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Papyrological Evidence for the Transport of Stone in
Roman Egypt
(Colin Adams, 11 February 1998)
The transportation of decorative stone from the Eastern Desert of Egypt to Rome entailed a huge physical and bureaucratic effort. My paper studied the papyrological evidence for this transport and argued that considerable technological progress enabled animals and wagons to be used. Further, it considered the system which existed to supply such transport operations with food and other necessities, suggesting that Egypt possessed the economic and social infrastructure which made such long distance transport possible by spreading the burden of transport costs and labour.
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