Abstract:

In 2012, we started the ‘Marmora Galicia’ project in order to study the Roman and Late Roman marbles found in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. This research is set within the framework of several national and international projects aiming to characterize the characterization of the marbles used in different territories of Spain, with special attention to the exploitation of natural resources existing in each region, and shed light to its use in Antiquity. Since then, we have identified more than 168 archaeological objects in marble, 44 of which have been sampled to be subsequently analysed and thus archaeometrically spot their provenance. At the same time, we have studied an important number of local quarries and we have recorded the characteristics of the several marble varieties of this regions, which have been incorporated to the reference corpus for Spanish marbles; corpus that is essential for the provenance studies. The results so far obtained show that, despite the predominant use of granite, marbles from both local and foreign origin were used in Galice with very specific purposes and linked with the showing of prestige. They reflect the existence of local workshops and of the long-distance distribution and long-term use of such materials.