Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences
Abstract
Stratonikeia, a city in the interior of the Caria region, is located at Eskihisar settlement within the borders of Yatağan town of Muğla city. The ancient city’s foundation dates back to 5000 BC, making it one of the oldest settlements in southwest Turkey. It is strategically located between the Inner Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean regions. Due to its location, the city has always been important during its history. The Greek type of theater, which is the main topic of this paper, is one of the most remarkable structures known to date from the Hellenistic period and is made of marble blocks. Macroscopic investigations reveal that the marble blocks of theater are pure white, medium-to-fine crystalline, and their dimensions range from 165x45x40 to 210x50x90 cm. In addition to their whiteness, the most characteristic feature of these marbles is that they are almost entirely pure (they do not contain opaque or accessory minerals or colored veins). Microscopically, white marble blocks have heteroblastic polygonal (less heteroblastic mosaic) textures and chiefly consist of calcite minerals (negligible of dolomite, quartz, muscovite, and opaque minerals). These results are supported by X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD) and Confocal Raman Spectrometer (CRS) studies. Field observations, minero-petrographic data, and geochemical data suggest that theater marbles may have been obtained from ancient marble quarries around the Eskihisar settlement. Based on the results of Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL), it can be suggested that the construction of the theater building began around the 2nd century BC and lasted until the 1st century AD. After that, it was strengthened in the 3rd-4th century and later repurposed as an open-air church, with additional reinforcement in the 5th-6th century. The OSL ages calculated from the experimental results match the known archaeological record of the theatre’s construction.
Author ORCID Identifier
TAMER KORALAY: 0000-0002-8353-3501
EREN ŞAHİNER: 0000-0002-7159-2491
BİLAL SÖĞÜT: 0000-0002-0171-318X
TUNÇ SEZGİN: 0000-0002-8062-5371
YUSUF KADIOĞLU: 0000-0002-7894-2220
DOI
10.55730/1300-0985.1948
Keywords
Stratonikeia ancient city, Greek type theater, calcitic marble, continental margins, optically stimulated luminescence dating
First Page
98
Last Page
125
Publisher
The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
KORALAY, TAMER; ŞAHİNER, EREN; SÖĞÜT, BİLAL; SEZGİN, TUNÇ; and KADIOĞLU, YUSUF KAĞAN
(2025)
"Characterization and provenance analysis of the architectural building stones at theStratonikeia theater in Yatağan, Muğla, southwest Türkiye, with determination of itsconstruction history through OSL,"
Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences: Vol. 34:
No.
1, Article 7.
https://doi.org/10.55730/1300-0985.1948
Available at:
https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/earth/vol34/iss1/7