Abstract
This archaeometric study is focused on the marble used in a group of fragmented sculptures found at the Roman villa of Quinta das Longas (Elvas, Portugal). Dating from the 4th century AD, the pieces are of remarkable quality and correspond to ideal and mythological figures from several iconographic cycles. The numerous fragments, all of very fine-grained white marble, are associated with the ornamentation of an impressive nymphaeum of the villa. Their high level of sculpture technique and style, the models followed and their similar typology to other well-known parallels raise the hypothesis of being linked with Aphrodisian workshops. Using a well-established multi-method approach, with Optical microscopy, X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD), qualitative and quantitative cathodoluminescence (CL) by CL-Optical and CL-SEM, and stable C and O isotopic and trace element analytical techniques (IRMS and ICP-AES), together with complementary parameters obtained from electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and 87Sr/86Sr isotopes, the marble provenance can be identified with certainty. The results all point to the best quality of white Göktepe marble, confirming the stylistic connection to the ancient Carian sculptors.
Highlights
Accepted: 21 October 2021Studies on marbles used to decorate complex architectural projects are aimed at obtaining detailed historical and archaeological data of the building history of the monuments
In the case of the white marble statuary used to embellish private or public spaces, the identification of the source of marble provides valuable information on trading patterns and economic history, and on the workshops. This contribution reports the results of the archaeometric study of the very fine-grained marble used in a group of sculptured pieces found in the course of an archaeological campaign carried out in 2000 at the Roman villa of Quinta das Longas (Elvas, Portugal) in the Lusitanian Emeritensis territorium (Figure 1)
A multi-method approach to unambiguously determine the provenance of white marble used in archaeological pieces is always essential, and the case under consideration—
Summary
Accepted: 21 October 2021Studies on marbles used to decorate complex architectural projects are aimed at obtaining detailed historical and archaeological data of the building history of the monuments. In the case of the white marble statuary used to embellish private or public spaces, the identification of the source of marble provides valuable information on trading patterns and economic history, and on the workshops This contribution reports the results of the archaeometric study of the very fine-grained marble used in a group of sculptured pieces found in the course of an archaeological campaign carried out in 2000 at the Roman villa of Quinta das Longas (Elvas, Portugal) in the Lusitanian Emeritensis territorium (Figure 1). The fragmented pieces were found in a unitary nucleus of destruction and stacking They are of remarkable quality, corresponding to ideal and mythological figures, forming different iconographic cycles of smaller size than the natural, made for decorating domestic environments, very likely for a nymphaeum [1]. They would have originally been distributed as representative sets of scenes from Greco-Latin mythology and literature [2]
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