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Part 3: The marble sources of Eastern Bulgaria and the Roman Villa Armira
The project presents evidence of Roman marble production in the Balkan region, specifically from the southeastern Rhodope Mountain area (modern Bulgaria) and Armira. In 2018–2019, a systematic survey of south-eastern Bulgaria (Roman Thrace) was carried out by our team in collaboration with the National Archaeological Institute with Museum in Bulgaria. White marble quarries and outcrops were investigated in situ with the goal of characterising the macroscopic qualities of the stone. Quarry samples were collected and analysed through various techniques—petrography, isotopic, and chemical analyses—and compared with the architectural decorative marble and artefacts from the Roman villa at Armira. We demonstrate that the geochemical and petrographic features of these samples indicate a marble provenance restricted to a few selected sources. We conclude that the local marble from the Armira and Kamilski Dol quarries was widely used for the complete architectural program of the Roman villa of Armira.
The project was partly funded by DR. EMIL SUESS-ERBSCHAFT.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-022-01699-9
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