Architectural Decoration of the Imperial Agora’s Porticoes at Iasos

The present study deals with the decoration patterns, the craftsmen and the different marbles used in the porticoes of the Agora of Iasos. The recent discovery of a large white marble quarry district at Milas and a gray banded one at Euromos has suggested that previous hypotheses on the origin of marbles used in the Iasos Agora must be verified. For this purpose, several architectural elements in white and grey veined marbles were sampled and submitted to archaeometrical analyses (EPR, trace analysis and carbon and oxygen isotopes) in order to define exactly their provenance. These analytical results exclude the use of Aphrodisias and Stratonikeia marbles and confirm that of other local and extra-regional white marbles from Milas, Euromos and Proconnesos. This new evidence allowed the reconsideration of the origin of the decorative patterns and of the craftsmen working at Iasos during the mid imperial period