THE STONES OF FELIX ROMULIANA (GAMZIGRAD, SERBIA) (original) (raw)
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Columns of Felix Romuliana (Serbia)
ASMOSIA XII Proceedings, 2023
Felix Romuliana was a retreat villa of the Emperor Galerius at Gamzigrad (Serbia), the remains of which include a fair number of stone fragments belonging to its columnar architecture. In recent years, work has been undertaken with the help of students from the University of Ljubljana to comprehensively analyse the column remains. The material for analysis comprised 83 bases or parts thereof, 227 fragments and three complete shafts, as well as 72 fragments of Ionic and Corinthian capitals recovered during the archaeological excavations undertaken at the site from 1953 onwards. The text focuses on the column remains in marble, white and coloured. The white marbles mostly came from Prokonnesos and Pentelicon, but also from Thasos and Berkovica. Coloured marbles comprising marmor thessalicum, marmor troadense, marmor syenite and pink Berkovica marble (BG) were only used for column shafts and even there rarely.
BUILDING STONES IN BULGARIA FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE PRESENT (SELECT EXAMPLES)
tives at the building sites to identify the historical context of the building and the technology involved in its construction. A general examination of the stone building is followed by geologic examinations to identify the type of stone materials used (for example: limestone, sandstone, granite, marble, brec- cia) and their source. Assessment of local landforms, geologic data, and historical records serve as indicators for the source of the stone material, specifically, where it was quarried. Data for each building will be recorded on a standard data form whose contents include: geography, regional geology, site description, construction materials, source of materials, historical period, and building technology. Each site will be geographically located through the Geographic Positioning System (GPS) and documented through photographs, audio and video media, physical measurements, and visual inspec- tion of the building materials. Site based data will also con- sist of sketches, gr...
Heritage, special issue Geosciences for Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, 2020
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A Preliminary study on material properties of the Zerzevan Castle, Turkey
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Zerzevan is a recently discovered castle, situated on a rocky hill in the province of Diyarbakır, southeastern Turkey. Like many other Medieval defensive artifacts, Zerzevan Castle has also erected to protect the site against the incursions of enemies and to dominate the land. Zerzevan Castle, as a former military base of the Roman Empire, consists of such remains as churches, tombs observation towers, cisterns, arsenal, canals and city walls. The archaeological excavations conducted in the site revealed the existence of various underground structures, among them a temple of Mithraism, a mystery religion. The temple is considered as the first and unique Mithraeum located on the eastern border of the Roman Empire. The castle has been constructed by employing natural stones. Similar to that of the stone artifacts around the world, the Zerzevan Castle has also suffered from stone deterioration and stability problems. The present study aims to characterize stone used in the Zerzevan Castle as a building material. The study also aims to characterize the provenance of the stone material utilized in the monuments of that archaeological site. For this purpose, samples were collected from the building façade and stone quarry located on the site. The samples then used to determine their petrographic, chemical and some of the physico-mechanical properties. The preliminary results demonstrate that the stone employed in the construction of the Castle is calcitic dolomite. Moreover, the great similarities in chemical compositions of the samples collected from the building and the quarry indicate that the stone material employed in the construction was most probably extracted from the nearby quarries.
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The Svevian Castle of Rocca Imperiale (north-eastern Calabria, southern Italy) was built between 1220 A.D. and 1225 A.D. by the Emperor Federico II of Svevia. This paper addresses the geochemical and petrographical characterisation of the stones used for its construction. The research evidenced that most of the Castle stony materials (marly limestones, calcareous marls, marls, arkoses and quartz arenites), were carved from siliciclastic outcrops nearby Rocca Imperiale. Stones from outer areas are more rare (biocalcarenites). These stones probably come from the nearby Puglia region and were mainly used for decoration.