Quarry Workers, Stonemasons, and their Work Dynamics in Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Sagalassos (South-Western Anatolia), Technological, Chronological and Socio-Economic Aspects in the Context of the Eastern Mediterranean

Quarries, Stone Carving, and Stone Implementation in Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Sagalassos (South-Western Anatolia), Technological, Chronological and Socio-Economic Aspects in the Context of the Eastern Mediterranean

Frans Doperé

Synopsis of the Proposed Research Project

Scientific Basis

The registration and analysis of the stone carving techniques on different technical categories of building stones used in Belgium and in France generate sets of parameters with dating potential[1]. This research was conducted on medieval buildings dated between the 10th and the 16th century. The precision of the dates generated by the analysis of the stone carving techniques vary from one category of stones to another. In some instances, the dates proposed for specific masonries encompass an entire century, but for certain stone categories the variation of the dates may become as narrow as a quarter of a century. In other cases, and depending on the archeological context of the masonries, the generated dates may be dates ante quem or dates post quem. The dates thus generated never have the precision of dendrodates, although they can be more specific for subunits in the masonries; subunits which are rarely identified when dating work is limited to dendrodates only, since dendrochronology is dating wooden structures, not necessarily linked in a precise chronological way to the masonries. In such cases, but also for masonries without any wooden structure left, the “stone carving chronology” is of valuable help for refining dating work, particularly when aiming at the study of the progress of the construction of a building or of a given set of masonries.

The first step in dating work based on stone carving techniques is the construction of a sequence consisting of masonries with known dates, provided by other means such as inscriptions, accounts or any other relevant archaeological evidence. This sequence is then used for dating other masonries or buildings without any other datable elements. This “stone carving chronology” was tested and used intensively for medieval buildings in Belgium and in France during the last 25 years, but this was not yet the case for any ancient urban site in Europe or in the Mediterranean area.

The city of Sagalassos in Pisidia (Anatolia, SW-Turkey), thoroughly prospected and excavated since 1990 by the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project of the KU Leuven, is an urban site with several recently excavated and easily accessible architectural remains spanning a period from middle Hellenistic times over a long Roman Imperial Period and ending in Byzantine times. This large number and the long time period covered should allow the construction of a sequence of stone carving techniques.

Aim

The aims of this project are multiple. This multiplicity is linked to the one and only question for this research project: what is the relevance of the study of the stone carving techniques for ancient sites in Asia Minor? This relevance will be evaluated from a technical, decorative, socio-economical and chronological point of view.

The evaluation of the chronological relevance is a direct spin-off of the work already realized in Western Europe. It is asking the question whether the traces of the stone carving techniques found on the differently dated ancient buildings and masonries are sufficiently characteristic for a period to enable to use them as an additional chronological criterion for further archaeological work. The data from Western Europe cannot be extrapolated to Sagalassos because they were obtained on medieval buildings only and on different types of local stones.

The technical relevance of this research project concerns the study of the production process of the ashlars. The chronological relevance cannot be studied without a technical analysis of the possible traces of the extraction techniques and of the traces of the stone carving techniques. Additionally, the technical analysis should allow the reconstruction of the production process of the ashlars. The understanding of this production process may allow the identification of particularities linked to the dating of the buildings studied or it may allow the identification of techniques practiced only by specific groups of stonemasons. Such a conclusion would also provide a direct link to the evaluation of the socio-economical relevance.

The study of the decorative relevance requires an additional analysis of the stone carving techniques used to produce the ashlars of the different buildings. This study requires a thorough understanding of the technical process of the stone carving because it will be necessary to distinguish the purely technical characteristics from additional traces or differently applied techniques aiming at the production of ashlars with certain aesthetic characteristics. The identification of these could reveal the existence of additional considerations which have led to the design and the construction of specific buildings and ideally help in the identification of their specific function and/or their possible representative character.

The socio-economic relevance is the ultimate question that should be asked when studying stone carving techniques. It concerns the search of the craftsman behind the techniques used, but it also concerns the motivation of the decisionmakers in the Sagalassos community leading to the different construction programs in the city. In other words, human reflections, preoccupations and artisanal work are inevitably linked and hidden behind the traces we observe today. It is certainly not possible to identify all human reflections or actions, but it is the aim to extract as much as possible of this kind of socio-economical information from the registration of these simple technical or decorative traces.

Methodology

The methodology of this research is quite straightforward. It requires a complete registration of the stone carving techniques of all buildings of the city. The number of parameters to be registered is theoretically undetermined. Their choice is based on the field observations only and cannot be dictated beforehand. It is possible that different parameters may be registered on different masonries if that would prove to be necessary. The parameters will then be collected in individual databases, one for each building. The data generated by the individual databases are then put together in a general relational database, which will be used to identify the relevant parameters for each period.

Feasability

Evaluation of the feasibility of this research project is asking two questions. The first has to do with the experience already acquired by the candidate, the second with the practical organization of the work.

In 2001 and 2002, the candidate followed two courses on the technical aspects of quarrying and stone cutting and to learn to identify the traces on building stones: École Thématique du CNRS: Archéologie de la Construction et de la Décoration en Pierre, I and II, Dr. J.-C. Bessac, Lattes – Sommières (FR). In addition, between 1991 and 2016, the candidate created the basis of this type of research by his previous research activities in Western Europe. He refined and tested the methodology during 25 years on 370 buildings, which resulted ultimately in the publication of a reference book on the subject for the archaeologist[2].

The feasibility of this new research project on ancient sites was already tested on the site of Sagalassos during the 2018-campaign. A total of 29 buildings/masonries was studied according to the relevance parameters described above. The report written after this first test campaign proved that this research is relevant indeed for all mentioned parameters[3]. As the goal of this first campaign was primarily to test the feasibility of this research project, not all buildings/masonries were yet incorporated in the database. An additional number of 26 buildings/masonries will have to be analyzed to complete the observations. However, there is, already now, convincing evidence that this research project will generate the expected results and that the site of Sagalassos can be attributed the role of pioneering site in Asia Minor for this type of innovative research. As this research project is part of the overhead research program of the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project, cross-links to some other subprojects may also be considered.   

[1] Doperé, F., 2018, Dater les édifices du Moyen Âge par la pierre taillée (Collection Précisions, n° 4), Brussels, 537 p.

[2] Doperé, F., 2018, Dater les édifices du Moyen Âge par la pierre taillée (Collection Précisions, n° 4), Brussels, 537 p.

[3] Doperé, F., 2019, Sagalassos 2018, Stone Cutting Techniques and Chronology, Technical and “aesthetic” considerations, Final report (version 28-01-2019).