Online resources on decorative stone

• Ancient Egyptian Quarries (http://www.eeescience.utoledo.edu/Faculty/Harrell/Egypt/Quarries/Quarries_Menu.html) by Professor James Harrell, University of Toledo, Ohio, USA, gives images, descriptions, quarry locations and ages of rocks found in ancient Egyptian quarries.
• ‘Stone in Archaeology – Towards a Digital Resource’ ( http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/stones_ahrb_2005/cfm/HomePage.cfm), is a project developed by Kathryn Knowles and Professor David Peacock of the Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton to create a digital resource about the principal stones known to be used in antiquity throughout England.

Decorative stone collections in other museums

• Siena, Italy: Museo di Storia Naturale dell'Accademia dei Fisiocritici. The Museum has more than 200 samples of ancient marble (http://www.musnaf.unisi.it/marmi_ing.asp) and 32 samples of marble used in the construction of the Duomo in Siena ( http://www.musnaf.unisi.it/presentationmarmiduomo.asp).
• Rome, Italy: Servizio Geologico d’Italia. The Pescetto and De Santis collections are listed in Corpo reale delle Miniere (1904). The collections are described and selected samples illustrated in Giardini & Colasante (1983).
• Rome, Italy: University La Sapienza, Geological Museum. A selection of specimens from the Tommaso Belli collection are described and illustrated in Borgini (1997) and in Dolci (1992). Ten of the specimens are illustrated on the University's website(http://tetide.geo.uniroma1.it/sciterra/musei/museogeo/tbelli/tbelli.htm).
• Rome, Italy: University La Sapienza, Engineering Faculty. A collection of approximately 150 modern Italian decorative rocks are listed (but not illustrated) in an online catalogue: (http://www.musei.uniroma1.it/museoartegiacimenti/files%5CCATALOGO0MUSEO.pdf).
• Rome, Italy: Capitoline Museums. A collection of ancient stones in the Capitoline Museums is illustrated in Napoleone (2001).
• London, England: The Natural History Museum. The Museum holds one of the largest collections of building and decorative stones in the UK, which includes the Nicholson Natural History Society of London collection. Details are on the Museum's website ( http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/collections/departmental-collections/mineralogy-collections/rock-collections/building-decorative-stone.html) and can be searched (enter 'building stones' under type of specimen in the online database).
• Cambridge, England: University of Cambridge, Sedgwick Museum (Department of Earth Sciences). Nearly two thousand samples of building and decorative stones collected and presented in the early twentieth century by John Watson, are described in Watson (1911) and Watson (1916).
• Bagnères-de-Bigorre, France: Musée du Marbre. This museum displays the fine collection of marbles, mainly from French quarries, described and illustrated by Jaques Dubarry de Lassale (2000) and Dubarry de Lassale (2005), and can be viewed online ( http://www.museesbagneres.fr/identification_des_marbres_par_region__pays._687.htm.
• Viena, Austria: The Naturhistorisches Museum. The Museum's large decorative stone collections have grown since the catalogue of Karrer (1892) was published.
• Berlin, Germany: Antikenmuseum. Mielsch (1985) wrote a catalogue with illustrations of selected stones for the Museum’s collection of ancient marbles dating from the mid-nineteenth century.

Contact

We would be interested to hear about other printed or online catalogues of ancient or modern decorative stones collections and other educational resources.