Native of the marble in ancient city, Nysa on the Meander of Hellenistic and Roman Period, Aydin- Western Anatolia - Turkey

Abstract

Nysa, one of the most important cities of Caria in Hellenistic and Roman period, is located on the highway connecting Aydin (ancient name Tralleis) and Denizli, at about three kilometres northwest of Sultanhisar in western Anatolia of Turkey. The archaeological remains of Nysa are located on the slopes on the side of the stream called Tekkecik. The buildings, streets and public squares of the ancient city were supported by vaulted substructures adapted to the topographic conditions. As to the foundation of the city, Strabo relates that three brothers named Athymbros, Athymbrados, and Hydrelos came from Lakedaimon to Caria, and founded there three cities named after themselves. The small rock samples from the building of theatre, stadium, basement of agora and tomb were collected and determined under polarized microscope and confocal Raman spectroscopy to find out the native of these rock sources. The results of these studies reveal that the main rocks of these structures are composed from white colour marble. These marbles have granoblastic texture and are composed of mainly pressure twinned calcite as coarse grain size. The confocal Raman specroscopical studies of reveal that the marble building stone of Nysa city are mainly obtained from Jurassic Cretaceous of Western Anatolia marble.