"V" Marks along Via Sacra?

[MarkV]

I just returned from my first visit to Rome and had a question that I would like to learn the answer to.

While walking along the Via Sacra in the Forum near the Arch of Tiberius, I noticed two stones on the path with a "V" mark carved into them.

Does anyone know what the historical purpose of this marking was for?

 

Here is a picture of one of the stones: Link

Edited August 1, 2010 by MarkV

[M. Porcius Cato]

Totally wild guess: maybe they laid out the stones before assembling, and they numbered them so they could be put back together? See any other numbers?

[Melvadius]

I have to guess as well; the sequence of photographs seem to indicate that the stones with the markings are on a slope. If they are then possibly the stones have been cut asymetrically with one end thicker than the other so they can be placed in a particuar orientation to provide the correctly angled slope.

 

An alternative guess is that they may have been replaced several years/ decades ago as part of a renovation project and have been marked so they can be differentiated from the original stones.

 

I'm afraid this is a question you really need to address to whoever is the current Superintendent for Archaeology in Rome.

[MarkV]

Thanks for your theories, I was thinking it may have been some kind of distance marker?

I did look around and only saw these two marks in this area.

[Onasander]

Fifth legion? Valentianian gnostics meet here? Here be treasure? Look, I can carve Vs into stuff? Place of battle field victory? Distance Marker?

[GhostOfClayton]

Mason's mark? There are plenty of other examples from the church at the end of the Alyscamps in Arles, to examples along Hadrian's Wall.