Marmora Bizantina Dataset

The development of the internet database which will fulfil the role of a catalogue of marble finds is supposed to enable other scholars to verify projects’s thesis formulated on the basis of the source material presented therein. Also, the creation of this dataset will allow other scholars to investigate different problems connected with marble.

The database contains basic qualitative and quantitative data about marble finds discovered in the southern Levant (Phoenicia, Palaestina, and Arabia). It takes into account marble finds used from the 1st century BCE to the 10 century AD. The database includes published finds with a specific chronology. I do not have the means to continuously update the data. However, I will try to add new materials or make important corrections, basing on your emails (m.gwiazda2 (at) uw.edu.pl). This database was created thanks to the publications of dozens of researchers, I hope that they has been recorded fully and correctly. If you are unhappy with the way I used your materials, please contact me.

I suggest to quote individual entries to the database in publications as follows:

The Project is financed by the National Science Centre (UMO-2020/37/B/HS3/00306).

Description:

Record number

Inventory number assigned arbitrary and automatically by the system. It is determined only by the order of cataloging tombs.

Site name

The contemporary name of the place where the tomb was discovered is given first. In brackets, the ancient names of these settlements are given.

Province

This field contains information on the name of the province during the reign of Justinian in which the object has been discovered.

Country

This field contains information about the name of the contemporary country in which the object has been discovered.

Context

In this place, information on the find context in given. Here featured: bathhouse, civic basilica, ordinary church, grave/cemetery, house, latrine, monastery, monastery church, pilgrimage church, press, public building, survey, synagogue, temple, workshop, and no data.

Site type

This field contains a simplified classification of settlements including: town, village, and monastery.

Port town

The field specifies whether the settlement was a seaport in antiquity. 

Pilgrimage site

This field determines whether the site was associated with Christian pilgrimages.

Context description

This field contains additional information about the context in which the object was found.

Object type

This field contains a simplified classification of marble finds. Here featured: altar, ambo, architectural element, baptismal font, capital, capital (small), chancel screen, chancel post, column, column (small), column base, column base (small), menorah, mortar, opus sectile, pavement slab, pestle, plaque, reliquary, sarcophagus, sculpture, stela, table top, tombstone, unidentified, wall revetment, weight, varia, and vessel.

Stone colour

This field contains information about the colour of the object.

Provenance

This field contains information about the origin of the raw material based on laboratory analysis.

Analysis

This field contains information on whether the marble was examined by archaeometric methods.

Reused

This field contains information on whether the object was secondarily used in antiquity.

Inscription

This field contains information about the presence of the inscription on the object.

Object description

This field contains additional information about objects form.

Dating

The field contains the dating of the time of use of the marble object.

Dimensions

This field contains information about the size of the object.

Volume in cubic meter

This field contains information about the minimum volume of raw material in the form of cylinder or cuboid used to produce the object.

Map

This item contains information about the name of the contemporary country in which the tomb has been discovered.

In this place there is information on the context in which the tomb was discovered. Is the necropolis, on which it was discovered, associated with the city or the village. Separately treated are crypts built within monasteries or in churches.

References

Bibliographic references in most cases are limited to the latest publications, where you can also find references to older items.