Proceedings of the XII. Asmosia

This proceeding book includes the papers presented at the Conference of the XII. Association for the study of Marble and other stone in Antiquity (ASMOSIA XII). The conference was organized by Geological Engineering and Archaeological departments of Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Türkiye, on the 8th to the 14th of October. Like in the previous congresses, ASMOSIA XII was highly international and interdisciplinary.

During the conference more than 100 oral and poster presentations were submitted by the partecipants, archaeologists, geologists, art historians, conservators, historians of Classical antiquity, architectural historians, chemists and physicist from at least 15 different nationalities.

The papers presented in this book can be grouped under 4 main headings like applications to specific archaeological questions – use of marble; provenance identification marble and other stones; advances in provenance techniques, methodologies and databases; quarries and geology: quarrying techniques, organisation, transport of stones, new quarries, stone carving and dressing, hazards and preservation of quarries; stone properties, weathering effects and restoration, as related to diagnosis problems, matching of stone fragments and authenticity and pigments and painting on marble.

In this symposium, which lasted 7 days, including five days of presentations and 2 days of field trips, important scientific discussions were made on the above-mentioned issues by the attendees from various disciplines. We believe that the proceeding book of ASMOSIA XII including the results of the important multidisciplinary works will help the researchers who work in these fields.

We would like to thank Dokuz Eylül University for it’s support during the symposium and for printing this proceeding book. We would like to express our special thanks to Dr. Akın Ersoy and to the other organization committee members of the ASMOSIA XII conferences. Additionally, we also would like to thank the reviewers who gave important support during the reviewing processes of this book.

Finally, we want to dedicate this volume of the XII Asmosia Izmir Proceedings to the dear memory of Moshe Fischer. Esteemed colleague, one of the greatest scholar about roman architectural decoration in the Levant and in larger part of the Mediterranean, Moshe was fellow of Asmosia since the first Workshop held at Il Ciocco (Lucca, Italy) in 1988 and finally member of the executive Committee of Asmosia since 2015. We will never forget his friendliness and kindness, his archaeological expertise, his deep voice and his mustache.

Ali Bahadır Yavuz
Burak Yolaçan
Matthias Bruno