Provenance of the White Marble Building Stones in the Monuments of Ancient Troia

Abstract

This paper presents the first results of archaeometrical research on marble building material of Troia. The material for the monuments could have been shipped from various areas since deposits of marble are widespread in Asia Minor. In order to clarify the provenance, systematic sampling and investigation of marble from the Biga peninsula and other Anatolian deposits were carried out. In addition to the field studies, mineralogical, isotope geochemical and cathodoluminescence analyses were applied. Comparison between the building stones and those from ancient quarries of the Biga peninsula and around the Marmara Sea provide evidence for the origin of the main building stones, but some stones were derived from Aegean islands or from the Attic mainland.