White Pentelic Marble

The pentelic marble was also widely used in temple and statue construction.

White pentelic marble.

The most popular types of marble stone employed in sculpture are pentelic parian and carrara marble. Pentelic marble is calcitic in composition with quartz as an accessory mineral. Its main features were the unique white appearance purity clarity and transparency. A cave on ymittos above vari contains a carved relief of a quarryman.

These provided excellent marble for most of the buildings and sculptures of athens in the 5th. It is fine grained with sporadic calcitic fossil clasts. Although famous for its pure white surface this look was actually avoided by greek sculptors. Pentelic marble from the quarries at penteli north of athens is a fine grained calcitic marble.

It is white with a golden tinge. The main rival of the parian marble in antiquity was the pentelic marble which is also flawless white albeit with a uniform faint yellow tint that makes it shine with a golden hue under sunlight. The chief summit about 10 miles 16 km northeast of athens athína is kokkinarás 3 632 feet 1 107 m which yields white pentelic marble on its north slope. In classical times the peak had 25 quarries on the south slope at elevations between 2 500 and 3 300 feet 760 and 1000 m.

The marble industry also thrived on mt ymittos where quarries produced a grey or bluish grey stone much beloved by the romans. Other articles where pentelic marble is discussed. Pentelic marble is white with a uniform faint yellow tint which makes it shine with a golden hue under sunlight. Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals most commonly calcite or dolomite marble is typically not foliated although there are exceptions in geology the term marble refers to metamorphosed limestone but its use in stonemasonry more broadly encompasses unmetamorphosed limestone.

During classical antiquity the most famous type was the close grained golden toned pentelic variety quarried at mount pentelicon in attica. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material. In ancient times the pentelic marble was an important export product of athens. 1 107 m which yields white pentelic marble on its north slope.

Pentelic marble was used for most of the major monuments of classical athens especially from the 5th century bc onwards and was the first white marble to be used in significant quantities at rome in the 2nd century bc. Green marble also came from skyros and tinos while thasos provided a fine white marble that could rival pentelic. A white marble quarried on mount pentelicus near athens. Thus many great monuments found scattered in various parts of greece made of pentelic marble.