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with the major state-owned production centers, there were sites that provided second or
third-class building material, which generally circulated unrestricted among surrounding
170
cities. Since the main focus of this chapter is to better contextualize the marble cargo Punta
Scifo A, only Proconnesus and Docimium will be examined.
The Quarries of Proconnesus (Island of Marmara, Turkey)
The white marble from the island of Proconnesus, in the Sea of Marmara, was one
of the best-known, and the most widely-used marbles in the ancient world from the
Archaic Age onwards (Fig. 48). Vitruvius writes that in the sixth century B.C. the citizens
of Ephesus were planning to build a Temple of Artemis using this particular quality of
marble, but suddenly abandoned the idea when a shepherd named Pixodarus discovered
local marble quarries. 297 Slabs of Proconnesian marble were also used to adorn king
Mausolus’ palace in Halicarnassus in the mid-fourth century B.C. 298 The eight drums and
capital of a monumental Doric column found on the seafloor off Kızılburun (Izmir),
Turkey are direct evidence of waterborne trade in Proconnesian marble in the late
Hellenistic period. 299
297 Vitr. De arch. 10.2.15.
298 Vitr. De arch. 2.8.10.
299 Carlson 2006, 3-10.