Image
3D Model
© Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Girona
Omeka ID 195
Mas Castellar
Protohistory and Iberian world

ara, altar

MAC GIR-023396

Object type
ara
Production date
-300 / -200
Fabric
stone material, construction and architectural of the Classical and Protohistoric period
Museum
Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Girona
Culture
Protohistory and Iberian world
Discovery location
Mas Castellar
Materials
marble
Township
Pontós (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Girona, Alt Empordà)
Technique
sculpting
Where is it?
MASPG
Dimensions
620 x 480 mm
Description
Monolithic piece of white marble carved in a column. The column is topped by a classic Ionic capital with small volutes. The shaft is fluted with a circular cross-section and enlarges at the bottom to form a wide and delicate plinth. At the top of the shaft and surrounding the entire perimeter a moulding is decorated with motifs of lanceolate leaves located between the grooves separated by edges of the same shaft and framed by pearls. In the front of the shaft there is heavy wear in the bottom of the grooves. Petrographic analyses have determined the Pentelic marble quarry, near the city of Athens and exploited since the beginning of the sixth century BC. Pentelic marble would have supplied Empúries, where several pieces have been documented, such as the statue of Aesculapius, and it would not be surprising that the one now of Pontos would have arrived by that route and been reused for purposes of worship. The altar was found in House 1 in the agricultural establishment of Mas Castellar (Pontós Alt Emporda, Girona) site, and is related to worship use.