Docimium Sarcophagus Workshops
About
Docimium's quarries had been worked on imperial account since the 1st century BCE for their prized purple-veined marble, and would go on to become one of the empire's great sarcophagus-carving centers, exporting garland- and column-decorated coffins as far as Rome and Africa. In 117 CE that specialty hadn't started yet: the earliest dated garland sarcophagi belong to the Hadrianic period beginning in the 130s CE. Docimium was already a mature imperial marble exporter, just not yet a sarcophagus workshop.
What happened here
Blocks arrive rough from the quarry, already roughed into a box shape to save weight on the journey. Here the surface is finished to order: a name and dates left blank for the buyer to fill in later, a scene picked from a pattern book — a myth, a hunt, a wedding, a battle — carved deep enough to hold shadow from across a room. Journeymen block out the figures and the master carver finishes the faces last, since a bad face ruins the whole piece. Workshops keep stock pieces half-finished for a quick sale and take custom orders from families who can wait and pay more. A finished chest goes out by cart or ship, sometimes to a buyer a thousand miles away who never sees the workshop at all.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →