Swanson School of Engineering

As the bus hit yet another bump on the narrow, winding hill up to the quarry, I was struck by the absolute scale of the marble mountains stretching across the landscape. The poor weather, while making visibility difficult, also made the reality of the day to day mine conditions more clear. One thing that struck me was the steepness of the roads, and the skill it must take to transport tonnes of marble up and down the mountain. In pre-industrial times, the journey a block of marble would’ve made from the cliffside to a construction site or sculptor’s studio must have involved an incredible amount of people, over a period of weeks and even months. The museum also highlighted the slow pace of the previous centuries, showcasing a handsaw that would only cut through 8cm of marble a day. The sheer difference of extraction pace and technique between Roman and modern times is truly striking, and seeing the scale of the mine in person really adds a new dimension to what we learned.