Calcitic Marble from Thasos and Proconnesos in Nea Anchialos (Thessaly) and Thessaloniki (Macedonia) (original) (raw)
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Calcitic marble from Thasos and Proconnesos in Nea Anchialos (Thessaly) and Thessalonika (Macedonia)
ASMOSIA XI: Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone, 2017
Late Roman and Early Byzantine architectural elements from northern Greece are analyzed isotopically and under optical cathodoluminescence microscopy to determine their quarry of origin. Thirteen pieces come from Nea Anchialos, two from Thessaloniki, and one from Philippi. Marble is assigned to the quarries of Proconnesos, Thasos, and Philippi. On the basis of their marble, typology and style, the sculptures are attributed to sculptors from northern Greece or from Constantinople. The sculptors may have exported their works fully finished or carved them at the building sites in northern Greece. Sculptors from Constantinople clearly established workshops in northern Greece and made use of Thasian marble.
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The Roman marble trade network triggered the systematic extraction of bulks of white and polychrome stones from the quarries of all the Roman provinces. This is also the case on Kos, where since the age of Augustus its marble quarries were reorganized and its outcrops of monzonite were exploited for the carving of monolithic columns. The taste for colored marble can be also observed in the most important public edifices and in several luxurious residences of the island, which indicates that imports of stone took place in Roman Kos. From the late 1st century BC onwards, various architectural members and rough blocks for the detachment of slabs or pieces for wall revetments and floor pavements were supplied from the major imperial quarries. Compensating for the lack of archaeometric analysis data, extensive macroscopic observations on the architectural remains of the island and a thorough bibliographic research enabled us to make an estimation of the origin of the marble material in use during the Roman Imperial era. http://www.thiasos.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/13.Poupaki.pdf
the North Agora, built in the Hadrianic-Antonine age, constitutes a unique context in the panorama of the ancient building sites of Hierapolis, given its very huge dimensions, its architectural layout and the extensive use of white marbles. the focus of this paper is the strategies adopted for the procurement of marble by the building sites of both the lateral stoai and the stoa-basilica. the systematic sampling showed different criteria guiding the selection of stone materials used in the buildings surrounding the square. the paper discusses the factors which conditioned the selection of particular varieties of local marbles during the construction.
2022
The marble provenance of the vases carved in Late Antiquity is not as much studied. Indeed, based on the relevant bibliography, only the mensae martyrum carved in Proconnesian marble are well known. Some years ago, though, the archaeometric provenance studies of the Univ. of Athens and the N.C.S.R. “Demokritus” proved that some vessels of the 5th and 6th cent. A.D. found during the excavation at Kardamaina, anc. Halasarna, of Kos were carved in Proconnesian marble, too. They are four handled bowls of a quite common type, whose grips are decorated with incised patters, which had been considered as liturgical equipment and they had been further identified as ‘chernives”. These Proconnesian products had been imitated in koan stone-carving workshops, still active in the Early-Byzantine period. Similar vases carved in local koan rocks (travertine, marble, and limestone) had been found. The confirmed use of the Proconnesian marble not only for architectural parts, but also for liturgical artifacts of lesser use, during the 5th and 6th cent. AD, enables us to admit that among the Proconnesian products of the marble workshops of Constantinople imported in Kos, there were vases, too. Moreover, these imports must have lasted during the whole 5th cent. and could have been systematized after the earthquake of 469 A.D., which destroyed the island and prompted new building activity in its settlements (Mastichari, Antimacheia, Kefalos et.c.). These vessels could have been transported half-finished in cargoes of stone carrying boats through the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, together with the architectural parts for the embellishment of the erected religious and secular buildings in the whole Byzantine Empire.
Production and Distribution of Docimian Marble in the Theodosian Age
Production and Prosperity in the Theodosian Age, 2014
The production and distribution of Docimian marble was formerly believed to have ended in the third century, and the present paper begins with a summary of that state of research. The text then proceeds to new evidence from Istanbul and Caricin Grad/Justiniana Prima, which shows that the production of Docimian marble continued into the Theodosian age and beyond. Thirdly, new evidence from inner Anatolia is introduced. The provenance of a large corpus of early Byzantine marble artefacts on the central Anatolian High Plateau has until now been unknown and can also be attributed to Docimium. It turns out that the formal repertoire and style associated with the Theodosian building boom at Constantinople was previously developed in the Phrygian marble quarries of Docimium. This central Anatolian production forms the missing link between the Late Empire and Early Byzantium, as is evidenced first for the finetoothed acanthus and then for the pointed leaf. The main items for export beyond the High Plateau were sarcophagi, wall revetment and pilaster capitals. In contrast, door stones, architectural sculpture and liturgical furniture from Docimium were chiefly distributed in inner Anatolia, where they were imitated by various local workshops and established a distinct regional repertoire.