and durability, its intrinsic qualities were perfectly suited to the message of power and authority, but also made it extremely difficult to work and carve, making objects in this hard stone both political and artistic statements. After the 5th century, the quarries ceased to be mined and Mons Porphyrites was lost to oblivion. After that, the only sources for this type of porphyry used in Western Europe were ruins from ancient Rome, giving the new works that were created a deep spiritual connection to antiquity.Porfido , porphyre , porfür