Geochemical and petrographic identification of stone quarries used for the construction of the Anahita Temple of Kangavar (West Iran)

Abstract

The archaeological site of the Anahita Temple in Kangavar is one of the best-known stone monuments in western Iran and dates back to the Persian Empire period of Iranian history (about 550 BC to 650 AD). The Temple was constructed on a semi-artificial hill out of large stone blocks, many of which are cubic in shape, and short thick columns. In the Kangavar area (basin) there are various sites in which there is evidence of stone extraction. The aim of this paper is to characterize the stones used in the Anahita Temple of Kangavar and their correlations with the quarrying activities observed in the Kangavar regions. In fact, we tried to find out which of these quarries may have been the source of the stone blocks used in the construction of the Anahita Temple. To this end the stones used in the Temple have been characterized by conducting a multi-analytical study involving chemical, mineralogical and textural analyses including XRF, XRD and thin section petrography. The results show that although all the quarries could have provided the stone used in the construction of the Temple, the largest, most probable source was the Chel Maran quarry. It is due to the more similarity of stones used in the Anahita Temple and the samples from this quarry from geochemical point of view as well as the archaeological evidences present in this quarry. The results are also useful for conservators to select appropriate materials for reconstruction of the decayed parts of the Anahita Temple.

Historical underground quarrying: A multidisciplinary research in the Caumont quarry (c. 13th–19th centuries), France

“…Indeed, quarrying represents a powerful economic activity, frequently strategic and associated with many outstanding civilizations (Bevan & Bloxam, 2016; Fort et al, 2019; Zaid et al, 2015). The diffusion of building stones, whose provenance could be traced back to the quarries, is a powerful tool to establish ancient trade routes and the structuration of territories (Freccero, 2015; Shekofteh et al, 2020; Wilson & Bowman, 2018). Consequently, building stones represent valuable archaeomaterials and their related quarries can be considered as ‘archives for past landscapes’ (Bevan & Bloxam, 2016).…”

Upper Cretaceous Limestones as Stone Resources for the Monuments of Oviedo (Asturias, NW of Spain): Petrographic Variability and Stratigraphic Origin

“…A profound knowledge of the characteristics and origin of the stone is fundamental in stone restoration and conservation works. Different studies have proved the interest in identifying the stone quarries that originally provided the architectural and sculptural materials (Martínez-Torres 2007; Fort et al 2013;Corbí et al 2019;Gökçe et al 2020;Shekofteh et al 2020) and the importance of petrographic analysis to trace the origin of the stone and infer distribution patterns (Dreesen and Dusar 2004;Malfilatre et al 2012;López-Plaza et al 2016;Barroso et al 2020;Merino et al 2020).…”