DECORATIVE ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS IN THE BASILICA N4 AT THE TOWN OF SANDANSKI (ANCIENT PARTHICOPOLIS), SOUTH-WEST BULGARIA (original) (raw)
Related papers
Stone artefacts from a temple of Sabazios, dated to the IIIII c. AD by inscriptions, were uncovered during excavation at the "Zlatkova Vodenica" site, near the village of Porominovo, Kyustendil District. The petrographic study carried out on stone fragments from the Sabazios temple showed that the blocks of coarsegrained, finegrai ned and hydrothermally altered granites originate from the slopes of the West Rila mountain - the watercatchment basin of the Rilska River was the source for construction material used in the Sabazios temple. These granites are unsuitable for quarry production and construction due to tectonic impacts and weathering. It is concluded that the stone fragments from the Sabazios temple are made of granitic blocks from fluvialglacial sediments (boulders) in the region and that there are no evidence to suggest a quarry production. The travertine find is an indicator of the closeness of the Sabazios temple to the excavation site in the village of Poromin...
Proceedings of the XII Asmosia International Conference, 2023
The article investigates early Christian church furniture from Bilice near Šibenik, a very important archaeological locality in the Roman province of Dalmatia. The site was excavated at the beginning of the 20th century, when church furniture of great interest was found. Archaeological excavations of the early Christian site in Bilice resumed in 2016 and new fragments of church furniture have been found during the fieldwork. These probably also belong to the early Christian church. One of the newly found fragments has been petrographically analysed. Petrographic observation and additional comparison with the Seget stone variety excavated in the quarry near the town of Trogir allows us to conclude that the stone used for the church furniture was from this quarry.
Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Historica, 2015
A large variety of building and decorative materials, including mosaic tesserae, were discovered during the archaeological excavation of the medieval Bizere monastery. In order to assess the material usage for the decorative elements of the monastery, several tesserae made of rocks and ceramics and a “red marble” decorative stone were studied using optical and cathodoluminescence microscopy, X-ray diffraction, electron microprobe, and stable isotope analyses. Most of the studied tesserae consist of metamorphic rocks such as white marble, quartzite, greenschist, hornfels, and “serpentine marble” (ophicalcite). Magmatic rocks (basalt) and sedimentary rocks (sandstone, limestone, and breccia) were also identified. Based on the geology of the region we can assume that most of the rocks have a local source in the Southern Apuseni Mountains or in the Poiana Rusca Mountains. Moreover, the Mureş Valley, that is the alluvial pebbles of the Mureş River, could also be a possible source for the rocks. Some of the white marbles may originate from the Southern Carpathians (Bucova/Zeicani). The “red marble” found at the site is a bioclastic nodular limestone containing a large amount of Middle Jurassic Bositra shell fragments. Its petrographic and stable isotope characteristics point to a distant source, the Gerecse Mountains in Hungary. The possible local or distant sources of some white marble mosaics and other unique tesserae made of 'serpentine marble” and black-and-white breccia are still to be identified. The ceramics studied are diverse in appearance including grey, red, and sandwich-structured mosaic tesserae and a red brick. All but one was made from clay intentionally tempered with sand, most probably from the Mureş River. The phase composition of the ceramics suggests a firing temperature of ≤650-700 °C.
ORTA ANADOLU ARKEOLOJİ, ANTROPOLOJİ ve SANAT TARİHİ ARAŞTIRMALARI , 2022
Throughout the history of humanity, natural stones have been used in many areas ranging from construction of tools (axes, spears, grinding stones etc.), architecture (homes, castles, temples etc.), arts (decorative stones, mosaics, statues etc.). Hence, even though natural stones fall into the category of geologists, they are also included in the study areas of archeologists, art historians and restorators. The identification of natural stones and source rock is important to conduct proper restoration activities at archeological sites. The deterioration of the stones used in historical structures under atmospheric conditions is possible only possible through the identification of the engineering and mineralogical-petrographic characteristics of the stone. The identification of the type of the natural stone prior to restoration is as important as the identification of the main source from where the stone is obtained. The main subject of the present study was identifying the main source and engineering properties (porosity, hardness, compressive strength and resistance to surface abrasion) of the natural stones used at the Byzantium church located at the Karıncalı Village of Kırşehir province. Three groups of stones (marble, banded marble and schist) have been used in the church. The locations of the source rocks were first identified in the present study. It was determined that the marbles have been acquired from the white colored marbles that are part of the Bozçaldağ Formation located about 3 km southwest of Karıncalı Village and that the banded marbles have been obtained from the banded marbles that are part of the Bozçaldağ Formation located about 200 m northwest of the church. While the schists have been acquired from the schist levels of the Kervansaraydağ Formation on which the foundation of the church has been dug. The changes due to mine production conditions and atmospheric deterioration can be observed clearly when the correlation of the engineering properties of the samples acquired from the structure and the source rock was examined. KEYWORDS: Byzantium, Church, Restoration, Natural Stone, Physical and Mechanical Properties, Anatolia.
Archaeologia Bulgarica, ХХIV, 1 , 2020
Planned archaeological research of block # 45 began in 2010 under the Ukrainian-Polish inter-disciplinary scholarly project “The Topography of Chersonesus Taurica” headed by the present authors. In the western corner of the block, remnants of a Byzantine house were unearthed, belonging to the recently discovered Christian temple complex of the two-aisle basilica. In one of the rooms (probably the ptochotrophium) in a layer of débris dated to after AD 1313, a stone miniature of a cruciformchurch was found, broken into a dozen pieces. Comprehensive comparative studies substantiate the supposition that it was used as an artophorion or a reliquary. The design of its interior excludes the hypothesis that it was an architectural model of a church. The application of the artifact should be related to the nearby Christian church. In view of the stratigraphic-and-archaeological properties of the find as well as the fact that most church-shaped stone reliquaries which have been encountered so far, are dated to the 11th – 13th centuries, this item may be dated to the 12th – 13th centuries.
The marbles of the basilica of Ascalon: another example of the Severan building projects
Journal of Archaeolocal and Anthropological Sciences, 2022
This paper presents the research conducted on the origin of the white marble architecture of the basilica of Ascalon (Israel). The basilica is located in the civic centre of the Roman city of Ascalon and it is one of the relatively few known monumental buildings of Roman Palestine. The various construction phases of the basilica are dated from the first century BC to the third century AD. As Israel has no sources of marble, this paper explores the origin of the white marble that was used for several architectural elements such as bases, columns, capitals, and figurative pilasters to identify their provenance. The methodology includes petrographic studies, chemical and isotopic analyses, and chemical analyses of inclusion fluids and extractable salts (crush-leach analyses) of the marble. The results demonstrate that the imported marble highlights the wide extent of connectivity and interregional trade in the region. Some of the main sources of building materials used in the construction programme of this basilica originate from famous supra-regional quarries such as Prokonnesos and Thasos, and different quarries on the island of Lesbos. The similarities between the Severan basilica in Ascalon and the contemporary building in Leptis Magna are also discussed in this paper. In combination with the absence of a built-up port in the ancient city of Ascalon, these results also provide important information on the economy of Roman Palestine, transportation networks, and the logistical organisation of large-scale building programmes.
The building stones of Roman Sagalassos (SW Turkey): Facies analysis and provenance
Facies, 2003
Different types of builing stones have been macro-scopically and petrographically characterized at the ancient city of Sagalassos (SW Turkey). The natural building stones include limestone, conglomerate, breccia, marble, travertine, granite and sand-to siltstone of different qualities. The provenance of most of the building stones may be related to local lithological units, both in the immediate area of the city and on its territory. Also, some stone types were clearly imported from considerable distance. Throughout the history of the city, local beige and pink good quality limestone remained the most important building stone. Both the high quality white limestone from the territory of the city and the marbles imported from a distance of 250 km, represent only a small fraction of the total amount of building stones used. While the use of the white limestone can be considered to form a clear but limited trend from the Trajanic period (98–117 AD) onwards, the import of the marbles must be considered as a rare event. The selection of building stone went hand in hand with the appreciation for structural strength and suitability for carving complex architectural decoration, together with the desire to obtain a polychrome architecture.
ORIGIN OF ROMAN WORKED STONES FROM ST. SATURNO CHRISTIAN BASILICA (SOUTH SARDINIA, ITALY
2018
The work aims to define the origin of the architectural stone elements worked by Romans and reused in the St. Saturno Basilica, between the late Antiquity and Romanesque periods. Thus, different rocks (marbles, various facies of limestones, volcanic rocks) used to construct the ancient building were sampled and analysed. All the different kinds of stones were sampled from the Basilica, taking precise reference to the various construction phases and structural changes of the monument occurred in the centuries. The sedimentary and volcanic lithologies belong to the local outcrops of Cagliari Miocenic geological formation (e.g. limestone) and to other volcanic outcrops of south Sardinia, respectively. By means of a multi-method archaeometric study (mineralogical-petrographic observations on thin sections and 18 O vs 13 C stable isotope ratio analysis), the provenance of classical marbles used for manufacturing Roman architectural elements (column shafts, bases, capitals, slabs, etc.) were defined, which are thought to come from extra-regional sources. The results show that the marbles come mainly from Apuan Alps (Italy) and subordinately from Greek quarrying areas.
An archaeometric study of the ornamental stones in the interior of the baroque church of San Pietro in Valle (Fano) has been carried out. On the basis of mineralogical, petrographic and geochemical studies, the areas of quarrying of 44 lithotypes are firstly established and a complete database of the location of the decorative marbles in the church was also provided. Both marbles from the Mediterranean region, used in the Roman and Byzantine period, and stones more typically found in baroque buildings were widely employed. Among the ornamental stones of local (Italian) provenance, a large number of lithotypes from the neighbourhood of Verona (Veneto Region, northern Italy) has been found. It is worthnoting that a fundamental role in choosing several marbles from Verona was played by Abbot Domenico Federici who arrived in Fano after he had been appointed secretary to the imperial embassy in Venice. Petrographic descriptions have been provided for Breccia di Brentonico, Lumachella di S.Vitale, Astracane di Verona and Nero Nube Conchigliato, which are four ornamental stones (never described in detail elsewhere) extensively quarried in the Venetian region. An isotope geochemistry study of the white marbles (Marmor Proconnesium and Marmor Lunense) has also been carried out. Most of the ornamental stones show severe and different forms of decay, and therefore, conservation work is strongly urged. Crystallisation of salts in the pores of the rocks is the main cause of the decay shown by most of the lithotypes. The soluble salts largely originate from (i) the rising damp which affects the outer walls of the church and subordinately from (ii) inappropriate works undertaken at the beginning of the 20th century when numerous marble slabs were re-attached with gypsum grouts. The high levels of relative humidity inside the church are not consistent with the most suitable conditions for the conservation of wall paintings and decorative stones.