First Metallographic Analyses of Ferrous Products Found at the Medieval Site of Castel-Minier (Aulus-les-Bains, 09)

Inlaid stone tables are a veritable catalog of the marble available on the market during the 17th and 18th centuries. Our study focuses on two tables with inlaid marble tops that come primarily from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. Both table tops are attached using a mortar technique developed in the French workshop of the Atelier des Gobelins between 1645 and 1715. The table called the “King Table” located at Versailles was probably made at the Atelier des Gobelins. Mortar analysis results show that the aggregate is made of volcanic tuffs imported from magmatic Roman and Tuscan provinces and bound with phillipsite. The high degree of similarity between the results leads to the conclusion that the two tables were made at the same workshop and at around the same time.