Provenance of Roman marble objects in Styria (Austria)

Stone monuments of Roman times have been a main source of every kind of archaeological and antiquarian sciences since the days of Humanism. Among the provinces of the Roman Empire, Noricum and Pannonia are especially rich in stone monuments. Modern Carinthia and Styria house hundreds of stone inscriptions and stone sculptures mostly made of local marble. Whereas their artistic and historic components have been studied thoroughly, little is known for sure of their material hitherto due to a complete lack of modern investigations and analyses. Isotope analyses of 18O and 13C, chemical analyses of rear elements and microscopic analyses of thin sections should be performed to identify the origin of the archaeological objects. Many questions contested up to now could be solved by means of exact determination of the material: If we postulate an artistic workshop due to stylistic and technological peculiarities, did this workshop also use the same raw material? If we separate unusual monuments of stone by archaeological methods, were these monuments made of imported raw material and by foreign artists? Was marble also imported from the Mediterranean area? Does the use of different quarries influence the quality and quantity of the artistic production? Is the social role of the customer responsible for the use of a certain marble? If there are chronological differences in the use of Styrian quarries, is it then possible to gain hints on the development of the province and on economic history that cannot be achieved by other archaeological sources? Which ways of transport were chosen, which distances existed between quarries and places of use? Is it possible to identify also in Styrian quarries tool marks dating back to Roman times? We would like to interrupt these general questions for the sake of some special ones to illustrate the possible applications of our project: The huge inventory of stone monuments in the lapidary of Landesmuseurn Joanneum at Graz may be used for our project. At present, stones are gathered in a depot waiting for a new exposition and are therefore easy to handle. (The numbers of inventory used refer to the publications MODRIJAN W., 1964,1979). Does the use of marble quarries of Styria start at the same time as the early known monuments of stone (e.g. the stela of Cantius LMJ 155)? Or is there an early import from other regions, e.g. the Bachern mountains in Slovenia or the Central Alps in Carinthia? From where did regions gain their raw material far away from quarries (Waltersdorf LMJ 112)? Was the region of upper Styria supplied by Carinthian quarries (Togati LMJ 207, 218)? Do artistically related reliefs (stelae from Poetovio in Slovenia LMJ 59. 60; from Flavia Solva LMJ 172, 174) also use the same material? Was the only known Mithraic relief from Styria (St. Veit LMJ 138) made in Flavia Solva or imported from nearby Slovenia that is rich in Mithraic monuments?

Modern Styria belongs to the regions with the most prominent production of marble monuments within the Roman Empire besides the mediterranean centres. The existence of some marble quarries in Styria made a local provenance of the material of this huge amount of sculptures, reliefs, inscriptions and architecture probable, but there was a lack of any scientific proof for this theory up to now. During the project it was possible to sample the quarries in Upper (Sölk, Öblarn), Western (Kainach, Salla) and Lower Styria/Stajerska (Bachern/Pohorje) and more than 200 stone momuments of the Roman Period preserved in Styrian collections or used as spolia in the walls of churches and castles. The provenance of these sampled monuments can now be assured by analysis of isotopes, geochemistry and thin-sections with a high probability. In general we may say that the material of the most monuments came from the nearestby situated quarry. Which material was used was mainly due to the distance from the quarry to the place of production or use; a selection due to the kind of use, quality (or price) ist not really evident. We were able to take more samples than predicted, therefore our interpretations are not yet finished. We will complete our manuscript until the end of the year 2003 and publish the catalogue, interpretations and maps in the periodical "Fundberichte aus Österreich". The public will get some information about the project when the new lapidary of the Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz will be opened in autumn 2003 (E. Hudeczek). A scientific meeting discussing the results of the project shall take place in Graz in February 2003.