The Provenance of Marbles and Alabasters Used in the Monuments of Hierapolis in Phrygia (Turkey): New Information from a Systematic Review and Integration of Archaeological and Archaeometric Data

Abstract

Determining the provenance of the stones used for ancient architectures is very important in order to reconstruct many social and economic questions linked to the life of a city. This paper integrates previous and new archaeometric data about marble and alabaster quarries in south-western Phrygia (Lykos valley), and offers a review of some results of the research activities carried out between the years 2013⁻2018 and aimed to reconstruct the building stone procurement strategies adopted in the city of Hierapolis in Phrygia across a broad chronological time span from the Hellenistic age to the Byzantine period. The research activities based on a multidisciplinary approach, integrating the archaeological and art-historian study of the monuments, the topographical investigation of the quarries, and the archaeometric characterisation both of extraction sites and marbles and alabasters used in the building sites of the urban area and in the necropolises.

Keywords

• marble
• alabaster
• quarry
• building site
• archaeology
• archaeometry
• Asia Minor
• Roman Imperial period