The exhibition itinerary
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Section 2
The marble’s journey
When they had reached the plain, the blocks for Trajan’s Column were carried to the port of Luni on ox-drawn carts and sleds. Cranes on the dock loaded the blocks onto special boats, the naves marmorariae, that faced a voyage of over 200 nautical miles to reach Ostia. Bypassing the port, they sailed up the Tiber guided by towboats and accompanied by oxen to haul them along a towpath. The journey ended in central Rome, at the river-port of Emporium, where the blocks were unloaded and worked. That was the starting-point of a further, complicated transport along the narrow, bustling streets of Rome to reach the Column worksite. [Digital Library]