Petrography, electron paramagnetic resonance, geochemistry, and Sr-C-O isotope data for provenance studies of the ancient Marmor Iassense in Kıyıkışlacık (Muğla region), Türkiye

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.55730/1300-0985.1952

The Marmor Iassense (Iasos marble, Marmor Carium) banded marbles, produced from the Kızılağaç Formation near the village of Kıyıkışlacık, have been favorite marbles from ancient times to the present day with their colors and patterns. During the Roman and Byzantine periods, they were preferred as decorative stones for many important buildings in İstanbul, such as the Hagia Sophia, Chora Monastery (Kariye Mosque), and Church of the Holy Apostles, as well as San Vitale in Ravenna and other buildings throughout the Mediterranean region. They were used in wall coverings, flooring, columns, and mosaics. These marbles contain red and gray-white alternating folded layers of different thicknesses. They consist of calcite, quartz, feldspar (albite ± orthoclase), chlorite, muscovite, graphite, and hematite minerals and are fine-to medium-grained (maximum grain size: 0.2–2 mm). The tone of the red color varies depending on the amount of hematite. Geochemical properties and Sr-C-O isotope characteristics show that the parent rocks of the Kıyıkışlacık marbles were formed from carbonate rocks precipitated in an open-sea environment. Marmor Iassense banded marbles are easily distinguished from most red marbles used in ancient times with their textural features. The new petrography, X-ray diffraction, electron paramagnetic resonance, isotope, and geochemistry analysis results obtained in this study constitute a dataset that could be used in provenance studies by those who study these marbles in the future.